Keith Aronowitz | Baston 714

It is with a heavy heart that I write this article of Brooklyn born and raised Keith Aronowitz, who passed away on May 23rd, 2022 at the young age of sixty. Keith was many things in life, but his passion was creating film documentaries.

Keith Aronowitz has been involved in filmmaking and photography from a very early age, making his first actual film at the age of twelve. After graduating from college with a degree in Television Broadcasting, Keith moved back and forth from NYC to Los Angeles, mostly working in television as an editor while simultaneously working on passion projects such as music videos for up and coming artists and various documentaries and the like.

Needing a break after 20 plus years in the industry, Keith went down to the amazon, met some shamans, and ended up living there for five years. While there, he produced and directed a full length feature documentary on Ayahuasca, a visionary brew used by shamans to heal people of many ailments. After the success of his film, and once again needing a change, he moved back to NYC with his wife and young son. -- FilmFreeway

He began working on a series of short films that profiled various street artists/muralists and that is how we met back in 2016. We worked together for a year in both NYC and Wynwood, Miami during my colossal mural creation titled, ’Nanny’s Kitchen’. He was a true professional and used the term “A-game” often. We worked hard but it was a fun year filming as we were both doing what we were passionate about. The documentary based on my street art life, Fumeroism: The Grafstract, was submitted to eleven film festivals across the country and won ‘best in show’ during one of the screenings. It was a tremendous endeavor but Keith took it to task brilliantly.

In 2017, Keith began to create art for the new streets. This was the birth of Baston 714. He created his Mysterio portrait and other fantastical, colorful cartoon characters. Next he started using spray paint, creating murals and had his

hand in a curation of the AM Art Stop Wall on 2nd and Houston in 2020.

Keith was a really good guy, funny, laughed a lot and was a kid at heart. He felt blessed and thoroughly loved his life and the people in it..especially his wife, Pilar and son, Sean. He had many friends but with his buddy, Steve, explored the street art gallery shows, rode bikes around the LES slapping up art and having a ball!

I got the chance to collaborate with Outersource on a tribute to Keith on the AM Artstop wall to commemorate our friend's creative life. Outersource painted the galactic landscape backgrounds while I painted the portrait. We wrapped the mural from the wall onto the pharmacy gate, bringing our ‘A-game’ for our friend we will miss.

Rest In Paint, Baston 714.

A big thank you to artist and curator City Kitty for the August slot on the wall, Avalon Chemists for the gate, MrCandid0_0 for images & video ... of course AM Artstop and Outersource for the mural team-up.