Student’s passion for graffiti as art

When Jose Sandoval sees a white wall, he pictures only possibilities: bright colorful murals, dark meaningful social commentary or complicated letters forming art that only the he can read.

He is a street artist not a delinquent. He is someone who sees a wall as a canvas that can constantly change, but he didn’t start out that way. As a child growing up, Sandoval went through many art phases. He started with cartoons, then anime and on to fine art pieces in high school always looking for something bigger and more creative.

“I’ve gone through a lot of phases,” he said. “I’m still trying to find my signature style I guess.”

After high school, he came to TSTC to study Advertising Design & Print, but in a typography class he hit another type of wall.

“It got to a point in one of my classes that I couldn’t come up with any designs I liked,” he said. “It was all stuff to please everyone else and I wasn’t happy with it, so I dropped everything.”

Sandoval took two semesters off from college to find his creative voice. He’d been introduced to graffiti by another ADP student who had grown up in the street art scene of California and it intrigued him. So he studied it, tearing through books, movies, documentaries and Web sites that took him through the history, meaning and culture behind the art that’s been called bigger than the renaissance.

“I took the hiatus to really reevaluate my life and find a fountain of youth to rejuvenate my creativity,” Sandoval said. “In graffiti I found my motivation.It’s very competitive and I like that about it. It’s a creative competition to see who can come up with something new that hasn’t been done before.”

Learning to make spray paint art has been a slow process for Sandoval. He immersed himself in it for a year to get the level he’s at now and still sees a lot of room for improvement. He started out with sketches and has since filled three notebooks full of graffiti ideas and practice. Though he describes his first attempts as “pretty horrible,” Sandoval said he found a love for the medium.

“I’m very impatient and spray paint is my kind of medium. It dries fast and you just add more layers,” he said. “It was like I was made to paint with it.”

He’s also become more socially aware of the laws involved with graffiti. At first he assumed the penalty for unauthorized tagging was fine or a slap on the wrist, but after spending several hours in jail and answering to his mother who bailed him out, he sought permission to use walls for canvasses.

He spoke to businesses with large visible walls, showed them examples of what he would paint, and now has a wall at 25th and Morrow that uses for practice. From that wall, word got around about his talent and Mission Waco commissioned a mural from him which now decorates two of its outside walls.

Though commissioned works are still few and far between for Sandoval, he faithfully paints and repaints his first wall once a month as an ever-changing work of art. He returned to TSTC this past summer and plans to finish his ADP degree
relying on graffiti as a hobby.

“TSTC is teaching me what I can do with art as a career and graffiti is the motivation for me to come up with new things,” he said.

He continually sketches bigger and more elaborate graffiti pieces filling page upon page in his notebooks. He gathers inspiration from several Web sites and artists from around the world and rarely talks to classmates and teachers about his street art.

“I just want to be known for my work,” Sandoval said

Knot Into Weddings

I've done a lot of thinking about weddings lately. I know this is something women are supposed to think about, but it's not a normal activity for me. I recently shot my first wedding and had another today, and while adore photography, I don't think I'll be setting up a side business in weddings.

Why? Well for one thing, it's nerve racking, extremely tiring and time consuming. (I know, that was three things) After being a wedding photographer I wonder why anyone would ever get married twice. The first one is tiring enough! I also wonder if wedding planners or photographers who've attended hundreds of weddings choose the courthouse or small ceremonies when they tie the knot, because 1. It's too much like work or 2. They've realize the huge, hairy deal that we've made weddings isn't worth it.

That's certainly how I feel at this point. I may change my mind in the future, but the principle of spending so much money and time on an event that is so momentary is kind of repulsive to me. At the same time, it's extremely self-centered. I'm not saying this to criticize my friends who've had big, beautiful weddings, but because I don't know if my values are the same.

It seems to me that it shouldn't be so expensive to start out a new married life when you certainly won't have that much money to fall back on post marriage. I wonder if the big wedding idea is another one of life's myths. I might just start a myth series on here. The myths I refer to are include Prince charming myths, the disposable myth, stuff myth, etc.

The problem with myths, like the big-weddings myth, is that we're trained from infancy what they should look and be like. It is not often that we question myths because of the tradition and the herd mentality of humans. But I digress. Suffice it to say, I'm not sure what to think about weddings. I'm in the inquisitive stage. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think, especially if you're married!

The photo is from the McClure wedding I shot the first weekend in Oct. I've been editing the photos this weekend, and I really like this one.

No Longer to Linger

This morning my rallying cry came from an old Baptist hymn, "I Am Resolved." Since the season's change has brought on cooler morning temps, I have lazed in bed for hours past the alarm. This sets off an unpleasant chain reaction of rushing to get ready for work, attempting to prepare breakfast in the space of 5 minutes and running in to the office 20 min. late.

But I can't be a slugabed forever, so I resolved this Monday would be different. It's amazing how well the hymns lyrics fit what I was feeling as I turned the 5:45 a.m. alarm off. "I am resolved no longer to linger,Charmed by the world’s delight, Things that are higher, things that are nobler,These have allured my sight.I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free; Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee."

I do delight in the comfort of my bed, but I needed to hasten to the tasks at hand. Namely, cleaning my Chacos, washing the dishes, making a fantastic french press of espresso coffee and writing this post before getting pretty for the day. So now as a savor the last few bites of ginger granola and yogurt, I can reflect on what God has in store for me today.

"I am resolved to follow the Savior,
Faithful and true each day;
Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth,
He is the living Way."


Author's note: I fried some shark steaks last week and my house has smelled horrible since. I've tried burning candles, setting out baking soda, leaving my back door open, etc, but nothing worked for very long. I finally got a solution from the Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook:

Ingredients:
1 Lemon
5-10 Whole Cloves
Water
Small Saucepan

Slice the lemon into 5-6 slices and combine the lemon, clove and water (to an inch from the top)of the saucepan. Simmer for as long as you like.

This has not only effectively eradicated the shark smell, but has made the whole house smell like fall. Be sure to keep an eye on it if you plan to simmer for an hour or more, the water will evaporate. Just add more water as needed.

Thanks to Waco twitterer http://twitter.com/jraddin for reminding me I had a blog to tend to, and to http://breadsite.org for their collection of scanned open source hymns.