Doze Green

Doze Green is an American artist, musician and one of the original Hip-Hop B-Boys.

Early Life and Education

Doze Green was born in New York City in 1964. Growing up in the '70s, his art was inspired by newspaper cartoons like Shoe, Saturday morning cartoons on TV  and Superhero comics. He began to create his own characters when he was about seven years old. By the time he was twelve he was able to draw sophisticated characters in complete artistic settings. His family encouraged not only his artistic endeavors but also his songwriting.

He attended the High School of Art and Design in New York. The school encouraged artistic expression and even graffiti, which Green did in and around the city. One of his mentors was Donald Joseph White, who signed his graffiti art as DONDI. Green credits DONDI with helping him to create a cleaner, more careful and more sophisticated style than he had been doing before they met.

Green's cousins, who lived in the Bronx, introduced him to  Hip-Hop culture and breaking dancing. He became a member of one of the earliest break dancing groups: the Rock Steady Crew. The group watched a lot of Bruce Lee and Kung Fu movies and emulated the characters and the movements. Green said he adopted a 'gangsta’ persona in both his music and his art.

Career

Doze Green traveled the world with the Rock Steady Crew. He continued to draw and paint and his work was part of a group show in 1984 at the Castelli Gallery in New York. At about the same time, the Rock Steady Crew split up and Green found it increasingly difficult to survive in New York.

He moved to San Diego, where he found work making designs for skate board and surf gear. He lived in San Francisco from 1992 to 1999, a time when he began painting on canvas and selling his work at small galleries and cafes in the SOMA district. His career took off and his exhibits were often sold out.

Green moved to Los Angeles, where he continued to paint and design album covers. He became increasingly interested in metaphysics. "When I delineate it down to its very last compound," he said about his art,  "I just see numbers, I see figures, and I see waves; I see forms as sacred geometry in kind of like a cosmic dance."

Doze Green’s work can be found in public and private collections throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, and Australia. His works have been published in BlackBook, Anthem, Juxtapoz, Tokion, and­­ Vibe and featured on CNN.