#33 Brian
Yo,
In March of 2009 I flew from Chicago to NYC to interview graffiti writer Greg Lamarche, aka SP.ONE.
While I was in town I met up with some friends and was introduced to Brian Willette. He asked me what brought me to NYC (he was also from Chicago), I told him about my interview.
Willette (no one I knew called him Brian) flipped his iPhone over to show me his screensaver—it was an SP.ONE collage. We hit it off from that moment on.
Willette didn’t sleep much; he was always up, always loaded with energy, always ready to meet. He was technically a Creative Director working on marketing campaigns, but he often had other projects going on, was interested in photography, design, and meeting new people.
We met up at events and parties. He was in recovery, and I often heard him use the line “I’m allergic, I break out in handcuffs,” when people asked why he didn’t drink alcohol.
In November that year Willette’s Mom passed away from lung cancer. I didn’t realize at the time the impact it would come to have on him.