Art

Creation, Inspiration, Transformation

Writing On The Wall

story by Anne Levin

photography by Andrew Wilkinson

For those who associate graffiti only with the defacing of public property, a visit to TerraCycle, the sprawling recycling center on Trenton’s New York Avenue, might quickly dispel that image. In the complex’s gritty courtyard when the weather cooperates, or even when it doesn’t, a group of artists can often be found with spray cans in hand, turning the interior walls into wildly stylized murals ablaze with color.

At the center of them all is Leon Rainbow, a Trenton-based “aerosol artist” with a growing reputation not only for street art, but for fine and commercial art as well. The 35-year-old native of San Jose, California has for the past several years been inspiring young artists while perfecting his own site-specific portfolio. Rainbow teaches general art classes for the Princeton Young Achievers program at the Henry Pannell Center. He also leads a 15-week course at TerraCycle on painting with aerosol.

Rainbow (his real name; his father is from the Quechan tribe in Yuma, Arizona) has pieces all over Trenton. His work has been represented in numerous small shows; most recently at the “Pinot to Picasso” spring fundraiser at the Arts Council of Princeton. He paints murals for children’s rooms. He has done body-painting. He counts projects for Louis Vuitton, Staples, Infiniti; ads and logos for a ski resort and BlackBerry¨ on his growing resume. Among his most recent projects is a design for a lunch truck.

This is not to say that Rainbow hasn’t tried his hand at underground graffiti –– the kind that appears overnight on train cars, in subway tunnels, back alleys and on the highest walls of buildings, all on the sly. “That’s sort of a young man’s game,” he says. “It can be very dangerous. I’ve known people who have fallen through roofs. It’s risk vs. reward in graffiti. You have to figure out if the reward is worth the risk.”

During his childhood, Rainbow watched a lot of movies about subway graffiti. He was captivated by Style Wars, Wild Beast, and Beat Street. “Part of it was the colors,” he recalls. “And it was the idea of having so many people see your work [on trains]. It was that whole idea of, ‘How did it happen?’ How did it get there?’ that fascinated me.”

Rainbow’s mother recognized her son’s aptitude for art and she encouraged his interest. “My mom is an artistic soul. She always inspired me to do art,” he says. “I started drawing young. I built things with Bristol Blocks. Then in my early teens, I really got interested in graffiti art.”

Rainbow’s stepfather moved the family to Trenton in 1995. He enrolled at Mercer County Community College two years later, earning an associate’s degree in web design. He supplements his artwork with a job as a web designer for Inforest Communications in Princeton.

Balancing his burly frame on a wobbly wooden picnic table at TerraCycle one sunny afternoon last month, Rainbow worked on a section of a mural taking shape on the side of an old, abandoned trailer. Moving his arm in graceful arcs as he filled in slices of surface area with gold aerosol paint, he made it look easy. It isn't.

“Aerosol is a process that takes years to learn,” Rainbow said. “I would challenge anyone who underestimates it to try and use a spray paint to create work. To get can control is challenging for anyone. It is developed over time. It's in the way you move your arm. And you have to know which nozzle to use.”

While associated with a certain contemporary edginess, graffiti is actually nothing new. The earliest forms date back to 30,000 B.C.E., in the form of prehistoric cave paintings made with animal bones and pigments. In more recent times, graffiti experienced a major boom in the 1980s. It is a period that continues to influence Rainbow.

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