Graffiti’s Roots, from New York City to the Biggest Little City
Known as Rakos, Beau B Bevier, a pillar of the local art, skateboarding and graffiti scene recently passed away, leaving a huge hole in the hearts of many. It’s a moment for other graffiti artists to reflect on their journeys and the history of their craft.
As a fresh blanket of snow slowly melted underfoot, we caught up with the graffiti artist known as Easoe to learn more about Reno’s graffiti scene. He has been in and out of Reno for over 30 years.
“Graffiti as we know it started in New York City,” he explained to us during our recent interview, referring to spray painted lettering and images. It first came about in the 1960s and 70s as a creative expression. It came of age alongside Hip-hop and other subcultures of the time. People would use the spray paint to define their name in simple letters. “From there it grew, it elevated, and became what people think of as graffiti nowadays,” Easoe said.
Easoe likens it to cursive writing and calligraphy, “it’s an artform itself,” he said. There are many types of graffiti, including the throw-up style, “quick bubble style letters which can be filled in or left hollow.” There is also the funk style, which Easoe has long admired. He describes it as a clean, easy-to-read lettering that anyone can understand and appreciate. “Some people’s writing isn’t nice and pretty to look at as others,” he said relating graffiti to people’s handwriting.
From a University Wall to Milk Trucks, Gallery Shows and City Sanctioned Commissions
Easoe, who has also spent time in the Bay Area, has been working in and out of Reno as a graffiti artist since the mid-90s. He remembers the city had a permitted legal graffiti wall near the university that he would often hone his skills on. “There were also milk trucks,” he said, whose owners gave permission to artists to paint.
“As far as what everybody believes, everybody looks at Rakos as the pioneer, the godfather of graffiti here in Reno,” Easoe explained of the tribute piece he’s helping with right now. He remember how he and Rakos became fast friends. Rakos served not only as a mentor but a source of inspiration for many. Easoe attributes Rakos for connecting him with a group of talented artists that is known today as the TME crew. From 1995 onwards, the graffiti scene just blossomed and more and more people became involved. By the 2000s the community had grown to accept graffiti. “Those were great years here in Reno,” he said.
Artists began getting gallery shows and commissioned work. Easoe looks back at those years almost as the golden years of graffiti. “Nowadays, within the last few years, it’s really been shut down,” he explained. He notes there is far less graffiti around town today, however, there are a few legal walls remaining.
Perhaps gentrification is at fault. Easoe explained a recent incident that resulted in the painting over of a mural. According to him, a local graffiti artist was commissioned by the owner of a building in Midtown. He wanted a mural on the outside of his building. Soon after the work was completed the artist noticed it was painted over. According to the owner, the city’s graffiti abatement team came down and painted over the mural without reaching out to him.
What the community does see “are a few artists in town that mainly get all the commission walls, that would be Joe C. Rock and Eric Burke,” Easoe said. He is hoping the TME crew can get more work this coming spring and summer. He really wants to showcase their talents to the community.
Being a Traditionalist and Dealing with Police
He hopes the community can open up their minds and let them show their artwork like they did ten to fifteen years ago. Reno has a deep history in graffiti, with the train tracks running through town, the milk trucks, and Easoe wants this to remain a part of Reno’s identity.
He feels the recent pushback from the community could be due to the prevalence of tagging. These are small and quick pieces that often go up illegally on private property. He notes that the graffiti laws have become far stricter in recent years and has heard about the police keeping files together of an individual’s work. Once they have accumulated enough evidence for a felony case, “they can put you away for quite a long time,” he said, as has been the case a few times recently according to local media reports.
While Easoe does not have a problem with the police and wants to raise his family in a safe community, he does not want to be viewed as a criminal. “People who look at graffiti as vandalism, they look at us as outlaws. I think if they sat with us and talked with us for a little while, they would genuinely enjoy us,” he said.
On a personal level, Easoe first fell in love with graffiti in the San Francisco Bay area in the early 1990s and that is where he learned about many of the unwritten rules. For example, he learned that if he tagged over a masterpiece or graffiti that honored someone, he most certainly would get a “stiff beating.”
“I’m inspired by letters,” explained Easoe as the snow crunches under our feet. Perhaps a traditionalist in the graffiti realm the work he has done has long focused on the lettering of his name. His work is often attributed to the funk style, mentioned above. This style creates legible and clean writing. Anyone can read these pieces. “Everywhere I see letters” he said “I get inspired.” This allows him to find inspiration all around him in urban spaces where there are signs. Another style Easoe talked about is wild style where there is a lot going on in the piece. The work itself serves to camouflage the letters to the point of illegibility. He does not enjoy this style, but instead as an artist, believes “you just gotta keep elevating and you’ll bend those letters in certain ways.”
Surviving the Loss of a Mentor to Many
The art community suffered a major loss a few weeks ago when Beau Rakos passed away. He was an innovator and his work long inspired Easoe. “He did original stuff,” said Easoe. “There’s things that you see that he wouldn’t have to write his name next too.” The community knew it was Rakos’ work. Rakos developed trademark pieces, like a curvy peanut or impressionable cassette tape, often with wings. Or fish that look like stars.
The piece in the top photos of this story is an honor to who Rakos was. Commissioned by the owners of the building, letters bigger than life, done in the Hollywood blockbuster, dwarf anyone admiring the work. The unfinished piece features some of Rakos’ most known work. “We wanted it to look like he actually painted it,” explained Easoe as we walked among the massive letters. The mural is done in a gray shade of light blue and features a portrait of Rakos painted by Joe C. Rock. They hope to have the piece finished over the next couple weeks.
How Easoe became Easoe and a Family Man
“I’ve had that name for forever,” Easoe explained during our interview walking around the Rakos hommage piece. He received his own artist name from a mentor.
“I’ve always had Easoe, it actually first started out as Ease.” Early on in San Francisco, Easoe noticed other graffiti artists adding an O to their name, like a guy he knew wrote Twist and it soon became Twisto. And Bless became Blesso. Ease became Easoe, “it just stuck, I never wrote Ease again.”
“They are totally getting into it, they helped us out with this wall,” laughed Ease, a father, when asked if he plans to pass on the family trade to his two kids. He wants them to value the art and the skill of graffiti but plans, he says, to stop them short of illegal activity. Having been arrested several times, he doesn’t want that for his kids. “I’ve got a family, I’m married, I’ve got responsibilities,” said Easoe. “I am not so much into the illegal part of graffiti.” But he still likes to get out there and create as much as he can.
Nowadays, he says he spends time working on commissions and canvas work. He has found a following of supportive people allowing him to further pursue his creative endeavors. His work is featured on his Instagram page, cool_easoe_rock. He said the TME crew would be absolutely honored to paint walls for people.
“The idea of what people might have of us, being graffiti writers, being criminals, yes, some of the graffiti you see is illegal. It is criminal. I’m hoping that people open up their minds to the fact that it is an art form. And if given the chance we can create some really beautiful work.”