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Living

Sojourn with a spray paint can

He comes, he crafts, he leaves. The Kid was born restless, but at 29 he's thinking about home.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published April 30, 2007

BROOKSVILLE

The Cosmo Kid was on his knees on a stage last week at the Hernando County Fair. He leaned over a blank poster board and was still for a few seconds and thought about what he was about to do.

The techno thumped.

The crowd gathered.

He started to spray, and spray, and spray, layers and layers of purple and blue, until the paint began to glisten and pool.

Most people say spray paint art is about speed. More than that, though, it's about putting down lots of colors and then rubbing away certain parts at appropriate moments to reveal what's underneath.

The Cosmo Kid's real name is Todd Kenyon. He's not far from 30 years old.

He said last week that it might finally be time to slow down. To find someplace to stay for longer than a week or a week and a half.

"I have no real set of friends, " he said in a down moment.

"I've never had a house."

Carnival castaway

He was born Nov. 16, 1977, in New Jersey, and he wanted out as soon as he was old enough to even consider it.

"Didn't like it.

"Wasn't for me.

"Just didn't feel right."

He started when he was 11 running errands for folks at the fair at the Meadowlands across from New York City. He then left home when he was 15 and traveled with a carnival company and ran rides and games.

That's how he ended up meeting a man at the Central Florida Fair in Orlando who was doing this kind of art. That was about 13 years ago. He watched how spray paint art was done, he said, then tried it himself, and before long he was doing it on his own.

For the last dozen-plus years, this is what he has done, at fairs, festivals, concerts, arts and crafts shows, children's events - whatever, wherever - from Key West to Maine to Louisiana to North Dakota.

"Pretty much every week, " he said, "I'm painting at a different place."

So far this year, he has been at the Pasco County Fair, the St. Lucie County Fair, the Sarasota County Fair, the Lake County Fair, then here.

The address on his Florida driver's license is a P.O. box in Yalaha, and he has a P.O. box in Lodi, N.J., too, but he lives in a trailer he pulls with a pickup.

Settling down

About four years ago, he got an apartment and spent a whole summer in Seaside Heights, N.J., painting on the boardwalk by the shore.

He got to know people. People got to know him. The bartenders at the Beachcomber knew the Cosmo Kid liked Captain and Coke.

He liked that.

Now, Cheryl Stanley, his girlfriend, makes him think even more about settling down. She likes Hollywood, Fla. - maybe, he said, they'll go there.

"I guess you could say I've never known what it's like to be a part of a community, " he said last week. "I'm not going to come completely off the road, but I'm going to settle down.

"I'm about ready."

At the fair, he was spraying, and the techno was getting louder and quicker, and the crowd was watching and waiting.

"The more you scratch away, " he had said earlier in the day, "the more the colors come through."

The Cosmo Kid was scratching now.

From under the paint emerged planets and stars and a mountain and a wild waterfall and black-purple palm trees - a dreamscape, a fantasy world.

When he was finished, he stopped and stood up and walked around the stage, slowly, step by step. Todd Kenyon let the people see.

He had created what he always creates: someplace recognizable, but just out of reach.

Michael Kruse can be reached at 352 848-1434 or mkruse@ sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 29, 2007, 18:23:27]