I really thought after interviewing all these Jersey City street artists that I would end up running out of people to write about…. boy was I wrong… the more I am out there the more I learn that there are a growing number of street artists making Jersey City beautiful… some of which are more low-key than others… Not Clarence! I first heard of him when I interviewed Mr. Mustart in the summer, then when I interviewed Distort in his studio, we ran into him…Clarence told me he was born and raised in Jersey City and was also part of a rap group called “Animal Crackers”. Obviously intrigued, I started following his work.

Clarence’s art is exceptional, I wouldn’t even really call it Street Art necessarily… his stuff is on some whole other level, when I look at his work, I am part enamored, part disturbed…. Clarence Rich’s art definitely makes a massive impression. I don’t really need to describe it, by just looking at the photos in this post you can be the judge, and you will see what I mean…

I reached out to Clarence to set up an interview and he invited me to his home/studio he shares with his fiancé Sara. It was so inspiring talking to him, he is clearly a passionate dude with a great outlook on life…. and the greatest thing about this interview was seeing the love him and his fiancé share.

Whats your name? My name is Clarence Rich, I am part of the A team.

What is the A team? The A team consists of like-minded individuals who create fine art together, now those specific individuals are apart of a bigger group called the AIDS crew.

What does the AIDS stand for? Originally when I came up with the name in 97, it was “Adolescents In Dire Straights” , and today its known as “And It Don’t Stop, Alone In Deep Space”.

So it’s an interesting thing to name it as AIDS…. It’s a word that strikes you. Well this right here is the story of the origin… and I have a couple of names for myself…People would say ‘look at these losers pissing all over the walls in our neighborhood and writing on everything. They’re fucking losers, they don’t even have parents they’ll be in jail soon’ , it struck me, that word ‘loser’ I thought “wow you must really think the person who did that, is a piece of shit and you have no idea how much respect I have, how much love I have” and it hit me really hard – that was before I met anybody from the crew I created. So I started writing loser 3. The original crew was my brothers the three of us, my blood brothers…

So all your brothers do street art? Only one of my brothers, my brother is Diesel, he originally started writing Dayze then became DZE, when sour came out (the weed), He put an L on the end and became DZEL

I need to interview him! Yea Definitely – we have a rap crew, called “The Animal Crackers”. It’s me and Sour Dzel. In 97, I created AIDS as our first rap crew, so before “Animal Crackers”, we were “Adolescents in Dire Straights”, the first person to ever actually write AIDS on the wall was Dutchie, and he was shouting our music out, we went to arts school together, I was giving him tapes not even CDs it was so long ago, we became friends he was into my music, and we both did artwork.

I got into graffiti before I went to art school, and he wasn’t into it that much, I was into it like since I was a kid. Basically he did a spot on route 1, and he wrote “DUTCH AIDS it’s for the kids”. It meant that our music and our passion was for the kids and if you don’t know already… the loser and AIDS to me is like a metaphor. I could be a loser, but am I one? when im trying to be a successful artist and musician? I work a 9-5, so that’s not a loser!

Its interesting, because the more street artists I meet, I’ve realized they’re some of the smartest and down to earth people I’ve ever met in my life, and they’re doing graffiti simply as a means to get their name out there for their art, for their fine art you know…

When I started doing it, it was pre-internet, I feel like graffiti is not street art – and street art is not fine art – to me – because I’ve been classically trained… it’s about the expression of myself, and I do it first and foremost for me, I’m not trying to get people to know my name, graffiti is about testing yourself and your limits, putting both middle fingers up and saying, just because you say I can’t, doesn’t mean that I can’t. I can push myself to the limit, and walk that edge, I don’t want to feel like my job is my end all – I wake up and I want something else, I don’t want a pat on the back for it at the same time. It’s the ambiguous figure in the night, and you don’t know who’s behind it and that’s the beauty.

Have you worked with the city? I have not, however I have worked with Greenville arts project. I do it for myself and by myself, a couple of times I’ve been paid to do private murals like in-house on somebody’s property…but the street ones, those are usually Greenvillan hooking me up with spots.

You go around, and you see these murals and it’s stuff we dreamed of…we would just sit and think “man I wish my town was full of beautiful murals and graf” But then you start feeling some sort of way, like now I can say I’ve pushed this scene to where it is today, and sometimes I feel like people don’t recognize that.

Nobody needs to give me a pat on the back, but when I speak I’m speaking about my whole crew, talented individuals who deserve a spotlight on their work. So, as opposed to doing a mural for free, there should be like minded business individuals, trying to get some kind of funds for these artists who are beautifying the city, who are helping real estate go up –

There are buildings that look awful!! Like 5 years ago, that didn’t even exist!!! If you wanted to do something, you had to grab your paint, put it in your bag and go at night. I really respect the dudes that are getting shit together, Savage Habbit, Sean Lugo, Greenvillan, everyone who’s pushing the envelope that’s what art is about.

Your stuff it’s really intense, its startling, I don’t know how to define it, I want to know your inspiration and your style… this guy looks like he’s looking at me…Raw emotion in life – you know, because I did a series right here, it was the whole alphabet; 26 paintings, each letter, this is Clint Eastwood, Elvis, Native American, Edward S Curtis, one of the few people to photograph native American…they used to think the camera would steal your soul. These amazing photographs we don’t know anything about them, their name or anything.

I try to work on bodies of work, I have a style, but the way I was taught from my teachers was that great artists reinvent themselves every time they show work, they don’t just do one they do a body of work.

Do you sketch beforehand? They’re all different it depends…This specific one is 14 years old, and a lot of my original work is from my head and my hand, I don’t look at anything, I like the process of creating things, I like classic ideas I like newspapers, I like painting….

So what’s with the monsters I have to ask? Do you have a thing for it? Yea – we’re all monsters…

Humans are monsters?  Brian Townsend, my favorite teacher who taught me the most, said to me one time, ‘What makes a human, is their eyes’ he would look at my stuff and say that kind of looks like this person… Beauty is in the eye of the beholder… My nieces and nephews see my world, they understand, they see me they don’t see monsters. My original work I felt like was untouchable, like you don’t know what I’m doing until I’ve done it, and it’s from my head.

What’s the story of block heads? Basically the first one I ever did I stumbled upon it, we were doing this wall, I had rolled out a huge space, someone was supposed to show up and they didn’t, and I took the whole square outlined it, put eyes in it…and the love I got for it was insane.

Do you paint here? Yea I work in my studio here…

Where do you currently sell your work? Anywhere I can, honestly My biggest supported is Evan Slepian of “Works On Paper”, in Philadelphia.

 You grew up here born and raised, what generation are you, I’m always intrigued with people who were born and raised here? Yea – From my father side, I’m second generation born here, my dads mom and dad came over on a boat, my moms dad is from Mt. Vernon, and her mom was straight from Germany. My mom was born in Mount. Vernon, came to the heights when she was a young girl, they bounced around a lot. But my dad, grew up near Bayonne…. all Italian/irish….

How do you feel Jersey City has changed? Well, I’m an egotistical person, so I kind of feel a little offended as if I owned Jersey City. Its good though, everybody needs nice things, some changes are good or bad, some people don’t benefit from the changes, and some people do. Poor people are still poor, you know.  I moved around, because I can’t afford half of Jersey City. Now we live in the West Side section….

Do you have a favorite Jersey City hang out spot? Uh… My fucking house, this right here!

How do you find time for music, work, art…? I don’t. I got grey hair and I’m about to be 32.  I feel like I’m pushing 46. I don’t mean physically, I mean mentally. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, is what my mother says.

Can you tell me about your murals in and around JC? I did this wall in this school parking lot with Mustart, and Tech NYC, a couple of years ago, still there the school loves it the kids love it. I did part of the 18 mural behind pepboys, that wall is wild – Distort, me, Mustart…

Greenvillain hooked that up right? Yea Greenvillain did, he also hooked me up with the gates on bay street.

I really need to interview him! I met him once at a party while he was DJing. He’s a cool dude man, he’s about pushing the limits too. He is an artist in his own right, just the fact of appreciating people’s work says a lot about you. It say’s that you’re not a selfish person, when on the other side a lot of artists are.

I could sit and paint a million paintings, but if people don’t respond to it, then nothing matters. I feel like I sit with a bunch of artists all the time, and we critique work.

Lets rewind a little bit. When did you start painting? When I was a kid. I’m a bit of the class clown…Throughout school I was a knucklehead, went to summer school every year, fucked around, by the time I could graduate it was like you can’t make it into college, so I was really depressed, it hit me like a truck. I got a job I was like it’s a wrap.

My mother said to me no way, why don’t you try art school. I was like art school!? No way. She said you’re always drawing and painting you’re so creative, I was doing painting in my bedroom stoned with my brother. I have artists in my family, a little back story, my grandfather is actually one of the animators of Beavis and Butthead, Doug….His name was John Parator… they worked for Terry Tunes as animators. Like Christmas and Thanksgiving he would come over and i’d be like “draw me something”. He would draw such cool stuff, I couldn’t believe it. I’m guessing it came from that.

One day you’re gonna have a kid and it will be like that. I draw a stick figure and my daughter is impressed. That’s the other thing, children have imagination, their whole body isn’t collected and coordinated like that, if you train yourself to draw what you think, it will become something as you’re older.

But, I can assure you you’re an artist, because when I sit and look at what you do… you have this eclectic style of how you look at things and who you are, that picture black and white where you’re dressed as a man or something, like holy shit that could be a photo from 30 years ago, you’re visual you know. You saw that before you did it. You lived it because it was in your brain, you put it together and it happened, and that’s fucking art man.

Everything is an art. People think of art as painting or galleries, like that is so not true. Dance is art. Printing itself is an art, journalism, photography. Life is art. People don’t see this.

Excel spreadsheets can be art. There’s somebody out there who’s so ill with excel that’s it’s a fucking art at this point!!!

Nowadays, our society doesn’t make it so easy for you to do the things you’re passionate about. So I’m selling work, but im not paying my rent with it. That’s why I can even relate to my job is an art. I’m a machine operator.. if you’re not trained to do it you cant do it. Hopefully my music and my art can bring me to that place where I can support my family but until then, i’ll be working hard no matter what! I’m not going to stop painting cause im not making money, that’s not why I started I do it cause I love it.

So anything else you want people to know? I love Sara Jane.

Wow you guys are so cute. Can you tell me about this love? I met Sara at my first solo art show.

Was it love at first sight? (Sara) He was sooooo drunk!

(CR) It was for me!!! Let me tell you this though, I grown a lot since then. I was a knucklehead back then. I’m not gonna lie and say I wanted to marry her right then and there, she was gorgeous so I was like…

You wanted to get it in. She was gorgeous she turned me on like a wolf in a cartoon.

When are you guys getting married? May 23 – comin up very soon! That’s exciting do you have a dress? Yea I do! it’s really cute.

I’ll tell you what though, I went and told mom about wanting to marry this girl but I felt dumb as hell cause I could barely pay my rent, what the fuck am I doing trying to marry someone. She goes “no one cares about rent and ring…” She said “I want to give you something…” my grandmother at some point gave my mom her wedding ring and she gave it to me. I put it in a box and at an opening of a show,  I just knew it was the night, I said to myself “so far in my life this is the biggest night of my life I want to remember it and almost trump that and remember it as the night I proposed to my wife”. We were at the hotel getting ready for the show and then I walked up to her and said boo will you marry me.

What’s next for you? It’s kind of tough, plans to take over the world…that’s our plans every night you know.  I just want to be successful, humble, take care of my family, sell more art. I want my music and my work to take me places.

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