In recent posts, you may have noticed that we’ve come out with a new logo t-shirt. The artist behind the new shirts is Damani Rawlins, an old friend of mine from my time at Friends School in Baltimore City. Damani (shown right wearing a shirt of his own design), with the help NeighborSpace staff, recently put together the design for the new T-shirts. Priced at $30, they are available for a limited time on our website for just $24.  The T-shirts (shown below) reflect our mission of creating parks, gardens, trails and natural areas for people of all ages inside Baltimore County’s Urban Rural Demarcation Line.

I was able to catch up with Damani the other night and interview him on his experiences growing up, living in Baltimore County and becoming an artist:

Patrick Filbert : So, I’m not really sure where to start when it comes to your origin story. You were born in Brooklyn, were here in Baltimore for a while where you graduated from Friends, went out to Chicago to go to DePaul and now you’ve returned to Brooklyn.

Damani Rawlins : I’m definitely a mutt.

PF : So, when it comes to art though, how does your experience in these three cities shape your artwork?

DR : Baltimore got me into art, Chicago shaped it, and New York changed my approach to it.

PF : How so (regarding New York)?

DR : The way I approach a piece, conceptually, faster pace… I’ll go into more depth. Baltimore, I got into comics, got into printmaking. Chicago is where I got into animation and started to develop my technical skills. At DePaul.

PF : So, you grew up in Overlea, what was that like?

DR : Well I was mostly in Baltimore (City), honestly, there wasn’t anything to do in Overlea. Most of my time I spent inside drawing and playing video games.

PF : Did you sense the lack of community open space living in Overlea?

DR : Even just riding my bike there was only one school to hang out at. There were no parks, no places to go, nowhere to meet other kids.

PF : So, this really shaped you?

DR : Yeah, my home life. If I was home it was pretty much because I was grounded. There was nothing to do around me. When I wasn’t with kids from school, I found myself getting into trouble. I’d get grounded and just end up drawing more.

PF : You’d say the lack of open space in your neighborhood is actually what pushed you into art?

DR : [ Laughter ] Basically, yeah.

PF : So, when did you start designing shirts and how?

DR : So honestly, I first got into the idea of printmaking. You can put a wood block print on anything. Once I was in high school, I liked lithographs, I liked etching. When I was in college, I visited my friend in Philly and he was doing screen printing. I decided to take a class which was mostly printing on paper, though I quickly realized the most applicable process for this was printing on shirts.

PF: That was the way you were going to make money out of this?

DR : Yeah. My thought was to put my own work on shirts, to show that I can make art and that I’m capable.

PF : Doing shirts has given you an opportunity to express your talents.

DR : Yes.

PF : And this shirt design in particular, what do you think about it?

DR : I wish I had a park like [ the one shown on the shirt ] by me when I was living in Baltimore County.

PF : But then you might not have gotten into art.

DR : [ Laughter ] Maybe not.

Damani’s experience living in Baltimore County is clearly an important part of who he is. And while the lack of open space may have helped Damani as an artist, it doesn’t tell the story of what a childhood should be like for a kid growing up in Baltimore County.

The image on the shirt might not portray the reality of Damani’s experience in Baltimore County, but it does portray the reality of what Damani’s experience should have been. It is our mission to make the vision of this shirt a reality and truly create places where kids like Damani have the opportunity to be kids, make friends and have fun. Damani’s story growing up in Overlea emphasizes how important creating Cherry Heights Woodland Garden can be for that community, and we look forward to its completion over the next year. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank Damani for his good work on this shirt design.  You can purchase a shirt on the merchandise page of the NeighborSpace website.

Damani makes artwork under his brand name, Troawayz, including original, homemade shirts created in his basement in Brooklyn (shown below).

For more on Damani’s work, check out his website: http://www.troawayz.art/ or follow his Instagram. He encourages you to contact him at damanitarik@gmail.com if you would like one of his shirts or want him to design you something.