Meet CHASE | Street Artist / Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with CHASE and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi CHASE, do you disagree with some advice that is more or less universally accepted?
I’ve heard people say, “If you choose to do what you love, you won’t work a day in your life.” I get the sentiment, but I think it’s more accurate to say: if you do what you love, you’ll be working every damn day of your life – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, lol.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Without writing a whole novel (though I’m definitely coming close here), nothing worth doing ever comes easy. What I’m doing now—and what I’ve been doing my entire life—traces in a straight line back to what I fell in love with at 12 or 13. Painting walls and canvases, designing graphics and products: all of it comes directly from the subcultures I joined as a kid—first skateboarding, and through that, graffiti. I didn’t just “like to skate” or “like to tag”—I fell head over heels for it all: the doing of it, the magazines, the videos, the products, the culture. In more than a few ways, skating and graffiti saved my life. My family life was a wreck, and I don’t know who or what I’d have become without those creative outlets.

When I moved to LA in the mid-’90s (to skate) and saw the unpainted sides of buildings everywhere, I started salivating. I couldn’t resist for long. Perfect blank walls were everywhere, and I had to find a way to paint those “canvases.” Today, that wouldn’t seem like a huge problem—but back then, hardly anyone saw the value in having art on their walls, especially businesses. Spray paint was totally associated with gang activity, and the people with the power to give permission—business owners and property managers—wanted no part of it, no matter how much I explained that spray paint is just paint in a can. The idea of a business hiring someone to paint a mural was unheard of. That didn’t change for years.

So I did the only thing I could: rode the bus with my book of photos, got transfers, and hopped off whenever I spotted a great wall. I’d walk in cold-call style, bring good energy, and try to convince managers or owners it was a good idea. Nine times out of ten, I got told to get lost—they didn’t want any trouble. Things started to shift a bit when I reframed my pitch. Instead of just asking to paint, I explained how my art—not their logo, but my art—would help their business stand out from the sea of boring logo-driven visual clutter. That angle worked here and there, and it definitely helped in those early years.

The main takeaways from those early years were: you don’t know until you go (the hardest part was always the cold calls); learning to speak in terms of mutual benefit when dealing with business owners and property managers; and, once there were positive returns, using those as examples to help educate prospective businesses about the unknown—the proposed mural—and the unexpected returns it could bring, like attention and love from the neighborhood. Since this was sales territory, I also learned that a little embellishment doesn’t hurt—just don’t overdo it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I used to go out three or four times a week for years, so I feel like this answer would’ve been a lot more exciting back then. These days, that friend would probably get pulled into the studio to paint or make something. Instead of hitting the usual hotspots, we’d go to a friend’s art event, make dinner at home, or hit a classic Mexican spot like El Coyote or Don Cuco’s. And to satisfy that “gotta go out and meet people in LA” energy every visitor seems to have, I’d take them to wherever a friend is DJing. During the week, we’d visit friends’ studios, hike Griffith Park, chill at Cafe Figueroa on Vermont, and hit some flea markets for vintage finds. Of course, I’d have to take them to the beach—maybe loosen up at the Venice drum circle on a Sunday, then grab sushi or something. I’m not much of a social planner anyway; things always pop up, so I prefer to just go with the flow.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Alex Mecl

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Image Credits
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