Artist known as Vyal One. Photos courtesy of Kern River Valley Art Association
The world-renowned artist known as Vyal One finished painting the murals he began at the Art and Community Center of the KRVAA. “Vyal One did everything,” Kimberly Salazar told the Kern Valley Sun, Wednesday, December 4.
Remember to take a look the next time you happen to pass by or visit the center in Wofford Heights.
The internationally famed tag artist, known as Vyal One, began this project painting murals in the windows, at the Art Center building, in early July. The Kern River Valley Art Association (KRVAA) commissioned him for this project. He ended up recently making the murals into one big mural by painting a bit on the front of the building and the benches up front.
When he began the project, last summer he told the press that he’d soon return, to finish up. “They want me to paint all of the windows on the building. So I wanted to just go up there and meet everybody and do a little bit of work so that people can see what type of work I do. And then it’s not such a big surprise, or anything like that, when I do paint the rest of the building. I wanted to kind of just give an hors d’oeuvrve, so to speak.”
Keeping in mind that his inspiration for his projects and his style is like someone writing a book, and this was only one in his many pages. The continuation of the story is his illustration without using words. He said, “In my travels I’m trying to connect spaces and connect with the space. So I’ve come to develop this style of painting and imagery that seems to be universal and people’s connection to it. I always put an eye in for the representation of consciousness and the living breathing spaces that we come into as artists sharing our work and collaborating.”
Describing his artistic expression as an organic abstract style, Vyal One explained that his work incorporated a lot of organic flow, representing female energy. “You always hear about masculine energy, of having big buildings and sky scrapers. And I try and reconnect to the feminine with doing more work that’s more fluid, and more organic, and more airy, in a sense, so that it feels very soft.”
Vyal One wanted people to feel like they could walk into his project. “I want people to feel like they can touch it and maybe get some dust on their fingers. Like you touch a butterfly wing, you get some of that dust on your fingers. It’s really heavily nature inspired. But it’s a lot of really subtle odds to it.”
The bubbles he paints have always felt very powerful to him, as a very strong image, because it is literally one’s breath inside of water, which to him is amazing. “I think, today, people take a lot of small things for granted,” he said.
Vyal One grew up in Los Angeles with very few places to connect with nature. During his professional years he has sought to connect with nature. “Being from the city you’re caught up in the rat race,” he said. “I do need to reconnect often, as it is, to nature. But even when I’m in nature I still want to paint. Places like Kern Valley are really amazing.”
Vyal One began his art during his childhood at around age 12. He also started to see, in places like New York and Los Angeles, in the late 1980s, early 1990s, this type of work within magazines one could buy to see artists, from around the world. Seeing such works inspired him to move full speed ahead.
The artist participated in an exchange program, in Berlin Germany, in 1995, which was one of his first big projects. Seeing other artists treat their artistic pursuits as a profession inspired him to do the same upon his return home.
Growing up in East L.A. Vyal One saw many murals the local artists painted, during the 1960s, ’70s, and ‘80s, such as the East Los Angeles Streetscapers. He had respect for all the work those artists did that resonated with him.
His work, others of the KRVAA described as the tagging style, or tag art, was based upon a tagging art culture that he felt connected to earlier on. He described tag as a signature or symbol of the artist although he has since grown beyond that in his artistic pursuits. “As I got older I wanted to do more with the spaces that I was coming across. I wanted to show more appreciation for the places that I was painting, but also the community I was painting in. I wanted it to have more meaningful connections.” He said, “You find time to become this alter ego and you can go around and meet with others that share this passion, that do this type of work.”
Vyal One previously created a community events space in Los Angeles, for car shows and other events, showcasing the works of other artists he knows. He is well known as “the guy that paints the eyes.”
He likes the fact that people of Kern Valley aren’t all caught up in an asphalt rat race.
