Machinist's Mate 2nd Class (SW) David Clark admits he joined the Navy to escape a life of crime.

Living in Chicago, he began making dangerous choices as young as 12 years old, when he started tagging - or illegally spray painting graffiti - on the sides of buildings and fences.

"My sister used to draw, so I picked up drawing from her," Clark said of his artistic beginnings. "I used to draw to get girls, but I actually picked up a passion for it."

As he got older, he began to do what other kids did in Chicago, he began to tag. He formed a group and they tagged together. Clark said a high school teacher helped him and his crew with developing their talent and how to channel that talent legally. Together, they created a formal presentation for honest work.

"We went to the city council to try to get walls legally," he said. "We did one, and then they wouldn't give us any more so we went back to the illegal way."
Clark took one semester of school at an art school in Chicago, but tuition was too much and he was forced to quit.

"I was in Chicago from eight in the morning till eight at night with no money in my pocket," Clark said. "I had to give up school."

He and his crew of five taggers systematically planned how to tag a building by sketching the artwork first on a piece of paper. They would determine the colors and spray patterns so they had the right paints and spray caps for the job, hugely important in preparing for a tagging event. The caps spray in different widths and patterns. The crew then worked in the shadows at night to create their version of street art.

"When my cousin went to jail, I knew I couldn't go to jail, so I joined the Navy," Clark said.

He said he needed to get away, and the need to escape moved him to contact a Navy recruiter. Clark said he'd never seen anything of the outside world beyond the Milwaukee and Chicago areas. A month after talking to the recruiter, he left for boot camp. Since joining the Navy in 2008, he has seen lots of the world as a machinist's mate aboard USS Comstock (LSD 45).

Clark has plenty of spray paint experience, but had never done much brush work until he joined the Navy where he designed a flag and a wall in boot camp. When his department head at his current command - the Southeast Regional Maintenance Center (SERMC) - discovered he had a talent for drawing and painting, he asked Clark to paint a mural.

"That mural is the first I've done since joining," Clark said.

The mural is a crest for the command's Navy Afloat Maintenance Training Strategy (NAMTS) Program. The design consists of two crossed wrenches with a blue shield superimposed over them, topped with the helmeted head of a Viking warrior, and the Viking's beard flowing down onto the shield. The mural has become a location of honor where those who earn NAMTS certification and a Navy Enlisted Classification code are presented their certificate of achievement with the mural as a backdrop.

"I'm glad everyone likes the mural," Clark said. "I hope I get to do more of them."

Right now, Clark has no intention to get out of the Navy. If the opportunity presents itself he said he would gladly attack another wall.

For more news from Southeast Regional Maintenance Center, visit www.navy.mil/.