Articles

Undertones with Suitcase Joe.

Initially I set out to document Skid Row historically, better than anyone else has. I wanted to thoroughly capture the neighborhood. What I didn’t know would happen, was that I’d fall in love with the people and the place and that it would change my perspective on life all the way around.

POR VIDA CAFÉ.

I hope that we can still be part of this community moving forward, but the future is untold. We don’t know what’s gonna happen when the owner of this building wants to build 4 stories high and put a retail spot under here, probably double or triple our rent. We have a lot to display, but we also have to walk very cordially over the next few years. I predict a big shift coming up. It’s a hard conversation, but I think it’s a conversation that needs to be had now.

FRKO.

Sometimes institutions don’t want my edgy/challenging art. Some of these places want to control what black art is. They only want to show what is comfortable for them.

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Xenix on Social Networks – Pain, Truth, and Permanence

I feel like every creative should have an opinion on what they like and don’t like. You need to be true to yourself and what you think, but also open to change and differences in mentality. Even if I disagree with someone’s art or tattoos, it’s a person who found their way to make a living creatively and pushed through whatever they had to do to make it. So, fair enough. Let the next newcomer try to do their thing.

SERGIO “SURGE” HERNANDEZ. POP’S TATTOOS. EAST SAN DIEGO.

There’s an anonymous quality about graffiti. Nowadays, everything is documented – something interests you, you want your friends to know, so you post about it. I’m not against people posting more or less; I like social media. I think it brings more people together. But there’s still a level of mystery as to who some of these people are, and I think that’s really special for the time we’re living in.

MACUAHUITL PRESS.

Between all these artists who carry Indigeneity in their blood or consciousness, there’s a strong sense of identity & passion in reclamation. All of us are working to embrace, repair, and nurture our roots.

Working with bands and collaboration in general has been integral to my journey. So many of us on this path come from different cultures; I’ve learned a lot about pre-Columbian languages & customs from all over the Americas. All of these connections arose through this circle of creativity, from following our passions, in a kind of new-wave oral tradition.

SOVIET.

There’s no intentional message behind my painting besides an underlying current of being anti-establishment. I try to paint things I would find interesting if I weren’t the painter. I approach my work as someone outside myself, a fictional character. I want my art to make you think and laugh about the absurdity of life.

PLANET ON A CHAIN.

I do like that there isn’t pressure to come up with lyrics on the spot, as I would when playing in bands locally. I like to read about world events and how systems work, so the space lets my thoughts breathe and grasp of topics widen. I think my lyrical themes have been able to develop deeper, having creative isolation from everyone else. There have been times when every book I read lets me speak up about something different happening in the world.

RANDY BOOGIE.

I hate talking about my achievements because my paintings derive from graffiti and I never got into design so I could flaunt. But it is necessary so people understand where you’ve been and where you’re going. I guess I got over that when I landed that art direction gig for the Super Bowl… Lil Wayne’s crying cause he’s not performing halftime, people cried when I made Native motion graphics for the game entrance . But it was the most eyes I’ve ever had on my ART. It was surreal and exciting. I needed to feel that.