In the fall of 2005, we saw David Rathman's "Somebody's Got To Go" at the Clementine Gallery in New York City, and his moody ink and watercolors about boxing hit us in the breadbasket. The work drew on the kind of smokily lit black and whites we've stared at forever, but they distilled and transformed that source material, peeling layers of visual information away and leaving a rough but elegant pugilistic essence. We set our heart on working with him one day.
We got our wish this past spring when David agreed to collaborate on a t-shirt series based on his images titled: The Unkindest Cut. "I Make a Beautiful Dollar" can't help but make you think of the Louisville Lip in the way the darker figure slides away from his crumpling victim to better frame the kill. The "beautiful dollar" line was never spoken of by Cassius or Muhammad, but somehow, it should have been.
No Mas is available at Boundless NY.
