“New York City is the handball capital of the world, and handball courts are found throughout the city parks across the five boroughs. Handball is a free, accessible form of recreation for city dwellers. When I painted the “Howard the Duck” wall in the courtyard of Junior High School 56 in the Lower East Side in 1978 at age 18, it was groundbreaking and the first of its kind. The following year, I created my second wall, “Graffiti 1979.” “The Lion’s Den” was my third handball wall installation. For this mural, I experimented more deeply with concept, color, and spray paint technique. At the time, New York was in chaos, and the lion served as a protective mascot in the midst of the tragedy and suffering tied into urban blight and oppression around me. My intent was to expand the work I made on whole subway cars to freestanding public spaces to engage people on a more intimate level above ground and to infuse a new conversation into the community.”

~ LQ