Jolt
Location: 2055 26th St, Boulder, CO 80302
Photo by Peter Kowalchuk
Jolt
@guerillagarden
"I was born in the heart of North Denver's Sunny Side neighborhood. My father was an artist and my grandmother an art teacher for Denver Public Schools. Beyond the exposure to art, culture and civil rights activism in my own home I was also heavily influenced by the murals that decorated my community created by the Chicano muralist movement of the 60's and the graffiti culture of NYC from the 90's. My career started right after high school at 19 years old when I begun working with an agent out of Manhaan creating murals for large corporations. During my career I have expanded outside of creating murals. My fine art has been showcased in various museums and galleries with an average 1-2 single shows a year each having it's own body of work. I also work as a curator, most notably curating WestWord Magazine's “Artopia” for the past four years creating everything from the concept to the marketing with over 3,500 people aending the sold out event every year. This included hiring over 30 artists and 20 musicians per show. I also work as a creative consultant helping companies with creative strategies for marketing, my most notable client thus far has been Pepsi.
Photography and film have also been a long time passion of mine. I have produced and directed various videos and short films for the last decade. My collection & personal artifacts of Denver's graffiti and street culture has recently begun to be collected by The Latino Arts and Cultural Center along with my fine art and blueprints from past large scale murals. Before Denver was as developed as it is today and street art was used as wallpaper for gentrification I owned and operated my own gallery and artist studios helping to springboard a lot of careers. My most notable mural would be my 1099 Osage mural that is to this date the largest mural in Colorado at 5000 square feet standing 99 feet tall created in my studio in over 200 sections prior to the building being built. My most recent large scale murals were finished Dec. 2019 in Globeville for Laradon Hall's new affordable housing development both standing 5 stories tall. I have created documentaries of the process of both the 1099 Osage and Laradon projects.
I feel very fortunate to have had a career of over 20 years at such a young age and make it a point to only do projects that my heart is in. I utilize my art and public speaking at times to create cultural consciousness around the history and future of Denver's communities, arts and culture. Most recently I went before Denver's City Council and received a proclamation to legitimize cruising down Federal Blvd and have a recognized holiday called ""Cruise Down Feds Day"". This holiday is significant because it allows us to celebrate a long standing culture that has been falsely criminalized along with geing the city to acknowledge not only that but also create a platform for various other social movements to occur.
Art has been my life since I was a child, I don't take any of that for granted. I am growing as an artist constantly and realize the powerful tool that it is for the quality of life of people that co-exist with it. Sometimes my work has a statement to be made, sometimes I just want to create something that is aesthetically pleasing."
THANK YOU
to Boulder Furniture Arts for sponsoring and for hosting.
