When I was a kid, I always had a knack for drawing on things. They weren’t necessarily good pictures. I just knew I liked to draw. later on, I figured out why.
I remember when I lived in California, I used to watch this movie called “Breaking.” This inspired me. I remember seeing graffiti break dancing with all the elements of hip-hop and I loved it all. For some reason, the graffiti always caught my eye. Probably days after watching this movie a hundred times, I realized that I could see the graffiti all over the streets in California. This whole time all this stuff has been out here and I didn’t even know it. From this point on, I always checked it out, looking at all the different spots, wondering how they did it. I thought about how cool was it that you could just put your name on any of them. As a kid, I liked writing on walls so I realized that you can do this in the real world too.
So, I began experimenting with it. I’d draw characters and there would be a little graffiti element in it. Once I was in middle school, I started noticing graffiti in St Louis and I saw kids at school that could do it. I tried to emulate it, bubbling out my own name and other people’s names. Then, the next part in my journey was how to spray paint the graffiti.
By the time I was in high school, I met my mentor, who was a senior in my science class. I saw him doing graffiti and started talking to him. I asked to see his black book and I explained that I could not get the concept down yet. He started showing me tips and tricks. From there, he showed me how to do graffiti with spray painting. I learned about styles and dimensions, all the stuff that you need to know to make your paintings look right.
Today, I am fully committed to the art and still paint graffiti. Only now, I add a little color to the art, as well as graffiti aspects. I can honestly say that graffiti will never leave my heart or my art.
About Jesse Cuellar: Jesse is an artist and a brand ambassador for Quantum Rehab®. An accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, so he uses his mouth to paint and expresses himself through his art. Jesse lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and enjoys painting and hanging out with his friends. Click here to learn more about Jesse.