Tie One (Graffiti Artist)

Tie One (aka Jonathan See Lim; 1979 – March 18, 1998), was a famous graffiti artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tie was well known in the graffiti community for his aggressive style of graffiti art and the massive amount of work he produced. At age 18, Tie was murdered by a property owner while attempting to paint a rooftop in San Francisco's Tenderloin District. Since his death, Tie has become a martyr for Bay Area graffiti, and his legacy continues through his friends and fans who continue to write his tag in many international cities.

A Fan's Re-Tag of his favorite design.

By: Josh Torres [South San Francisco C.A]

Background

Though ethnically Chinese, Jonathan Lim was born in the Philippines. During his early childhood, Lim's family moved to California. As a youth, Lim expressed an interest in art and did a lot of graffiti in San Jose, so his parents sent him to live with his sister at Venetian Bridges Apartments in Stockton, California. After meeting Teez and other notable graffiti artists in Stockton, he kept writing, eventually calling the attention of Graffiti Vandal Detective Rich Kamiopoli. Frequent chases by this police officer to try to inflict bodily harm to stop him and prosecute failed, because of this trouble in school Tie eventually dropped out of Lincoln High in Stockton, California at age 17. Eventually his family settled in San Bruno, California, just outside of San Francisco. Lim was a firm believer in nonviolence due to his Buddhist upbringing. By this point in his life he had become an exceptionally active graffiti writer, frequently making trips to paint in San Francisco. By his late teens, Lim had become a permanent fixture in Bay Area graffiti culture, and painted in many additional American cities.

Style

Tie who also wrote "Seo" pronounced "Shey" and "Sesk" representing Reds Crew earlier on in San Jose and was considered a graffiti bomber focusing on large quantities of tags, throw-ups, and block letters meaning quick hit-ups. Unlike some graffiti artists who create elaborate colorful art pieces that can take hours to produce, TIE focused on quantity over quality. Tie's work was mainly black and white, big, and aggressive by nature. He incorporated the peace sign into his work. He also wrote youthful and peaceful phrases like "Let's play ball" and "Joy of life" next to his graffiti. He later developed and created some characters and sometimes placed faces within the letters of his throw ups. Tie was a member of the following graffiti crews: REDS CREW, RTC, THR, T2B, BBB, KCW.

Influence

TIE studied the art he observed on the streets of San Francisco and Stockton, California meeting up with DVS, Meta4, Teez, and the RTC, JOA, ATA and SA crews including Minds, Mazon, Kase and the Lords from Modesto, CA, Reds Crew in San Jose, CA in early 1996 moving back and fourth. During this time he caught a Greyhound to the LA Graffiti Show after an accident on 101 in Kings County, CA ;eft the car he was riding in totaled. He had to get to that show so he caught a Greyhound bus the next day and bombed on the way up, Playing loud music out of a boom box in the back of the bus getting the attention of the driver. Getting out and bombing on every stop, he attended the LA Graffiti show at a gallery showing the art of Twist Manone and others he was very inspired at the mixed medium. While there he met Spie from terror media created, and Cokes, also from Oakland and Dream, Gyro, and other Los Angeles area graffiti artists. He looked up to these guys as true kings even jumping on a RTD bus in the middle of the artshow in downtown L.A.. Recognizing their art from the tracks in Oakland and Emeryville yards and beyond. Bombing with Burp, and others from Reds frequent trips led him back to San Francisco in a VW Squareback on "Bombing Runs" including all nighters on [...]. He would later learn more from well known graffiti artist such as Barry McGee and MQ who would also influence his style and approach to graffiti after he spent more time there in 1998. Because of the large body of work and his controversial death, TIE's work has gone on to influence graffiti artists around the world and still does to this day. As he still has tags "rockin" on the Mission and other places throughout the world.

Death

On March 18th 1998, Tie went out to paint graffiti in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco "Rooftops" as he called them. He found a building on Taylor St. and climbed the fire escape in attempts to reach the roof of the building where he had planned to paint and had planned and plotted. While on his way to the roof, he was confronted by a man who lived in the building, William Porter a 51-year-old photographer. The details of the interaction between the two are unclear however, TIE was then shot by Porter and died in the street below the fire escape. A San Francisco grand jury examined the case and analyzed the little evidence available. Police found fingerprints of both individuals on the gun and Porter reported he shot Lim in self-defense, even though this would have been very much out of character for Lim. The lone witness to the confrontation was a Tenderloin woman who later told police that the young man shouted, "Hold on!" seconds before being fatally wounded. Later Porter was exonerated and the charges were dropped.

References

es:Tie one