Jorge Arellano

by: Mandy

 

 

 

Is there such a thing as accidental art?  When Jorge Arellano was a teenager in a punk band in Mexico City, he claims to have fallen into stencil art without knowing there was even a movement of the same kind in existence.  “ I started a band with some friends, and we needed a logo for our band,” he says.  Arellano gathered a set of images that sparked his fancy, cut out some stencils using an old sewing needle (how punk is that?!), and spray painted the first of what would become many works of art expressing his own political messages.  Is there such a thing as accidental genius?

Jorge continued to dabble in graffiti and stencil art, but his passion for it really ignited around five years ago, and the artist made the decision to pursue it full speed and full time from the studio in his basement (by the way, he’s still singing in a punk band, too).  He couldn’t care less about making money with it, and actually likes to leave pieces on the street as a sort of “gift,” or give them away when he knows a patron will really appreciate what he has created.  His main inspirations are politics, current events, and women's rights.  “When there is something that is bothering me and I feel it needs to be told, this is my way of expressing it.”  We had the pleasure of sitting down with Jorge, who is a surprisingly down-to-earth and upbeat political activist.  We left with a feeling of excitement, and with positive expectations for the future of street art in Salt Lake City.  

 

 

The Interview:

Mandy: What kind of artist are you?

Jorge: I like to say I am an urban artist, and the technique I use is stencils.

Mandy: How did you learn to do that?

Jorge: It was kind of like an accident. I started first in music. I started a band with some friends, and we needed a logo for our band. We drew some stuff, but we didn’t have a way to do anything like silk screen. So, I came up with the idea of using a stencil and spray painting clothes. So that’s exactly how it started. And then friends would ask me to do it for them, for their jackets. I kinda became the popular guy in the neighborhood for it. I didn’t get paid much, or even paid. But I actually had no idea there was a stencil world out there.

Mandy: So you used to use sewing needles?

Jorge: Yep! I would just grab the needle and start cutting the paper. I would put electrical tape around it to protect my fingers.

Mandy: When did you first notice you were interested in art, then?

Jorge: Probably about five years ago. Before that, it would be about every six months or so. My first stencils, I did when I was about eighteen or nineteen, but then I stopped for a long time. But when I saw people were doing stencils, I thought, “Wait a minute, I can do that.”

Mandy: Do you have any inspiration that you draw primarily from?

Jorge: I like this question a lot, actually. As I said, when I started doing this, I had no idea that other people were doing this. I didn’t know what it was called or anything. I just started cutting and spray painting. When I found out, of course, there were people that I really really admired. And one of the ones I really liked is C215. The other guy is named Sneak. So those two are probably the ones I really drew from, my inspiration.

Mandy: I noticed a lot of your art is political in nature. Tell us about what is behind that.

Jorge: First I started in music. Punk rock. Back then, punk rock was really political. So all the lyrics, everything in the songs, you could use it for real life. Now, everyone plays for fun, or they might sing political songs, but they spend so much time on facebook. Back then, everything was just more involved in your real life. So the art would go hand-in-hand. We needed it for fliers for protests or shows, and so I started doing the art for all those. And that’s why I started following that path. So I would mix my art with whatever we were doing with the band. Then it expanded to let me do a little bit of everything.

Mandy: What is your biggest struggle as an artist?

Jorge: My biggest obstacle right now is technology. It’s making things so much easier for people. If somebody wants a piece of art, instead of buying it, they can just print a nice quality print of it, and put it on their walls. People that aren’t even artists can print stuff and repaint it over on their walls. And I think that’s the biggest obstacle right now, because it means it’s so under-appreciated. Sometimes I’ll be working on a piece for like, two or three weeks, and then I go and see somebody who printed something like it in a few seconds. I guess another one would be that I live in a small town, where street art is not really appreciated. It’s hard for me. Every piece I make will take two or three years to sell. And I don’t care much about selling, but getting them out there is hard.

Mandy: How about the people in your life? What are their feelings towards your art?

Jorge: I’m a very lucky person. The most important people in my life support me, so much. I haven’t been working a different job in a few months, and if I struggle, they help me out. Sometimes I feel like I need to give up, but it’s them. They keep me going. Especially my wife. She’s the one taking all the trash out. I consider myself really lucky.

Mandy: Do you like to collaborate?

Jorge: I love to collaborate. I just don’t like to ask for it. I like it to be in the moment. When it happens, it happens. To me, it’s like asking someone to be your friend.

Mandy: I know you said a bit about how street art is under-appreciated here. What about the art scene here?

Jorge: I think it’s always been good. When it’s considered graffiti, a lot of people just see it as a bad influence, but when it’s art, they understand it. I love graffiti, I consider it art. I just think the town is so small that we don’t get that exposure, where people want you to paint a whole building with street art. I think art in general in Salt Lake is great. To me, it’s kind of weird that you can go into an art gallery and find really great artists that sell their stuff for a decent price, and then you go to other places like Park City, and find stuff that’s similar for thousands and thousands of dollars. And if you like art, how can you tell? To me, art is really great. I just don’t understand that.

 

 

 

Mandy: So do you have any work around the city?

Jorge: I have always done small things. I don’t have any murals or anything. Most of my pieces are done on recycled materials, and then they’re left on the street. I don’t know what happens to them after I leave. So hopefully people are taking them and starting to figure out that there is someone dropping art around the city. I think it’s better to leave something they like and can take, and do whatever they want with it, than to spend half an hour or an hour on the street to have it wiped out by the city in minutes. I think that’s the real vandalism. You know those gray spots on the walls? I think they look horrible. And I have stuff at the Urban Art Gallery, too.

Kita: What goes into creation for you?

Jorge: It really changes, from time to time, depending on what’s going on, in the whole world. When there is something that is bothering me and I feel it needs to be told, this is my way of expressing it. Everyone has their own way to express. Some people just scream and scream, some people get out in the street and protest, and some people just whine about it, and for me, it’s just a way to release that nonconformity. One thing I can say is that I really concentrate on is painting a lot of women. I have always thought and said that I think that women are way stronger than men. And you can see it everywhere. Every country where you have a revolution or somebody rising, it’s always a woman who starts rising, and then the men start following. So for me, showing this in my art is a statement.

 

 

 

Kita: How would you go about making a piece of art on a technical side?

Jorge: I like to be as original as possible. And I take pictures of everything I want to turn into a stencil. I started taking my own pictures, making collages and the like. When I’m done with the image, I would just print it, raw, as it is. I don’t know how to use photoshop, I never have, maybe I’ll learn one day. But as I print the image, I start editing the image with sharpies or pencils, and that’s the longest process for me. It takes one to three weeks, depending on how many layers. Once I have the image done, I put it on top of different materials. It can be paper, or mylar, or cardboard, or recycled photographic film. I love using recycled materials, because you’re giving life to something that is already garbage. So then I cut all the layers, and then I spray paint each layer. So that’s pretty much the step-by-step breakdown.

Check out more of Jorge’s art at:

facebook.com/stenciljam

stenciljam.wordpress.com

 

 

Upcoming events:

September 28 at 8 pm, Burt’s Tiki Lounge:  Jorge’s band All Systems Fail with Maimed for Life

Have anyone else you’d like us to chat with? Suggestions are taken in the comments below.