Above: The Ankh is Life was commissioned by the Sanctuary Gallery in San Diego, CA, in 2010. The work is no longer visible.
Right: Outta My Mind is an oil on canvas painting that is currently on display in Woodland Hills, CA.
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For Daniel Hopkins ’85, better known as Pose 2 or Maxx Moses in the world of graffiti, life’s path was not always clear — even though the writing was on the wall. Growing up in Yonkers, Daniel started out a good kid. But like so many other urban youth, harmful influences soon entered the picture and he started down the wrong path. “My life turned in a really hard direction,” he said. “It was my own personal choice, but I thought those things were what I wanted to experience in life.” Without getting into the specifics of his past, Hopkins points to entering Brockport as the critical turning point. “Right before I came to college, I got my wake-up call,” he remembered. “I got into Brockport as a non-matriculated student. It was like a trial period. My high school grades were so horrible that they barely let me in, so I had to prove myself. I had to get at least a 2.5 GPA my first semester to be considered an enrolled student. I had to earn my place at Brockport.” And earn his place he did. “I came to Brockport with a mission to change my life around,” he said. “I was definitely headed in the wrong direction. Coming to Brockport was a sanctuary, actually. It was an escape from New York, an escape from my past and an opportunity to begin anew.” But separating from his past and his life in New York City was not always easy for Hopkins. He longed for elements of home.
And one element, graffiti, became a big part of his college life. His passion for the art form was a bit out of place in his new home. The graffiti culture didn’t exist at Brockport, he said. And while the young business major was not exactly winning praise for his work on the bricks and mortar of the Brockport campus, his ability did catch the eye of a longtime art professor. “I came to Brockport right when graffiti was taking off in the ’80s,” Hopkins said. “It was spring semester, 1981. I was rebellious at the time, and I put my name all over the fine arts building. I got in quite a bit of trouble at school. I would have been kicked out of Brockport if it weren’t for professor Jack Wolsky. He was the one who pulled me aside and said, ‘I see you’re really into art, but you’re not taking any art classes. You just write your name all over the building.’ So he’s the one who suggested I take some art classes.” In fact, it was the art classes at Brockport that first opened Hopkins’ eyes and helped him marry traditional street graffiti with other art forms. “I had this rebellious mentality that fine art wasn’t art, that only graffiti was art,” he said. “But once I started taking Art History, I learned that there were