Pose2 zips up to the playground and basketball court at 12th and Carpenter streets on a sleek red and black motorcycle. Wearing a crisp white T-shirt with the words "So Fresh," white pants and wrap-around sunglasses, he is in stark contrast to the colorful mural he painted last week at the behest of GlaxoSmithKline, makers of Nicorette, the stop-smoking gum.

"Regardless of how much commercial work you do, it's important for your style to come across," the graffiti artist says, sitting under the hot sun.

In hopes of spreading its message — and marketing its product — the drug company picked artists and charities in five cities to raise awareness that African-Americans suffer disproportionately from smoking-related illnesses. GlaxoSmithKline notes that according to the 1998 U.S. Surgeon General Report, African-Americans are 50 percent more likely than white men to develop lung cancer.

Through the MyCityMyArt program, CORA Services Inc., a nonprofit social service agency, received $7,500 from the drug maker to fund art education. People can vote for their favorite mural online at www.mycitymyart.com through Sept. 22. Muralists from Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York are competing to recreate his design on a larger scale in his own city.

Pose2 would like to win, but he's most interested in using art to reach young people and enhance the community where he lives. Originally from New York, he moved here a decade ago — "I'm starting to get some Philly blood in me" — and his work has been on display in Amsterdam, Belgium, Paris and Japan.

Across the street from the anti-tobacco message is an elaborate "Direction" mural he painted about a year ago with funding from the city's Mural Arts Program. Snaking down the brick wall of a manufacturing building, it features brightly colored arrows and mirrored mosaic pieces by Mike Smash.

Other impromptu murals have cropped up all around the courts at Hawthorne Recreation Center, where Pose2 teaches classes on topics including graffiti's history and traditions, and turning art into business.

One of his students, Yuri Zhurov, recently graduated from the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Zhurov, 18, happens upon Pose2 while admiring a self-portrait in spray paint Zhurov whipped up on the constantly evolving wall half-covered by the Nicorette mural.

Zhurov brags to his mentor about a portrait and "elaborate linear thing" he drew on the "fun box" — a big, wooden box skateboarders do tricks on at 50th and Arch streets. "It's too good," Zhurov says, dismissing any concerns neighbors might have about the unauthorized art. "They can't hate it."

Pose2 says graffiti artists usually go through lots of names before settling on one that fits. The monikers are "platforms for your ego" and his stands for "Prophet of Self-Expression," which sums up his mission: "knowledge of self through the creative process."

His fine art combines elements of graffiti, surrealism and abstract expressionism, and his gods and goddesses collection was on the display at Old City's now-defunct Union 237 Gallery last winter. He counts pop artist Peter Max among his influences, and last year Pose2 won an apprenticeship in traditional arts from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Pose2 also organizes the annual BBoy BBQ, held in June outside the rec center. But making art still pays the bills; he's cashed checks from Adidas, M&Ms, Phat Farm, Reebok and others. The drug maker found Pose2 through Critical Massive LLC, a New York-based company that pairs clients with graffiti artists to create what its Web site calls "artistic urban media," also known as advertisements.

The Nicorette maker, based in

Pittsburgh, asked Pose2 to stick with the idea that small changes in one's life can make a major difference. First, he put the design on paper, "drawing something natural from my own style of expression," which, in this case, meant faces, snuffed-out cigarette butts, stylized red arrows and green shooting stars. He turned two faces back-to-back to form the letter "A" in a graffiti-style rendition of the word "change" with the subtle "beautiful" before it. His first attempt, about a day's worth of work, got an OK from the company. With the help of fellow graffiti artists Plan and Sew, the mural took three days to complete and will be up for at least two months, after which it will likely be covered in other artists' attempts to impress Pose2.

"That's how long it's commissioned to be here," Pose2 says. "After that, it's a wrap."

For more information and to see the artist's work, visit www.pose2.com.