..but I really like him (especially as a person) and I think this blog about his experiences in Copenhagen/the Ungdomshuset/being an American artist in Europe/what goes into making a non-douchey, socially conscious public art piece/media relations/trying really hard to be peaceful and not be an dick even though people keep misguidedly bombing your mural is really interesting and worth a read:

“I don’t want to over simplify, but your time is valuable, and you may need to check your Facebook page. Before going to Copenhagen I spoke with my friends at the V1 gallery about doing some ambitious outdoor art in addition to the gallery show. I had gone out bombing with them in 2004 and they have a history in graffiti, so they know my passion for outdoor work. Incidentally, one of the spots where I put a large poster in 2004 was the 69 Youth House/Punk House(at the epicenter of the controversy on this trip) where it remained untouched until the weather got to it 6 months later. V1 diligently reached out to property owners and art advocates to find prime locations for murals in Copenhagen. Several great privately owned spaces were offered, and the city council even offered a city square wall usually adorned with advertising posters. They additionally offered to pay for the materials I used there. The gallery and I saw this as a coup of the highest order and a victory of art over advertising. We even discussed that it might lead to a more art friendly attitude by the city. At the very least, it provided a chuckle that one part of the city would be subsidizing my art going up, while another might be paying to clean it off. Anyway, another seemingly unrelated location I was offered was a wall directly next to where the 69 Youth House used to be(I was informed the Youth House been torn down). It was a great almost 70 foot high wall, and with my connection to punk culture and my history with art at the location, it seemed like a great wall. I was asked to submit a design for approval by the building owner, so I decided to keep the image true to my beliefs, but uncontroversial(so I thought)and presented a Peace Dove in target concept. It was approved. When I arrived in Copenhagen the 69 wall was my first project. As the crew and I worked, we were approached by friendly, curious people with nothing but positive feedback. I also began to hear a little more from locals about how distressing it was when the city evicted the Youth House dwellers, and sold it to a Christian sect that had it demolished. It now sat as an empty lot where there used to be a thriving hub of creative and communal, free-spirited culture. I thought to myself “what a shame, I hope I can do something that is a symbolically positive transformation”. On the second day of work on the mural I was interviewed by the local paper and explained my history with the location and expressed that the mural was about global peace and my opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mikkel from V1 was also interviewed, and his explanation of all my projects included the city square, and the city’s support for that. Somehow, the newspaper article stated that I had been commissioned and paid by the city to do all the murals, including the 69 Youth House wall. That was not true. I don’t want to sound paranoid, but I have a feeling that the newspaper knew it would be a more dramatic and controversial story if it appeared that I was collaborating with the very forces who had evicted the Youth House dwellers in 2007 to create a placating propaganda piece.”

(read the entire article here)