Desie had a piece with a friend on a no longer existing building near the Main Street bridge. I can’t tell what the other piece says. I’ve always thought it said “Grow”. There was also an unfinished piece underneath the G Street bridge that said..”I’ll be back, Trust Desie.” But the piece was never finished. From what I can gather, Desie may have been a Chicago writer visiting, or a student. It also said “Trust..” inside Desie’s piece on the wall pictured. A friend of mine found an old flick of a Desie freight caught in Indianapolis with CRN written next to the piece, which I was informed may have stood for “Chi-ROCK Nation”. The pieces here were probably done in around 1997 and ran for quite some time before the building was razed. The connector shot was taken in probably 2000, and the others in 2003ish.

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A writer’s blackbook or piecebook is usually a hardbound sketchbook with a black cover. Blackbooks are for drawing outlines and sketches for pieces, and having friends and other writers draw in it, also. They become standalone works of art by themselves. I plan to showcase different pieces from my blackbook collection from over the years. Here are a few SUFR sketches from the early 2000s.

This Kwiz piece was probably painted in 1995/96, I’m guessing. There is a dissed ME piece above it. The first photo was taken in around 2002, and the second photo was from 2015. It’s still hanging around today, I believe.

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The G Street bridge was built in the early 1930s and then remodeled in 1990. It’s set to be refurbished again this year. It’s one of my favorite bridges and there’s a lot of local graffiti history down there. It does kind of have a weird vibe, though. I once read in a book called “Weird Indiana”, that Jim Jones’ uncle committed suicide by jumping off the bridge, if i remember correctly. Jim Jones was a cult leader, mass murderer, and Richmond High School graduate, class of 1949 (Wikipedia). RHS is directly on the east-side of the G Street bridge. For help, visit https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org

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This piece has stayed relatively fresh because it’s hidden under a bridge. The difference when I can back 9 years later was it appeared people were squatting under the bridge that time.

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This early piece by Kwiz is stylistically not as advanced as his later stuff, but is still really cool. It’s a classic, stock-tip, Midwestern, 1990s jammer, painted in “The Tunnels” before anyone else pieced there. It looks like it says “Skills Flow Like…Ink” to me. It’s one of two themed Kwiz pieces that I’ve found. I’d love to see the sketch for this piece. I took this photo around 2002/2003. This piece is still there but has been dissed and written on even more.

This mural/sign work is on an old thrift store on South 12th Street. It still operates as a second hand store of some kind, but under a different name. The murals look like they were painted in the late 90s by an unknown artist. This is the only graffiti style signage in town that I know of. I took these photos in 2012, but the murals are still holding on today.

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Downtown Richmond was still closed off to traffic in the mid 90s and was a bit barren. There were still interesting specialty stores open, but I remember empty store fronts, also. This allowed for some graffiti to be present. There were marker tags on shop windows and doors, not a lot, but some, and a decent amount of graffiti in the alleyways. One name that stood out was “HIP 2”, who had a few tags and an outline, all done in royal blue with what looked like a NY thin cap, and all in the same general area downtown. They are long gone except one tag on a brick wall. If you look closely enough today you can still see it.

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Kwiz was an active writer in the early-mid 90s. Just about every spot we would find, he would have already had a piece there. I first found this piece in the early 2000s on a the side of an old railroad bridge next to a ravine. It’s a steep slope with a high drop-off. Surprised he was able to paint a piece there. The rails were removed from this train line about 25 years ago, and it’s been converted into a walking trail.

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Thanks so much for checking out the site. I have wanted to share my photo collection of local graffiti, and allow for some of the unique work in my area to be highlighted on the web, for a long time. I want to remind you that this website isn’t a complete survey of Richmond graf, but selections from my collection. The blog section will be updated regularly with photos and stories of interest. Do you have some photos you want to share? I am always excited to see old graffiti photos from anywhere, especially Richmond. Feel free to hit me up. Thanks! – Joey Idle