You know, everybody thinks of, you know, the number seven is lucky or, you know, having to do with all these, you know, divine things or, you know, spiritual things.

And the meaning for the name for me is dynamic, positive energy personified.

That's what seven means.

But at the time, it was more like, you know, that's my tag, you know, like, this is who I am.

when I went to school initially I was going to school to be a fashion illustrator.

My mom always had these ebony fashion Fair magazines like laying around.

So I would get these magazines and go through the little fashion show section.

They would be something I had never seen before, and they would just look real artistic to me.

So I either wanted to be a comic book illustrator or fashion designer.

I started tagging 92 when I came up with the Nijel name, but 93 is when I really, like picked up a spray can and started experimenting.

I was even contemplating like, just writing Eric, like tag Eric, like I did this, my one of my first graffiti characters, I came up with and I was like, you know, drawing my name my regular name out, you know, in my letter forms and stuff back there cutting out, cutting out Jet Magazine, beauty of the weeks, putting them in my sketch magazine.

Yo!

I met Seven almost about 30 years ago now he was definitely further you know in the in the skill department than I was at that point in time.

So yeah we started hooking up.

But yeah, he was one of the first people who told me like, No, you got to go get this tip off this can of paint in order to be able to make it not look so sloppy.

You know, we became friends, we started linking up, we skate together, we go paint trains together.

We would go paint walls together, go exploring abandoned buildings and looking for spots to paint.

I met seven first time was in Atlanta around 92, 93.

I had a hip hop group in Atlanta called Y'all So Stupid Sign to Dallas Austin.

And he was roommates with the deejay from my crew.

It went from it went from the tags.

Writing his name, he used to write 7, a thousand, million ways.

He used to all look good, you know what I'm saying?

And then when he started to go into things that, you know, like pictures, you would hang on your wall and put them on buildings and doing murals that people can gravitate to, that everybody stopped to look at because it does it you don't have to decipher it.

You see it from far away.

When he started doing it into doing that, like everything just took off for him.

There was a wall on Central Avenue had been looking at this wall for a few years like, Man, that would be a great wall to paint.

So I went out there halfway through painting this mural, Dude, freakin cops rolls up.

The owner of the gas station and the property owner, they come over and I actually wasn't even painting graffiti or anything.

I painted a rose for my mother because my mother passed away.

I'm like, Yeah, I just really just wanted to paint this beautiful picture for my mom, you know?

And I showed them the rose.

So they take the cuffs off, they let me finish painting the rose and the rest is history.

It's like I started painting that one wall for about maybe five or six years before I painted the Spider-Man mural.

And it just it became like a famous spot for me.

That's where my stuff really kind of started getting noticed.

I became a graffiti writer as a result of already being an artist.

Then, once I got good in doing the graffiti, I was like, Well, if I can do this, It's like, why don't I try painting this image of a dragon or this image of something else that's not letters, you know?

And the more I did that and the better I got at it, the more I realized like, Wow, this is just as dynamic, if not more so, because everyone can appreciate this, you know?

And now that I've been doing it for so long and it's so far along, as far as being accepted, it's now become a lot easier for other artists to get involved in and to do things.

And more opportunities are becoming available for other artists and do murals around the city.

And the perception of graffiti is kind of changing and is becoming a little bit more accepted.

But that's that's nationwide really, you know, just becoming a more popular thing now because it's pop culture now.

It's not as underground as it used to be.

You know, like everything that starts out underground becomes pop culture.

Graffiti has become street art, you know, and everybody wants a piece of it some kind of way.

He's from a time where it was pushed out and now everybody accepts it everywhere, all over the world.

It's not graffiti, it's not trash.

It's not that it's like people everywhere stop and look it and they're painting art now, you know, now to give him a room if he's lived through the times.

To reap the benefits of it and also bring other people in.

And that's great.

Never forgets.

Where he came from.

I don't know what it does.

When you stepping foot into a new city, you're from a place like Chattanooga, where you're the first one doing murals on this type of scale from a grassroots level.

That's what's really important to know.

I think about Seven because we got to be clear, like people of color really do get it out of the mud and they really do have a grassroots effort around what they're doing and how that happens is like straight out of his mind it's, you know, even this project, Burning Bridges is bringing people in the world who never would have met, who never would have gotten together and who would have never come to Chattanooga.

And not only is he bringing them here, but he's offering them space to leave their work behind in a way that is not only healing the environment, but it's also creating pride for your environment.

You know, something I always see is people just driving down the street.

A lot of people come by here, just a smile.

People come by to take pictures.

People come by.

You know, this has become a main tourist attraction without having tourism backing.

Honestly, I never thought that I could make a living as an artist.

I was basically just like faced with the reality that I knew in order for me to be happy that I was going to have to find a way to do my art and make a living doing my art, we're in Chattanooga right now.

Nobody else is doing this really.

And I was just like I'm that dude.

Like I've got the history, I got the background, I got the skills.

And so I just was like, You know what, man?

You could do it.

You can do it.

And I just start digging it and, you know, just building that foundation.

Nobody else is really paying attention.

I was like, okay, every opportunity I get, I'm putting something out there, you know, wherever any, you know, whatever.

And it was just like, dude, once I made that decision and just kind of opened myself up to the universe and to that possibility, everything just started rolling.

Here we are, you know, doing it So.