Pictures are words

MOMO comes to New York from the foggy San Francisco Bay, by way of 12 mostly adventurous years in southern climes; Jamaica, Spain, New Orleans, Key West, Taos, Georgia and North Carolina, living in tents, caves, cars, and sheds. There was a geodesic dome home, and railroad chalet, and some times with an older seductress in Arizona, the place in the Vieux Carrie had no locks on the doors and "The Believery" warehouse had no doors. MOMO has been outside most of his life. He's also been completely obsessed with art making. Which is how it makes sense he arrived at street art.

After years of admiring graffiti, he finally tried painting freight trains in 1998 along high mountain passes in Montana. Prior to that he stayed inside a sketchbook. The next 3 years aren't so inventive - just translating sketchbook to aerosol, or gluing enlarged drawings to walls, though in 1999 he was sneaking photographs of locals and illustrating giant posters with their likeness' to celebrate them unilaterally. In 2002 the interest in Naturalism finished with cheery, life-size children cutout posters, addressing the national gloom that followed 9-11. But from there, Naturalism went with the need to pander to general audiences, as MOMO fell out of step with his country on its march to war. Now his art could be anything.