Ky Kid.

      1. What is your name and where you are from?
“Kentucky Kid, South Louisville”
     
​      2. Do you believe in god?
“Not a Christian God. I definitely believe there is some universal fabric or code. It is more nature than some person.”
 
      3. Do you have a favorite musician or song currently?
“Modest Mouse is my favorite of all time, but my favorite song is Farewell Transmission by Songs: Ohia.”
 
      4. When was your first time catching a tag?
“A tag or a penis? 2004 a friend was mad at some other kid who was painting. So, we took it into our own hands to go cross him out everywhere around the neighborhood. It grew into a passion from that. I watched trains and knew about graffiti. Growing up a punk kid I was used to painting on shit, but the first time I went out and hit a spot was in 2004.”
 
      5. What is a moniker to you?
“A sign or mark from a rider or a worker. There are other people too, but that general culture. A moniker to me has to be a nickname, more than just your tag. People know you personally by that name. You are not just getting your name up necessarily, you sign in where you were or leave notes on where you are headed. What sets it apart from a tag is the intention behind it. Also, simple. I am sick of art school thesis' done with a Sakura and being called a moniker. I like it, but it is more meant to be pulled off quickly.”
 
       6. What does the Ky Kid represent?
“A good representation of my city and state. The wildness and rowdiness of being from here. I am proud of where I am from, and it is easy to feel ashamed from here when you move away. I saw a photographer on IG recently snap a picture of a piece that said I am a KY KID. I like that it resonates with other people.”
 
       7. Who were your major influences? Where do you get your inspiration from?
“Moniker wise, Whistle Blower, Plant Trees, Read More Books, Conrail Twitty. The drawing I do is more of a Colossus of Roads bite. When I first drew it at a young age, I intentionally wanted the motif to be a rider looking off into the wind, but instead of the cowboy it’s a flipped up old baseball cap and a blunt. If you look at the line work a lot of it is very similar. Everyone’s inspiration in monikers is Papaw. There are motifs that get reused a lot like hats and pipes. You may see 100 different ways people draw a cowboy or top hat. I just want to pay homage. I want to keep something classic, but with my spin on it.”
 
      8. Many artists experience creative block, what keeps you going and hungry for more?
“MAD LSD! I also draw the same thing over and over. Usually if I do that long enough I will think of something, but if not I will draw 100 more Ky Kids.”
 
       9. What is your favorite medium?
“100% trains. I like film photography, acrylic paints, and just pen and paper. My favorite is absolutely a streak pen and a boxcar. A shitty ballpoint pen and a shitty piece of paper will keep me occupied.”

      10. What is your favorite tool?
“Markall or Sakura and a rusty boxcar.”
 
      11. How would you rate your hands?
“I don’t want to give a rating and don’t know how to answer. I feel practiced, but repetition always helps.”
 
      12. Did you go to school, college, etc.? Did that have any impact on your style or work?
“I went to three elementary schools, three high schools, I finished high school in homeless education. My last year I was just living at a girl’s house working and painting. I wasn’t worried about what the normal senior had on their mind. Everyone else I grew up with was still in school. My last years of high school were consumed with stealing paint and painting. I would say the lack of school is what influenced it.”
 
      13. When did you fall in love with trains?
“Really young. Really, really young. My Grandfather loved trains, my Uncle worked for Norfolk Southern. My Grandpa would stop traffic when he would pick me up from school. The train would pass and he would stop traffic. Just stop to watch it, people honking and shit. That’s when I first saw graffiti and that is what spoke to me. This yard is the first place I really got into trains. When I was 12 or 13 we would sneak back here and paint these old trailers. One winter when the trees would die, we looked and saw like 1000 trains right there. We would sneak through and take photos and start noticing marks and seeing it is a different world back there. Not many writers back then so we saw certain names and certain marks all the time. That is definitely what did it for me.”
 
      14. What is the risk of train hoping for people who think it is as easy as the movies make it seem?
“It runs from being sliced like butter to getting dropped at some grain silo in the middle of North Dakota, a 30 mile walk from anything. It is dangerous, but also not as dangerous as some people think. You can mitigate the danger. That said, you can be as safe as possible, but if a train derails you are dead. There is always a chance a train hits a car. These trains specifically, CSX sends a nuclear bomb south every day. The tankers they send. If you ride behind a tanker you have the chance of getting blown up. The dangers are things you wouldn’t think about. Unknown dangers.”
 
      15. What is the penalty for getting caught train hopping?
“Kind of depends. I never have actually been in trouble for hopping, but have been caught on trains twice. Both times were a short respectful conversation, I got off, he told me when he would be done and when I could get back on. The other time was here. I fell asleep on a car I thought was going southbound. It backed up into the yard to work, and I woke up and they were lifting shipping containers off the stack car I was on. They were kind of aggressive at first, but when we told them what we were looking for and where we were trying to get, they gave us water and food and told us where to head. Some cities out west you can catch a 10-day mandatory jail sentence. Some bulls will just take you off and give you a warning, some will even let you back on, and some are no questions asked, your bags getting searched and you are doing 10 days. That’s rare.”
 
      16. How do you feel about copycats?
“There is a certain part of graffiti that relies on copying people. There is so much you can do with it. Especially monikers.  I am not going to call someone out for drawing a hat and a cigarette. I have definitely seen one kid recently, even tag me in the picture, say he was inspired by my work. Set it as his profile picture. Went from 30 likes to around 700 on that picture. I don’t care at all because they’re not riding trains and catching hands, but it is frustrating.”
 
      17. How important is fun?
“Very important. Happiness is not important, but fun is very important. That’s the whole point. Fun is not an emotion, emotions come and go. If you are not having fun, what the fuck are you doing?”
 
      18. Tell us about some crazy stories? Any unique interactions?
“Losing a guitar and almost a leg flailing on the Oregon Trunk. Pulling a machete on ravenous tweaked out oogle kids who were sizing up us and our packs outside Davis yard in Roseville (What kinda hobos are y’all? Cause we’re the stabbin’ kind!). Surfing the top of a grainer through an Atmospheric River in Salem, OR. Bailing off the shakiest car in America in the mountains of Northern California like 10 hours before the flat spot on its wheel derailed the train. Smuggling motorbikes and weed and running from (or getting caught and paying off) police in Cambodia. Things are never normal.”
 
      19. Where do you see train hopping and writing in the next few years?
“I don’t know man. One of my buddies was talking to a friend who wrote back in the 90’s. He said nowadays people my age would complain, I wish it was still the 90’s or the early 2000’s, but the guys riding in the 90’s wanted it to be the 80’s and the guys riding in the 80’s wanted it to be the 70’s. There is a lot of shit that is fucked up. There are cameras everywhere, drones, and every farmer now has a cell phone and can call the cops on you. You really can’t trust as many people to not rat you out for it. I also think it’s the best time that there has ever been for riding trains because you have a mini map in your pocket. I can message people from a network of train riders the whole country over. Ask small questions about like, where is a hole in the fence here. The information can be spread easier. They can get information from you easier with cameras and drone surveillance, but at the same time you have the same leg up. Intermodals are definitely the wave. Boxcars are on their way out. Junk trains are on their way out. Intermodals are taking over everything and I used to not like that, but I have ridden several and they are 70 MPH rocket ships. A little higher security, but if that’s the cost to pay for a free ride across the country in a few days then I will take it. I think in the next few years things will start to blow up as the internet starts to eat the culture. For now, it is one of the last real American sub cultures or counter cultures. It regulates itself well. The workers are in on it. There is a shared respect among the people who really practice the culture and that will never go away. No matter how bad security gets, a worker who is sympathetic to you getting where you need to go is going to override all of that. I am pretty optimistic.”
 
“Shoutouts to my brother Weak Link and the Westbound Slipper Gang, my mentor Eugene Bean and the Hang Booty Boys, my bae Marcher Arrant for his cosmically original ideas of geography, and @Lin3han for all his work preserving and sharing real Louisville graffiti history!”