Urban Art Association

A Case for Using Street Art to Clean Up Dreary Stretches of , by dreadnatty on May 1, 2016 22:41:02 GMT 1, www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/nyregion/a-case-for-using-street-art-to-clean-up-dreary-stretches-of-the-bronx.html?_r=0

John Beltran found his muse in a graffiti-covered New York City that was broke, dirty and dangerous. He used to tag along as his father, a numbers runner and loan shark, made his rounds in El Barrio and the South Bronx in the 1970s. The streets were a revelation to him, a child who spent his days drawing pictures from the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Suddenly, what he saw in books couldn’t compete with what he found on walls.

Decades later, Mr. Beltran — now known as SinXero — is a mixed-media artist, painting abstract works whose textures reflect the crumbling buildings of his childhood and whose colors draw upon the rich palette of aerosol art. “Picasso had Guernica, I had the Bronx,” Mr. Beltran, 46, said. “What happened in Guernica affected Picasso and he painted that. Why can’t the socioeconomic situation I grew up in — the economic collapse of the Bronx — be part of what surfaces in my painting?”

That realization has fueled not only his personal work but also his determination to convert drab walls on commercial strips and side streets into alfresco galleries. Over the last three years he has enlisted street artists from New York and beyond to brighten the urban landscape. Last week, the graffiti artist Chris Ellis, who is known as Daze, painted a wall on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx that was made famous by the artists Seen and Duster in the 1983 graffiti documentary “Style Wars.”

To Mr. Beltran, this urge to create is not so different from what he saw as a child, when young graffiti artists had few outlets apart from walls and subway trains. He didn’t go to museums growing up. And even though he attended the High School of Art and Design, his stay was short-lived because of frequent fights and the threat of the Decepticons, a fearsome gang that preyed on teenagers in the 1980s.

After some detours, he went on to college, studying literature and learning photography and graphic design. He had a roster of clients for his design work, as well as a full-time job as a medical office supervisor on Park Avenue in Manhattan. But after growing tired of “helping other people achieve their dreams,” he decided about two years ago to become a full-time artist after being laid off from an office job.

With the support of his wife, Myra, he turned the garage behind their Bronx home into a studio, where he paints canvases that are sold in two Manhattan galleries. He is serious and earnest about his artistic goals, especially when it comes to wanting to transform dreary spaces using large-scale murals made under the auspices of TAG Public Arts Project, a nonprofit he founded to encourage street art.

The murals he has sponsored adorn Westchester Avenue and feature artists like Damien Mitchell, Marthalicia Mattarita and Luis Zimad Lamboy, among others. The pieces can be colorful and playful, often combining different media. Several landlords along the strip have embraced the project, saying the murals not only liven up the stretch under the elevated train tracks but also deter vandals from scrawling their tags.

“They really are amazing,” said Robert Bieder, the owner of a plumbing supply business who has recommended Mr. Beltran to other landlords. “We’ve seen people from all over the world coming to admire this work. I had no idea there was such a great following for this kind of artwork.”

Mr. Beltran’s next goal is a second-story alcove above Mr. Bieder’s shop. The roof already features several pieces, including one by Mr. Beltran honoring Christopher Lee, a graffiti writer known as Shadow, who died in 2013 and was an early supporter of his work. The pieces occupy a prime spot: easily visible from the elevated trains that rumble past.

While his list of walls is growing, he is stumped why some landlords won’t entertain his ideas, yet continue to allow their walls to be covered with random tags that reappear almost as soon as they are painted over.

“How long have these businesses been making money in our community?” Mr. Beltran asked, pointing to one building along Bruckner Boulevard whose owner, he said, refuses to allow a mural. “Every day they make money off our community, and they’re not even maintaining their property. We are offering a free service and a couple of artists to make it look good.”

Mr. Beltran emphasizes that he is not a graffiti-removal service, even if his murals keep vandals at bay. If anything, he said, he understands the need that some young people feel to find a creative outlet if no other opportunity is offered. That is why he feels a sense of gratitude when he sees young people coming by to watch him and other artists paint their murals.

“You never know,” he said. “It’s like the same way I imagined myself to be an artist, how art was the one constant in my life. How do we not know that some kid looks at a mural being painted today and says he wants to be an artist and starts painting and drawing? He could be tomorrow’s next big thing. You never know when you are going to inspire someone.”