UDC: Name? Who you are? Background Information.

OP: I will give you all that information. My name is Optick One, serial number 7187777407704777817113, that’s Optick One! “Naw” Peace, love, happiness, freedom, justice and equality for all, the foundations of that name, Optick one is where I’m from. That is basically the cipher plus truth in civilized knowledge that is where hip-hop fits my plane. Where I’m from is New York. The big city of dreams, everything in New York is not always what it seems. You might get fooled if you come out of town but I’m coming from Queens and I came to get down. My ethnic background is from South Asia, so that proves I have my duty to do in the wilderness of North America. As my brothers that were exiled from India to come over here. There is a population of two million of us. That is why I’m here. I’m from Jamaica Queens, which has a lot of history. I had to learn the history of my neighborhood. To know who I am and where I fit in. I think about all the greats and the elders dealing with ciphers on the avenue, walls, subways, and hallways, just streets alone were my home. That’s were I find my foundation which is graffiti.

UDC: Explain what your pieces mean to you?

OP: The preservation of our history and the preservation of our mark, which commemorates special days that I went to put my name up. Graffiti is the most vivid thing you can see that will open those gates and doorways inside the mind known as the subconscious. It will let you see clearer! The characters, the stars and the whole universe within because of a picture in front of you and a picture behind someone as well. Where you can really see a person for what they really are, not what they appear to be. A piece basically creates an atmosphere that is given to a wall as a service to all the inner city beings. That is what graffiti is, the preservation. Graffiti is life through a name which has been given to me.

UDC: Who are your art influences? Why?

OP: I think as far as graffiti artists, Dondi CIA. Who is known as the “Style Master General”. Who was a great loss to the Hip-Hop Nation, and no longer exist in the physical, yet always exists through the essential teachings and followings of us as graffiti artists.Diego127 was another influence, Attack AFC was the first writer who was officially up all over Queens and also taught most of his crew with his styles of tag, throwies and pieces. Then we had the elders like Sonar TWB, Smurfy GLK and Cey CITY, Rab CAC, DEMO TPA, and a whole lot of founding elders. They were the one who brought graffiti to the highest point in the early to mid- eighties. My greatest influence is my older brother because he is the one that brought it home. I just fed off of it like food. That became my food, clothing and shelter. That is the greatest artist I look up to. Dealing with the roots, history, the foundation and why it came to be. Dondi and Phase 2, those two are the main ones who made graffiti what it is today. That’s a fact.

UDC: At what point in time did you realize that design is what you wanted to do?

OP: Ever since kindergarten when I was in that class where we had to do that poster to put up on the wall for the classroom teacher. I starting doing tags in first grade and I would always write my name on the corner of the desk. Then I graduated to a bathroom then graduated to poles on the block. .

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When I got into the real world then I knew I was born for this and plus my brother’s influence. When I actually hit the peak of graffiti and knowing that there is a world behind it and there were elements that I yet had practiced. In seventh grade I had formed my own writer’s bench where all kids in junior high school from the seniors to the freshmen would come to me and pass me a black book and I would get my old school throw-up in there

UDC: Is there a message or a theme in your artwork if so what is it?

OP: My message is just to keep this whole culture alive. There will always be an industry, a government, or a system that is trying to take over us as a human being and blinding us into going one way then coming back to where we left. When I catch my tags; will catch them in an ill style so anybody will look at it and say that that’s ill. My image will always wake who sees it.

UDC: What are the three most essential items that you need when working on a piece?

OP: First my tools, my mediums and second thing I needed is support. The third is me; my mastery. That’s it.

UDC: How do you feel about the way many people are finally accepting graffiti as an art form?

OP: That is the deepest part about graffiti. It was and still is put out there for you to see. It is an advertisement for whoever’s name is put up there. Now if you see the taxi cabs, vans, the buses, the government has devised a way to take our culture away by putting a print over a window so people can be like that is hot. The best way I can describe it is CEY CITY went to the same high school as me. He was in “Style Wars” and he’s also was the one who designed the album cover for Slick Rick’s: ”The Art of Story Telling”. He also did artwork for the Def Tour. That’s one of the guys from around the way who made it. See how rapping is confused as all of Hip Hop. Some only focusing on the music rather then focusing on the elements and culture.

UDC: How do you feel the internet has affected your genre of art and the graffiti community as a whole?

OP: The internet has a history of the true art form. If your just getting into the game, know who the founding fathers are, know what battles were fought. Know the crew, because every crew had a unique style. The internet put out more for me to see. It showed me that I don’t have to illegally bomb. I can do my work in a totally new medium. It’s a good thing. That’s what I think.

UDC: Describe Optick five years from now?

OP: Revelations have told that Optick will unify Brooklyn and have his queens living with him. That’s what it says. I’ll be surrounded by the seven seas. I will get a chance to breath in the gardens of Eden.

UDC: What types of pressures do you face as an artist?

OP: Competition and money, no money is the biggest pressure, not being able to get what you need for your art. That’s the biggest problems.

UDC: Are there any words that you would like to express to the masses?

OP: Wake up stop being cheap. We are not farm animals. The only one who can lead you in the right direction is you. That’s my message. Blessings and Rest in Peace, Dondi, Jam Master Jay, Big Pun, Big L, Aaliyah to all those who have passed away. Also remember to keep an open mind, so stay creating, elevating, updating, and motivating. And always add on. Know that we will all get another chance to live. Peace DFDubs and Peace to Undevco! Thanks for showing the love.

OPTICK ONE
optickone@yahoo.com

Interviewed By Exodus@undevco.com
Artwork by Optick One