While I was crossing the street, my step was springing as I eagerly anticipated a super-cool interview.
MAN ONE, graffiti artist and co-owner of Crewest Gallery (www.crewest.com) was kind enough to sit down with me for several hours on Monday while I interrogated him about his history, his work, and the graffiti art form as a whole.
Man One (real name not given, but hey! Who is Big Al, the gal, to throw stones?) was born and raised in Alhambra. In high school, he tuned-in to hip-hop and break dancing, but didn’t connect the prevalent graffiti he saw with actual artists.I shared my story of being mesmerized by the comics pages while not understanding that they had been drawn by human hands. All of the sudden, one day, the light goes on for an artist. We realize humans create the art form that touches our soul and, in that realization, understand that we can create too.
Man One’s day came while riding the bus with a friend. Suddenly, the friend whipped out a can of spray paint and began a tag (signature).“What are you doing?!”
“I’m tagging the bus. Try it.”
“O.k.”
Not knowing what in the world to write, our lad decided to scrawl the name of the band he was listening to: Mantronix. And a pen name was born … sort of … I guess it was born as a Siamese twin and had to have half of itself lopped off. Eventually Mantroniks was deemed prohibitively long and shortened to “Man”. “One” was added to convey the originality of the artist. Now, we know him as Man One.
Gleening wisdom from books such as Spray Can Art and Subway Art, Man One matured his technique, but did not gain recognition. Why? Only recently, has our society begun to awaken to the awesomeness of graffiti. Back then, it was new, strange, mysterious, and prevalent in odd spaces. Recognition brought with it fines, jail, and parental difficulties.
Man One recounts memories of riding by a previous night’s work in the car with his parents. After hours of hard work and pulsing adrenaline, he was able to sit back and view his work with pride, even as his father spewed indignation at the ugliness of the illegal painting.
At this point, I recounted a personal story of a familial … er … snaffoo regarding my art. I am curious if his parents’ verbal expressions regarding his art hurt Man One. No, he replies, explaining that his intent with every piece is to elicit a reaction. Whether the reaction is to the color, the subject matter, the lines, or the message, at least the viewer is thinking.
We both agree the public has a shorter attention span these days. Musicians will cling to a #1 spot only for a short time before their audience spots something shiny and grows distracted.
A friend of Man One recently graduated from art school and had this to say, “Great, I graduated with a mortgage.” Between the high price of living, the light speed pace of our world, and media influences, such as you-know-who, upcoming artists are forced to scramble to secure a name for themselves.
A battle exists between wanting fame for the sake of fame and needing to pay rent. It seems that the generation behind us is often sidetracked in pursuit of praise, to the detriment of their work. However, they need to establish a name in order to be able to make money, and therefore eat, without accepting a job at Starbucks.
While the conflict figures itself out, artists enjoy access to a global network via the internet. Though the market is intimidating, the web provides a support system and means of learning. Now, artists snap photos with their cell phones and instantly email images around the globe. Man One recounts pre-email days of sneaking off with the family camera. One photo per piece was all he could afford. The next step was to secret the film away for development. After development, Man One snail mailed prints to friends. Ah yes, the dark ages. I remember them well.
As with all disciplines, graffiti requires time, dedication, experience, and a posse of lookouts. Okay, maybe the posse of lookouts is unique.First, the artist learns to handle the can. It took me years to master a brush in my cartooning and I can’t imagine mastering a can! The artist will begin with tags and throw ups (think decorative bubble letters). Through experience, the artist increases the scale of work.
He/she must know what time of night to go, how many cans of paint, how much buff paint (regular paint applied with roller), bring a friend who’ll keep watch, have a developed sketch of the final piece plus a planned color scheme. Who’ll drive? How will you get there? Is the location cool or hot (police-wise)? Yeah, I’m hip to the jive.
The adrenaline rush is enormous, as is the satisfaction of riding past the piece the next day, half-listening as Dad spits, “Look at that s**t.”
Speaking of … it all hit the fan one night when Man One’s sister arrived home after curfew. In a Wonder Woman moment, she deflected with, “You always yell at me. Well, when you see all that graffiti, that’s your son! When you see ‘Man’, that’s him!”(Pause) (Fume) Oh it wasn’t pretty.
Thinking Man One was a cholo (latino gang member), his father threatened to kick him out of the house if he didn’t stop.
“I’m not going to stop. But I am going to make a living at it one day.”“Oh really? Who will pay for that?”“Well, I was just paid $50 to paint someone’s garage.”“$50 won’t buy ANYthing!”
While the brawl ended on a tenuous note, Man One remained at home and soon received scholarships and parental aid for college where he majored in Fine Art. His family was not thrilled with his chosen major, but focus remained on a son of immigrants earning a college education.
The turning point/period evolved over four years of college. Upon graduation, Man One moved back in with his parents for a year, began freelance work immediately, and, in 1994, was invited to his first show in Europe. Mom and Dad realized Man One was serious and, ironically, became his biggest fans.
While in Europe, Man One noticed a significant difference in paint quality. Moloto, planning to expand to the U.S., offered the option of selling their paint to him wholesale for redistribution. Man One pounced on the opportunity by teaming up with friend Harry (the self-proclaimed financial guy) and opening Crewest in Alhambra.
The Alhambra location quickly became too small. On top of size, location was poor and local government was unsupportive (to say the least). Fortunately, Harry and Man One had already found a new location for the gallery in downtown L.A. when Alhambra police shut down an opening for lack of food permit. It was a BBQ. Upon questioning resulting from a subsequent declined food permit, Alhambra officials finally admitted they simply didn’t like Crewest or graffiti. They wanted them out of Alhambra.
What perfect timing! Crewest opened in a far more central downtown L.A. location to open government arms. The police have thanked Crewest “for making [their] job easier,” by providing a place for kids to do their art legally.
Between Crewest, commissions, and local outreach, Man One has become a busy man. From what I saw, he could easily sit back and collect checks, but he holds a deeper dream than material success. Man One understand the importance of turning around to reach back and help the next generation.
Crewest shows display rising kids next to accomplished superstars. This way everyone has something to look at and learn from when they see the shows.
Man One’s eyes grow sad when he recounts a workshop mural for 28 “at risk youth” (a term he finds irritating). He asked the kids to go around the room and say their name, what they like to do for fun now, and what they want to do with their life. All but 1 replied that they like to “kick back” and “hang out” now. None could comprehend a future to look toward.
It seems our media has created odd celebrities who are famous for doing nothing and our children aspire to do nothing also. We see it in all industries. Kids want immediate accolades for little effort and even low output. They are surprised when success turns out to be hard, chaotic work rather than feather boas and boat rides.
Sure Man One gets pooped, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. One talented artist friend said flat out that he didn’t even aspire to do his work full time because “I see what takes for you to do it and I don’t want that life.” Other friends will call to discuss a recent Jerry Springer episode and hear, “I don’t have time to watch t.v. You can call me and we can talk about a show, but I’m never going to tell you I’ve seen it.”
Man One wonders would he rather be watching Springer or doing? He deduces that the opportunities afforded to his exhibitors are related to what he has done with his life. “If I didn’t have this, they wouldn’t get to have that.” And so it is worthwhile.“One day it’s gonna be over, ya know. I’m gonna be dead and I’ll think ‘At least I did a lot of shit.’”BTW, Check out the current show at Crewest: Fatally Yours until March 2!
Photos by Big Al, the gal
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Emberly Modine // Feb 15, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Wow, awesome story.
2 Mahatma Kane Jeeves // Feb 16, 2008 at 9:16 am
Graffiti as a blight upon our civilization. Whereas there might be a few “artists” wielding spray cans (along with thousands of other anti-social idiots), the act of using public or someone else’s private property as ones canvas– is by its very nature a big f*** you to everyone who is now forced to look it. Yes, forced to look at it. On our buses, on our subways, on our highways, and on our fences and garages.
How would these graffiti “artists” like it if they came home one night to find all the rooms of their home tagged by strangers. Ha! Now that would be jolly good!
It is one thing to display paintings in a gallery. It is another to blighten the lives of everyone else and reduce the aesthetic beauty of the community. I say give all these bloody taggers a month or two on the chain gang!
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