Ask a Graffiti Artist - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Ask a Graffiti Artist

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Priscilla Vazquez Lee Quiñones will be responding to readers’ questions about his life and work.

This week, Lee Quiñones, an artist who emerged from the subway art movement of the 1970s, will be responding to readers’ questions about his life, work and the evolution of graffiti as art in New York City.

To ask Mr. Quiñones a question, please use the comments box below.

Mr. Quiñones painted his first subway piece in 1974. Inspired by the leading figures of subway lore, including Cliff 159 of the 3-Yard Boys, and Blade One of the Crazy 5, Lee began creating 40-foot subway car murals in late 1975. Over the next decade, he painted an estimated 115 whole subway cars throughout the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s system. In late 1975, Lee was asked to join the Fabulous Five, an elite quintet of seemingly mythic graffiti writers. The Fabulous Five’s greatest feat — the only running 10-car train painted from top to bottom, end to end — made its jour