AM/PM: Jerami Goodwin
Jerami and his dog Georgia
Jerami Goodwin is a 26-year-old Atlanta native who’s art work can be seen anywhere from the chests of famous rappers to the walls of countless New York City buildings.
We spent a day with Jerami, 'Sean Penncils' and talked about tattooing A$AP Ferg, coming up as a young artist and graffitiing in NYC. He showed us some of his biggest tags and took us to his favorite watering hole for margaritas.
Meet Jerami Goodwin.
As soon as I entered Jerami's studio that morning I was greeted with a smile, a glass of water and breakfast. Genuine hospitality can be hard to come by in the city. He stayed up late the night before so that he could clean things up for us.
“The greatest day in the history of the universe is today. We’re in it. We’re right now at the peak of our evolution if you believe in that, and we’re constantly growing and expanding outwards.
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He worked on a piece that involved wheat pasting legal documents onto a sheet of wood, fines, tickets, and misdemeanors.
Side Note: The 'Yes No' tattoo on Jerami's right arm was done by Jim Joe while sitting around Jerami's dinner table one night. If you're familiar with the rapper Drake then you've probably seen Mr. Joe's work.
“I’m not a perfectionist. If something happens then that’s how it is.”
Before deciding to pursue art, Jerami used to breakdance. He was also the top tennis player in his high school. Behind him is an ongoing piece of his that features the maps of every tattoo he's ever done. He says it's one of the few works of his that he'll never part with.
““I like to also keep a lot of firsts of stuff. I think about weird shit, like I think about my unborn kids and the stuff they’ll inherit from me. So when I think about that stuff, yeah I want to keep a lot of my more important works for them if by some chance my work becomes valuable some day. I know it will, it’s not anything to do with chance, just work.” ”
Jerami bought the first round of margaritas as soon as we stepped into the bar. He's quick to make friends and easy to make laugh. "I probably put over like 10 tattoos altogether on the Lohan's. People are people. She gets misrepresented in the media. She’s really a sweet girl. We’re friends."
Jerami tagged a door for us on a busy street. He makes his own Staino brand markers and mixes his own paint.
“I met Ferg and Rocky right across the street actually. I went up to them and was like “Yo, if you guys need some tats hit me up and I’ll hook it up.” Then the next day Ferg hit me up for tats. He came through to where I was living at the time and got laced up with a tag, got zapped.”
“I’m not a fucking celebrated artist. I just started doing it. If anything the people that have been doing it, they don’t want someone else in the game to come up. All the other artists have animosity towards you because you’re younger and it took them a certain amount of time to do what they’re doing or to figure their shit out.”
The bigger the better. For Jerami, graffitiing is very much a sport. His 'Staino' tags can be seen small and large all over the city. As we walked, Jerami pointed out his work and that of his friends. He views the walls of New York almost the same way we view our Facebook feeds, checking for new posts and updating his status.
Jerami keeps a key to his front door attached to a little parachute man. He drops it out of his window to visitors down below. Everyone from Curtis Kulig, 'Love Me' to Lindsay Lohan has made at least one trip over to the Sean Penncils studio. That night, famous NYC artist and former art partner to Jean-Michel Basquiat, Stephen Torton, came through to hangout.
“I really love meeting with [Jerami] and working with him because he has the spirit that I always recognize in artists. He’s daring and spontaneous with irrepressible creativity married together with the unabashed appropriation of generations of other artists and friends with no apology. I see only a bright future for Jerami. I’m fine just trying to tag along
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Jerami and Stephen Torton