Else ICR was recently spotted painting a wall on Garey Street, one of the most demanded painting spots in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. Some know Garey Street and its surrounding streets as the “LA Walls of Fame”. Else has been painting Garey Street for over 6 years solid. Only the best of the best, such as legendary graffiti artists Revok, Saber, Risk and Mr. Cartoon, have shown their skills and contributed to the LA Walls of Fame. “In the last four years those walls have become even better and a lot of competition is heating up in the area” says Else.
It is now, officially the time, to introduce the artistic mastery of ELSE ICR. Check out the following “Official Interview” with ELSE ICR as Else talks about his past, explains his views and sheds light to aspects about him we never knew:
Luna: Let’s take some time to talk about your old days. What was Else about way back when?
Else: When I started doing graffiti, I lived in New York where I was born. I just copied hip hop, albums and tried to copy what ever I could get my hands on. I really didn't know what I was doing and I never really painted walls, it was all just kid stuff, but I loved it.
I moved to LA right before JR. High (middle school) into an all Mexican neighborhood and I didn't understand LA gang culture, so I quickly found myself in over my head. This led me to an active gang life, but somehow I kept the graffiti going. I met more graffiti writers and hit busses, went out mobbing, got into bombing, learned how to piece and paint large murals for that time. The 80's were a mix of reckless fun and danger; sometimes I can’t tell the difference between the two when thinking back.
In those days my mind set was painting and getting up, along with pushing my crew at the time UFK (UFK disbanded and reformed as ICR when coming together with another crew) I was hungry for street fame, for hood bragging rites, and the same was with my gangbanging, I wanted all neighborhoods and gangsters to know I could keep up with the baddest of the bad, the hardest of the hard.
People would pull guns, and I would call there bluff, I wanted my name known; I approached gangbanging like chess, and practiced sociological gangbanging on our enemies.
I don't think I was in a good place, I didn't have much of a family, and my crew and gang became all I knew and my identity.
I could be funny and adventurous in those days, but when it came time for business, I would change up.
Luna: I’ve heard that gangs have had an influence on graffiti back in the day. Is this true and why?
Else: When I was young, 14 maybe younger, the gangs and graffiti weren't really mixed, that came around in the 90's. Gang life was an imbedded part of LA culture, and graffiti was like this secret world that the average kid and person knew nothing about. I remember there were hip hop heads that did graff, there were heavy metal stoners, gangsters, even west side rich kids that were drawn in to graffiti. It was a melting pot, but all of us in the early days kept it secret from everyone else. It was a special feeling meeting a writer, because all the LA crews didn't know each other yet, and it was rare stumbling on another graff writer. I think graffiti drew in kids that had a part of themselves that felt as if they didn't fit in to the norm. Graffiti used to draw in the fringe people of society. A normal person doesn't hang off the side of a freeway just to write his name.
I also remember when we started to mix our gang life and our graffiti life. There was K2S/STN that was made up mostly of gangsters, but I remember their gang and graffiti lives didn't mix. Then there was DCK out of the west side that was the first crew to act like a mob or gang, but they were more on some rolling around tuff, getting into fights with other crews stuff. UFK, the first crew we formed was the first crew that rolled and acted like a gang. All of us were active members of gangs and all of us were down to get it with guns, knives, whatever. I had started the Woodman yard in the SFV, on the railroad tracks by where I lived. In 1990, and 1991 a lot of the bussed in kids that did graff from the surrounding high schools would ditch class and roll by the Woodman Yard to check out the graff. Crews like MWA and others picked up our gangster way of running our crew and later became the first tag/banging crews.
I feel responsible in a lot of ways for what became tag/banging, our influence was a reason it started and kicked off. The only thing I never understood or respected was the way tag/bangers only rolled on graff heads or average civilians, they always steered clear of real gangsters. I felt like they always picked and chose with whom they could be tuff with
We didn't have that common sense; we rolled and beefed on anyone.
I think when you put that many crews together in LA, with a lot of members in them, some of these crews are bound to get influenced by the LA gang culture, it surrounds us. But there were plenty of crews that kept it just graff, and I respect that a lot also.
Luna: Define your style of artwork and how has it evolved over the years.
Else: My evolution is pretty simple I guess. I went from a bus chaser bomber in the beginning, around the 80s.Then piecing late 80s, then prison and more gang banging. Then I changed my life up, but I didn’t paint until 2002 when PURE ICR passed away and I started back up.
I guess I would describe my graffiti as west coast wild styles. When I'm painting graff I try and change it up, I'll go through my fazes of painting a certain style, like lower case e's, then Ill change to upper case for a while, then Ill do techy, then organic, then Ill mix them. I feel like I want to be a graffiti artist that can paint all styles, but still have them all look like my version of that style. Large productions and murals are my favorite now, if it was up to me, I would paint them everyday, always pushing myself. I'm really trying to make my style and ideas and what I paint stand out, I'm trying to pull away from the pack as much as I can these days. I want to tackle original ideas or perspectives, or flip what's been done enough that it stands out as different.
When I paint canvas and draw, I mix graffiti with LA gang styles, with some pop art thrown in. I feel like I should be painting more of them, and showing more of them to try and make that style of mine more recognizable by people, 2010 I'm going to push them harder. I also want to paint that style on walls more, adding another wall style to what I can do. I’m starting to get a lil well known for my gang letters and gang styles; I want to mix that with the graff and pop elements on walls, large walls I mean. I think angles and perspective have become important to me now also, I want angles where you get in close so you feel the piece or letters or character or what ever I’m painting. I want people to feel my artwork, the basic black and white to the vibrant color pieces; I want motion and emotion to be felt.
Luna: Whose work have you seen that you give props to and why?
Else: The artists I really like these days are Greg «CRAYOLA» Simkins, SWOON out of New York, and Silvia Ji. I get inspired or excited by artists, but again I like my art to look like my stuff.
Crayola is amazing, I feel like every year he pulls further and further away from everyone. I was talking about him the other day with DYTCH CBS who came up painting graffiti with him and we were both saying that he took Tim Burton's style and flipped it and now does it better than the original. I think it’s only a matter of time till Tim Burton asks Crayola to do a movie with him. Plus the guy is so humble and nice, it blows me away. You meet so many eccentric artists that are clicky or stuck up or full of them selves and they're not even doing anything interesting, then there's Crayola who has every right to act that way and is just a genuinely nice person. He's got nothing but my respect.
Swoon is some one I haven’t met but I’m blown away by her art. I often try and make sure I'm not biting or imitating her style, because I like it so much. I think it’s inspired me, but I try and add my touches to my black and white styles.
Silvia Ji is amazing also, I like the color she applies in her backgrounds, and it reminds me of graffiti for some reason. I also like the Calaveras she paints on her figures faces, and of coarse the women she paints are beautiful. The Calaveras also remind me of the LA gang style which is close to my heart. I talked to Silvia on the phone a couple times, although I have never met her. She agreed to paint collaboration with me on a wall, large scale the way I like. I was really excited about the project, but she got busy and I lost contact with her as she blew up bigger and bigger. Silvia, if you read this, get at me, we have walls to paint!
Luna: How do you see graffiti art in the future?
Else: I'm trying to be one of the artists pushing graffiti in the future. I often think that there are many talented artists out there, and the numbers of talented graff heads grows all the time as graffiti spreads and grows, but most are lacking that pushing the limit factor, that new idea, or new concept, they are just really talented artists doing what's been done. My strength lies in what I can concept, design, my vision, and ability to work with others and get them to do better art than they have ever done.
I really love trying to do as well as the best out there, then pushing it past that. In the future I know I'll be one of the graffiti artists doing bigger, with newer concepts, pushing new lay outs, and mixing and flipping more styles and ideas. I hope, or I just talked my ass into a corner.
Luna: Now that your talent has been established and your career in art is taking off, how would you best describe the transition from creating art on the streets to making your art into your career?
Else: It feels good to know my career is moving forward, I get recognized by people and kids a lot now, sometimes when I'm out with friends that don't know graffiti, or understand how much it can take up these kids’ lives. On New Years I was out and this 20 year old kid recognized me and kind of went into shock. I kept telling him thank you for liking what I do and supporting my art, but he was having a surreal moment. He even quoted me to me about my blogs and interviews, that’s happened to me a few times now, and it's both flattering and shocking to me that people care about what I say or write. The new years kid told me, «Don't punch me in the face, I'm not jocking (kissing my ass) you, I'm just tripping out that I'm talking to you. I really like your art.»
So to answer your question, in the beginning I painted graffiti I liked, painted what I wanted to see, and I guess I was lucky kids and people liked it. Now that it's my career I paint from a combo of things. Now my street art is my career and my career is a combo of me, what I paint, the person I am, the person I have shared with the world and my fans, and those all affect one another. I know one of the reasons I have gotten more and more play in the art world and with the kids is because I open up and either talk about my life and my past, or because I post or write about what I am, or what I have been through. I think once I took art serious as a career, I thought that I had to be honest; I had to put it out there. It's scary for me, I always think it could turn on me, or I could become a show pony for the upper class, and money, «talk graffiti boy, tell us stories gang person, you articulate yourself so well,» etc... But I keep doing it because of the feedback I get like from the New Years kid who quoted me. He cared enough to remember word for word what I said, and even though he thought I might punch him, he told me any way. I was honored not bothered. So now I paint what I like, as well as what I think the people who follow me want to see, and then I try and guide or bend it into something new that keeps evolving. I try and have street appeal as well as gallery appeal, and I try and keep telling a story and pushing forward.
Luna: Do you think Society is ready for graffiti art to take over?
Else: I don't think it matters if society is ready; they usually aren't when some new thing becomes huge and sweeps everything. And when they are ready it's usually because all these huge corporations are poised to sell the crap out of everything and bank and cash off everyone’s lives. Graffiti is the next, if not all ready is, that big thing. I work and see kids all the time; they care about video games, skateboarding, and graffiti. But you can see and feel the turn, they care more and more about graffiti, it used to be third in that line up, but I don't think so any more. I can see the change all the time. Soon it will be the thing, or close to the main thing. Skateboarding had its waves of popularity. The 80's, in the 90's they tried to ban it and shut down street skating, but it was too much of a force, there were too many kids doing it, that cared and lived skateboarding too much. Society was FORCED to build skate parks to give kids a place to do it safely. And not just for the kid’s safety, but for society’s safety, and the buildings and curbs, and handrails, and parking lot's safety. They gave them places to skate so they didn't do it everywhere.
It's going to be the exact same with graffiti. Its all ready to big, society doesn't want to condone or except it, like skateboarding, but they're going to have to because the alternative is worse. Legal graffiti yards world wide, trust me. It's going to be on and in everything more and more, products, design, everything.
Luna: You worked on a project for Disney, tell me about that.
Else: Disney is one of those things that happened and I sill can't believe is real. I designed flooring for the corporate walkthrough of the top executives, for a department that is one of the two departments that are very cutting edge when the new Corporate Disney building opened in Glendale, CA. The flooring said «house of mouse,» in graffiti tech letters. After I painted them they were dropped in, clear coated, touched up by me, then they arranged their department’s top work in the hall with my flooring. They arranged two chairs over my floors that were designed for Disney by top industrial furniture designers. The chairs were priced at $250'000.00 each. So half a million in chairs, plus other items arranged over my floors. Plus as they were lying in the floors they introduced me to a few top Disney execs, along with 2 of the 5 Disney master artists, one of which was the number 1 Disney master artist. When they introduced me, they told them I was ELSE, and he said hello ELSE, it’s an honor to meet you. I was thinking, you are responsible for the movie FANTASIA, you just called me ELSE, I can't ever get introduced by my real name ever again now. It was weird to hear all these old suits saying, thank you ELSE. It was a humbling experience.
Luna: What drives you to create art?
Else: There are a couple things that drive me as an artist. Graffiti has always been very competitive and I think that’s carried over into fine art and pop art for me. I’m also always keeping my eyes on what the public thinks of my work, they don’t control what I do but it does hold some sway. I’m realistic about things. The other top artists out there inspire me, and I think last is my insecurities, drive me. I know not all artists talk about it, but those insecurities are fuel for me. I try and am better than my fears and worries. I try and work through them. I always feel like the clock is ticking, that everyone is only given so much time, and what am I going to produce and make with mine. What am I going to leave the world to see, what will I have said once I’m gone. I want it to be the best it can be.
Else will be back painting Garey Street and other walls nearest to you, even Crewest walls where he will be the Featured Artist in June and will have a super killer installation!
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