Spray paint is often associated with illegal scrawling on underpasses and alleyways. But the Anchorage Museum is using it as a tool to connect kids to culture.
Artist Dwayne Manuel stands before his seven-foot painting of a raven outside of the Anchorage Museum, traffic streaming by. The dark blue of the plywood structure he’s transforming shines through the black spray paint, highlighting the bird’s feathers. Its body is empty.
“So there’s this area right here,” he says, pointing to the blank space. “I kinda feel like I should add something there. I’m not too sure what. Just to push it all a little bit further.”
Manuel is Onk Akimel O’odham from the Salt River Reservation in Arizona. He chose to paint a raven because it’s a common symbol in Alaska, and he wanted to use his formal training to paint something realistic this time. He has also designed shoes for Nike. But one of his favorite mediums is graffiti art.
“I want that to be in your face,” he says of the medium that was popularized by hip-hop in the 1980s. “I want it to be huge. You can’t deny it, you know what I mean? That’s why I use it. It’s my voice.”
Many of his works incorporate the patterns and symbols of O’odham basket weaving, an art form the women of his family have carried on for generations. In Manuel’s culture, men don’t weave, but he says his mother gave him permission to use the patterns in his work. He also uses it as a way to teach youth about their culture.
“I’ve had a lot of students of mine like question, ‘Well, what is that?’ It opens up that conversation – ‘Oh, well this is the basket design from our people.’”
That’s part of the motivation behind the Anchorage Museum’s Urban Interventions Street Art program, which aims to connect local youth to the museum and help them develop new ways to express themselves in a positive setting. During the day-long lesson, 12 at-risk youth examine objects from the museum’s collection, learn about Athabascan culture, and then incorporate images of the cultural objects into their own street art.
Manuel and fellow artist Rene “Strike 1” Garcia were invited to the museum for the program because they teach similar classes in Arizona. Local artist Arielo “Bisco” Taylor is also teaching there.
As Manuel considers what to add to his raven, Garcia of the Tohono O’odham uses cans of white and light blue to paint mountains on other sections of board.
“You know, we play off each other. ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about that?’ And it helps bring a bigger piece together. That’s what I’m trying to do right now.”
Garcia has no formal training but started making street art in the late 1980s in Arizona as soon as he could get his hands on spray paint. He says it’s a vital form of expression for people of all ages. Even hastily scrawled words and names are ways people try to have their voices heard and be acknowledged.
But for artists to really get ideas across, Garcia says they have to have places to legally paint and a host of technical skills.
He shakes up a can and starts demonstrating different types of lines. “Different techniques just take practice…The thin lines you have to constantly learn the pressure points on the can and the valve system that’s on it.”
Meanwhile, Manuel is still pondering his raven. How can he express himself in the work? He adds water symbols to the bird’s body because they come from his culture, but he can’t really explain why they fit.
He starts talking about his personality and nickname. “That’s why they call me Dwayne Insano, because my joking. Another thing, too, is I’m from the coyote clan at home.” He pauses. “Woah, I just had an idea. They’re tricksters,” he says of the coyotes. “Just like the raven, and jokesters, just like the raven.”
Within moments he has cans of black and red paint in his hands. He covers over the spirals with coyote tracks from his mother’s basket patterns. In an instant he transforms the raven into an expression of connections, commonalities, and shared cultures.
Anne Hillman is the healthy communities editor at Alaska Public Media and a host of Hometown, Alaska. Reach her at ahillman@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Anne here.
