Grafookies?

3pm

I’m bustling along in my kitchen, humming while icing 3 dozen cookies – an assortment of white, pink, and polka dot (for good measure).  I’m getting ready to add street ‘umph’ to these sweet cookies.

I meet up with Karlos Bumps, local Angeleno graffiti artist. Naturally, we begin by prepping my air brush gun. His compressor seems to be jammed, so he makes a few calls, and we hop on over to meet his buddies.

We park in a deserted alleyway in the pitch black. Rampart, LA. We slip through a back-door and enter a crowded room of really big dudes. I walk in, slightly terrified, balancing about 36 cookies on a tray that can fall at any moment.

Taken aback by the scene before me, I manage to blurt out “Hey, can  you help me decorate cookies?”  I felt like an arse as soon as it slipped out; I managed to sound cutesy, lame, and lost all at once.

Somehow, I manage to convince them that they should help me out..  Within minutes, busy (and damn talented) hands starting working away, with loud generators rattling in the background.  They liquified the color gel, and started blasting cookies.  Karlos Bumps was recreating his Love and XO masterpieces and Juan @ Crownhill Design  and his brother busted out some B-girl and tattoo cookies.

About the name Grafookies…I was having dinner with some friends and the inventive language was flowing while my graffiti cookies were front and center.  A friend, Maria Eagan came up with the zinger… “So graffiti and cookies, like ‘Grafookies?’ And tattoos and cookies, like ‘Tatookies?”