About Us

Welcome to the crew. Specs Crew was created by  Hartford, Connecticut, artist Kareem R. Muhammad. He paints under the name Cauê, which means “Good Man” in Tupi Guarani (Brazilian Indian tribe/language). Kareem is a photographer and a published author.

The vision of Specs Crew came from a dream…yes a dream. On the night of 9/1/12, Kareem dreamt of an eye looking him. What did this eye mean? Why was this eye still in his thoughts after he woke up? He didn’t know the answers to his questions. He found his self going to the craft store that day and ending up in the paint aisle. As he stood there he thought, “What if I painted the eye that I saw?” Usually this is when the next thought of, “You can’t paint or draw” comes in but it didn’t. So he just went with the feeling and picked up some acrylic paint, brushes and several canvases. The feeling inside of him was so unusual. It tingled a little and had him excited. This eye had become his dominant thought and had driven him to attempt to paint. The interesting thing was prior to that day painting was a skill he assumed he didn’t have because  he had never painted before.

While his two young daughters played with their cousin in their grandparents yard he set up a little table amongst the trees. After about an hour he was done. His journey that day ended with an eye but not the one that he saw in his dream. He wasn’t discouraged rather he was eager to paint again. The next night a new eye came into his dream. He didn’t search for deeper meaning nor did he Google dream interpretations. Another day began with an eye as his dominant thought. He was driven to pick up the paintbrush and start painting a new eye. After the 2nd and later the 3rd eye in two days he took a minute to just look at them. The word insight came to mind but insight into what he thought. It was at this point a new thought came to him. He decided to paint 100 eyes. Why? One could think. He had no idea why either he just knew that he was being driven to do it.

By September 4th 2012, he progressed from painting eyes to painting characters with the focus on their eyes. He drew two women wearing Hijab, which is a veil that covers the hair and neck.

During the night of September 4th the image of the vintage 80’s version Cazal eyewear came to mind. As he drove his daughters to school this new image couldn’t escape his thoughts.

He drove to Ocean State Job Lot and picked up a 5 pack of new 16×20 canvases, called out sick and headed to the park. He set up the canvas on an empty bench and began painting. During the production of the paintings several people passed as they walked in the park. Some spoke and others possibly thought he was crazy as he was talking to his self. When he was done he had two new paintings. Both characters sporting 5 inch Cazal like frames that took up most of the bottom of the canvas with him leaving out the mouth and the rest of the body.

He was not sure why he didn’t paint the entire face but this is what the feeling called for, artistic expression. One of the characters, that he would later name Meeker, sported a hairstyle popularized in the 1990’s in the African American community called the high top fade. The other character, that you would later name Bleeker, sported a different hairstyle popularized in the 1990’s called the Gumby.

Bleeker

Meeker

As he stood there with the cool summer breeze hitting his face he smiled with joy. The images quickly made him think of his teenage years of dancing and having fun with his friends and family. He imagined that they were best friends and apart of a dance crew. After the three hours of painting he headed to pick up his daughters from school. On the ride home new images of characters popped into his head. He had no time to think why he was having this strong desire to paint or why these images were flying across his mind. When he arrived home he fed his girls, read a book and put them to sleep. He set up two new canvases on the kitchen counter and started painting again. He painted for eight hours that day and was rewarded with four works of Art.

By the end of the first week he painted a total of 20 paintings.

These are my very first paintings in September of 2012. They will later be know as Specs Crew. All 20 paintings are not displayed in photo.

All of these new characters looked back at him in their funky eyewear. He would later name them Specs Crew. Since September 1st 2012, he has not been able to put the paintbrush down.

This dominant thought of the eye has been stuck in his mind. He didn’t know where this new talent came from but his father, Abdul R. Muhammad, explained it as it not being a new talent rather he only discovered a skill that was innate to him. He thought that if he was innately capable of painting then others must have the same capabilities to produce things from there thoughts or make new discoveries about themselves. This led him to having another conversation with his father, which led to them laying the groundwork for Specs Crew Educates (SCE). This made Specs Crew into an acronym, which would now merge all of the insights that Kareem was able to have through this process.

Support
Perspective
Encouragement
Compassion
Simplicity

Connection
Respect
Evolve
Words

As the weeks and days passed new ideas and thoughts came out of the

new energy around painting. He told his self to “Dream Any Spot” making any place he chose to be his gallery to express his self. What Kareem and Specs Crew can share with you is to go with the feeling. Don’t allow the barriers stop your progress instead use the obstacles to push you forward. By October of 2012 Kareem had close to 50 paintings ranging in sizes of 8×10 to 48×60. He printed a first edition t-shirt of the Specs Crew and decided to develop a presence on the internet and start a company that you now know as Specs Crew Art & Apparel.