LA Graffiti Art Canvas Cut Out

LA graffiti art canvas commissioned by a private collector. I worked with a client to come up with a unique piece of graffiti art for their ocean front home collection in Manhattan Beach, CA.

The client’s goal was to have a piece of raw graffiti that looked like it was ripped off an underpass in Los Angeles. However, the public’s concept of “graffiti” is subjective and varies widely.  Therefore, I sent visual examples of types of graffiti ranging from tags to pieces to colorful street art.  This helped narrow down the direction they were looking for which was a traditional wild style piece.

It’s rare that I get to do commissions focused on my graffiti roots so I was excited to work on this piece. Firstly, we had to come up with the size of the canvas and what word to write since graffiti is letter based.  We went with a canvas base that was about 4’ H x 7’ W and the word “LA” since it was a pretty small piece for spray painting by graffiti standards.

Because this was a custom commission, I went back and forth with a few sketches and color schemes until I landed on a final piece the client was happy with. A unique concept we came up with was to have the outline of the piece cut out so it gave it some dimension and literally felt like it was “ripped off the wall.” I worked with a local woodworker to custom cut out the shape of the lettering out of 3/4” MDF.  We finished the edges and had it primed along with a french cleat hanging system with stand offs installed on the back for an easily installation.

Although the piece seemed large, it is actually quite difficult to use spray paint at this scale for such a detailed wild style. The nature of street graffiti is very free and you use a lot of body movements to work with the large scale of the letters. It was important that I tried to retain some of this feeling in the final piece.

In the end, I was pleasantly satisfied with the outcome of this piece. It was a rare tribute to my graffiti past and a fun concept I have never done before. I look forward to being able to apply this technique for some of my future pieces.

Year: 2022

Size: 45.5” H x 85” W

Medium: Spray Paint on 3/4” MDF