URBAN HIEROGLYPHICS
DEFIES GRAFFITI ON CRENSHAW WALL

by Valerie Shaw

Aus and Cre8 work silently, to the swooshing rhythm of brushes and hissing of vividly colored cans of aerosol paint. Steeped in the hip hop culture, they are two of a dozen young artists who are shaking the public's rancor for graffiti, turning it into a new [largely undervalued and unrecognized] art form -- urban hieroglyphics.

Where once they honed their craft in dark alleys and abandoned buildings and freight yards, today the young evolved graffiti artists are working out in the open, by daylight, on a magnificent mural on the corner of 49th and Crenshaw. Their determined goal is to cover the 12-foot-high, 3-block concrete wall with the story of African American pride, from Creation to the future. Their goal is simply to change the community's perception of hip-hop artistry and to restore beauty to the blighted wall.

Both 29-year-old, Crenshaw High School graduates Cre8 aka Eric Walker, a renown hip-hop artist, and Matthew "Aus" Ausberry, are passionate about the completion of Our Mighty Contribution, for it is also the story," says Aus, "of our movement: Determination against the odds." Each of the artists has donated 14-plus hours a week since February and all the supplies towards the completion of the project.

"I have to do this," says Cre8. He recites the story of his growing love of hip hop art since he was in grammar school. "I was five one the dot," he chuckles. "The first time I held a can I had shivers. It was wonderful." Today Cre8 is the epitome of hip-hop artists, doing background for movie sets, videos and fortune 500 companies.

Aus too says, "I have to do this." Matthew Ausberry has worked as a campus security guard for nine years in order to pursue his passion for urban hieroglyphics. "Working on this wall," he says, "is the most important work I've ever done."

"It's important for us to make a public statement," says Aus, "since we were driven underground." Aus explains that by the mid-80s taggers, bangers and the early breed of graffiti artists were lumped as the same undesirables and their secret society grew on the sides of abandoned warehouses and buildings slated for demolition late at night. "We didn't know how to promote ourselves back then, so people thought we were criminals. Now that we've grown and matured," says Cre8, "it is time for us to step up and come out with what we're about and what we've been through." Most of the other writers and painters who are driven to create Our Mighty Contribution do not give interviews and need to remain anonymous because they are perceived as lawbreakers, not artists.

Aus equates the challenges of his artistic expression with Art Nouveau and Modernism, which were considered scribble 100 years ago. "It's proponents, artists like Degas, Rodin, and Monet, were considered renegades. Urban hieroglyphics is today's renegade art form," says Matthew Ausberry, who was one of the original group who proposed the work to the LA City Council nearly five years ago, "In our art, we are using letters and imagery to convey an urban story. What is that called?" he asks without waiting for a response. "Urban Hieroglyphics!" he says emphatically.

Both Aus and Cre8 insist that in standing up for their art form they are legitimatising it and rewriting history. "We do not accept the labels society has attached to it. "We are not vandals," says Cre8, we are artists."

Adds Aus, "We are not taggers, (gang) bangers or graffiti vandals. We are into community beautification," he says, "not property destruction." To a man, each of the underground artists, working above ground, is proud to be a part of the new LA movement. Defying artistic convention and public perception, the work they are producing speaks for itself. And it screams out to the community.

"This wall has been an eyesore for as long as I can remember," says longtime Baldwin Hills resident and retired teacher, Earline Johnson. "I applaud these young people who have taken it upon themselves to improve the quality of life for everyone who travels down Crenshaw."

It is comments like these that inspire completion of the project, in spite of the challenges, the lack of official support or funding. "We will not stop until it's finished," says Aus, who has worked on a number of murals throughout the city. "And then, when we're done," adds Cre8, "we hope that people will realize the contribution we can make. We come in peace as artists," he says reflectively, if not sorrowfully. "We are not the enemy."

EDITOR'S NOTE: We at LACP are proud to present the work of our good friend, Valerie Shaw, who will begin to contribute on a regular basis. Ms. Shaw is an active community member, and we're delighted to welcome her aboard!

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For other works by Valerie Shaw please see:

Valerie Shaw
offerings of an urban woman

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