Wesk Lords UM Interview
What do you write and what crews are you in?
I'm Wesk from the Lords and UM crew out here in the bay area.
What does TFL stand for? I always heard "The Funky Lords".
Yeah, it's got a couple different meanings, "The Fucking Lords" or "Those Funky Lords". Same of my favorites that others have come up with "Thanks For Looking" or "The Fast Lane".
How did you get into graffiti?
I started writing graffiti in the 8th grade (1994) after checking out my homies copy of Can Control magazine. After seeing that shit, I knew all I wanted to do was write my name on everything. I got serious about it in 1996 and got on to Lords in 2001.
"If I lose my legs, my dicks going to be useless because I'm not getting laid anymore"
What is your favorite aspect of graffiti? The risk, the art, meeting the insane people?
I'm a pretty shy person so meeting other writers is not high on my list. For me, it's got to be the art aspect of it all. Bending letters, wild color combos, typefaces executed perfectly 10 feet high. That shit blows my mind and continually motivates me to keep going.
I was just reading an interview in Juxtapoz and they asked a question similar to this, but I don't care I'm gonna rip them off and do a more rugged version. If you had to choose, would you lose your legs(both), hearing, sight, or your dick?
Egghhhhh... damn, I gotta lose one? Well, let's see.. If I lose my legs, my dicks going to be useless because I'm not getting laid anymore. If I lose my sight, it's going to make painting a little harder to do. I'm going to have to go with losing my hearing. I think sign language is dope and I won't have to listen to people's bullshit anymore... and I can be that insane deaf guy artist.
Sorry for the weird question. Anyways, I see that you have been doing the "art thing" really hard for a while now. How did you cross over into that?
I've been creating my whole life, way before graff, way before any of that shit. I moved to San Diego in 2000 and got a degree in graphic design. At the same time I was doing a lot of graffiti and I had some friends who were doing art shows. I thought what they were doing was pretty cool so I started doing my own works on paper and canvas. Eventually they asked me to put some work in a show down there and that was the beginning of it for me. After I moved back to the bay area in 2003, I got serious about art and started producing a lot of work for shows up and down the west coast. San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Los Angeles and a lot of smaller venues around the greater SF Bay Area.
"Bio-organic, Futuristic, Landscape Colorful Nonsense"
If you had to sum up your art works in 5 words how would it go?
Bio-organic, Futuristic, Landscape Colorful Nonsense....
What do you think of the internet and graffiti? Do you think it has had a bad influence on it or good one? I see some kids who have been painting for a month and can do a burner but their tags or throws look like shit, but then the aspect of easily communicating with other people is great so I am kind of broken over what I think, tell me what you think.
I think the internet has revolutionized graffiti to a world wide audience. I love being able to see what other writers are doing in New York or Paris or South America. But you're right, it also has it's downfall. It's all about letter structures. Proportions are key in the graff game. Bukue One and I were chopping it up the other day and he was telling me he was teaching kids how to do a straight letter piece and they were getting bored because all they wanted to do were wild-style burners. Those kids will fade and jump on the next trend wagon coming around. The writers who will remain are those who are well balanced, tags, throw-ups, straight letters and pieces, they can do it all.
Tell us about some of your projects you are currently working on.
I've got some big projects in the works right now but I'm not at liberty to share them quite yet. I'm a freelance designer so I'm doing some design stuff to pay the bills. Working on new paintings for a couple shows later this summer, one in the bay area, one in Sacramento and one in Portland. I'm painting graffiti pieces when I can and still catching tags here and there. It's been a good year so far.
"Those kids will fade and jump on the next trend wagon coming around."
Can you share the craziest story that happened while painting that you can remember?
God, there are a few. Sham KUK (RIP) pulling a machete on me while painting the Ghost Yard in SF has got to be one of the scariest things that's ever happened to me. Hiding from military helicopters under train cars for what felt like hours on a naval base in San Diego. Running across 6 lane freeways to escape the police. But all in all, I've been lucky over the years.
Well thank you for your time, is there anything you would like to add?
Thank you for this opportunity. Keep graffiti fun because if it's not fun anymore, what's the point?
Shout outs?
Much love to the Lords and UM family!
