KayLove
Born and bred in the South Bronx, Karen “KayLove” Pedrosa is a muralist, artist, educator, and screenprinter, working to improve her community through arts programming and her first love–Graffiti.
I Grew up in Sedgwick and Cedar, so I was alive during the time of [DJ] Kool Herc when they would throw parties in the back of Cedar Park. That was literally my playground. That's where I learned how to do graffiti, where I learned how to play basketball as well. My parents came here in the sixties from Puerto Rico, so I'm a first-generation Bronx Boricua.
How does your story with art and graffiti begin?
I used to hear the guys spray painting in the back of my building. My bedroom window had a view of the back of Cedar Park and the handball court. I would hear the guys at night rattling their cans. When I went outside I would see the pieces that they did and as a kid traveling a lot on the trains with my mom, I saw graffiti all around me. I used to carry a notebook with me and copy everything that I saw. I was one of those kids that always had their faces out at the train windows. The seats were all tagged up with fresh marker tags back then, back in those days the trains were entirely bombed on the inside.
People like Mitch[77] influenced me, Cope[2], Doze, King P[jay], and all of the old-school writers. I got my first taste of graffiti when I went to The High School of Art and Design, a well-known graffiti school. We had Lady Pink graduate from that school, I think Crash–a whole bunch of graffiti writers. I got my start there doodling and then I was embraced by the graffiti community there. My adopted Big brother Vins EOS Krew also embraced me along with the rest of the guys. In High School, everything was about passing around Blackbooks. So that's how I developed my style and skill.
BLACKBOOKS – sketchbooks that graffiti writers use for practice to creatively express themselves on paper and showcase their style and lettering.
I used to sneak out of my house as a young kid and tell my parents I was walking the dog. These walks would take almost two hours because I would take my dog to the back of the building and pick up any old spray can I could find on the floor. I would shake them to see if there was any paint left in them–That's how I started tagging.
This one night, I was in the back walking the dog like I told my parents and was doing what we call a quicksilver filling. I was doing a filling piece on the wall, practicing my lettering, and I saw three guys walking my way. It was pitch black outside, and I was like, Holy shit! I'm going to get raped here. Then one of the guys asks, Yo! You write? I was like, yeah, and he turned out to be Cope. He was along with Cap, and if you know the graffiti game, Cap was the man. He used to bomb and go over everyone's pieces–he is featured in style wars from Morris Park Crew (MPC). They saw that I was getting busy and were like, Yo! You're good, and they put me down with MPC and KD crew. I rocked out with them, and from there I progressed.
I'm what you call an around-the-way writer. I wasn't an All-City bomber because I have very strict Puerto Rican/Boricua parents that I knew would give me a pela con la correa (spanking with a belt). I knew what I could and couldn't do. I didn't wanna disappoint them. I did a lot of around-the-way tags, local graffiti bombings, and pieces. Cope helped me develop my style. And I also met Serve FBA and other writers along the way who also helped me.
When did you fall in love with graffiti and writing?
I've always loved graffiti, but The High School of Art and Design helped me embrace it. At A&D (Art and Design), I met a lot of infamous bombers and writers. KEZ5, SKUF YKK–my boy still to this day–and many others. So many great writers came out of that school–it was just a big family. During my years there, I developed my style and kept going because I was in love with typography and lettering.
You could do anything with letters. The beautiful thing about graffiti is that lettering is almost like break dancing. There's a movement with it–a whole style. So you could always stylize your letters, but they flow and move in ways. That is beautiful. My first love was graffiti and lettering, but now as a fine artist, I paint more contemporary stuff. I always try to include some lettering with what I do.
I consider myself an artist or a graffiti artist, but not a street artist. To me, street artists are very different.
Can you talk a bit about graffiti vs street art?
Graffiti is rooted in vandalism and lettering, and there are unwritten rules. Within the graffiti culture, you have the old school heads, like the pioneers that wrote in the late sixties, seventies, and eighties, that will say, if it ain't illegal, it ain't graffiti.
A lot of it is because of the messaging. Graffiti is about taking those risks, going out there, and not necessarily getting permission to do something. There are some graffiti writers who will never put their work on a canvas. They don't think that it belongs in galleries and stuff like that, but at the same time, you have to evolve. I know artists who have been writing for years stuck in a time loop. They want to stay rooted in that original style or element. But then you also have writers like CRASH and Tats Cru whose works are in galleries.
Are you going to tell JonOne or Lady Pink that they're no longer graffiti writers anymore? Just because nowadays they're making good money off their work in galleries? Are you going to be 65 and still bombing? I know some writers who do both, and they balance it. But it's also like, at what point do you say, you know what? Let me give up the street life and evolve.
I try to find that balance. I got arrested for graffiti in the late 90s, somewhere around 97. I was coming back home from an award ceremony at NYU where I designed their Hispanic heritage poster. I was on the 4 train at around 2:00 AM. I was one stop away from my house and whipped out a Sharpie to do a little quick tag on the posters on the train. Out of nowhere, I hear someone say, Miss, please step off the train. I'm like, are you kidding me? Where did this dude come out from? Being from the Boogie Down, I'm alert, you know. I'm always checking my surroundings. I know that there wasn't anyone on the train. And literally one stop before my stop, he's like, You have to step off the car. Here I am, dressed up, with a bunch of posters in my hand from the thing that I designed, and Officer Miller (I will never forget his freaking name) arrested me. Another cop that was nice to me was like, don't worry, you're just going to get a D.A.T (Desk Appearance Ticket), but we have to bring you to the precinct. So I was like, okay. Then I thought, Oh shit, my parents are going to kill me.
What was that experience like? Also, coming from a strong Puerto Rican household, How did your parents react to you becoming a graffiti artist at the time?
They knew what I did because when I would go out and paint, they would ask me whether I was with Cope. So my mom would be like, Tu estas con este? (you’re with such and such?) They were like, okay. They trusted him. Most of the time, they could see me from outside the window, but they didn't know what I did when I left home. When I got to college, they didn't know that I would go out and cop tags here and there. Since I was always the daughter that did the good things in their eyes, they didn’t worry as much. As long as I told my parents where I was or where they thought I was, I was good. So they accepted it.
That's why the night they took me into the precinct, I was like, okay, give me the D.A.T so I could deal with that. But when they took me to the captain, the captain was like, You gotta book her. I looked at the cops, and they looked at me, and they were like, What do you mean, Book her? They were like, The mayor wants everybody booked because that night was the night that Giuliani was running for reelection. He wanted everyone to get processed that night. It was a wonderful experience (Sarcasm).
I got locked up, processed, and fingerprinted. The officers put me in a holding cell in the precinct with this girl I knew from around my way. Then they took me to central booking to a small room, which was even more glorious (Sarcasm). It was a very humbling experience because I heard the tales and stories of all these other women locked up with me. Many of the women there were abused by their husbands and their partners–horrific stories I was hearing. There were some sex workers in there as well.
I stood up all night; I didn't even try to sleep. lol. I stood by the phone because I had a calling card number. So I was on the phone all night, called my mom, and was like, Please don't tell dad, but of course, she told him. I was there for like two nights, and it woke me up. At that point in my life, I was in my late twenties already, and I was like, you know, for a freaking marker tag?
So, How did that whole experience change/affect you?
It woke me up. You know? I didn’t really do anything illegal like that again because I didn’t want to jeopardize my career. I was working for the State Parks, so I didn't want anything to affect my career there. Everything I did from then on was legit, but still always in love with graffiti. I would still catch tags here and there, but mostly all the work became legal. I always get that itch believe me. I got to become Bronx Deputy Chief of Recreation at the Parks Department although I’ve been arrested in the past for graffiti. It says you can overcome anything and get to where you want to go.
“Now, it's more acceptable to see a woman writer or graffiti writer. So many have opened up the doors for other writers”
How have things changed from when you got started, especially for women in graffiti?
When I started, there weren’t many female graffiti writers out aside from Lady Pink, Claw, and Queen Andrea was also coming out. Lady Pink was always around–she was a pioneer for us females. But you didn't see that many female writers out there. I think now, as far as women are concerned, it’s more accepted. There used to be a time when they would say, She's a good female writer, and now they say, She's a good writer. It's all thanks to all the girls killing it with their unique lettering styles, even better than some guys. There are woman crews out there that are crazy out there. Some female bombers that I know have been bombing for years.
That is different. Graffiti has always been the trend. If you go to many fashion houses and places like that, they have mood boards. What do you think is on their mood boards? Street art and graffiti. They have totally lifted our styles. Graffiti has a lot of influence on fashion, movies, and so on. At one point in time, they thought it was like a fad, just like hip hop, but it goes hand in hand. It's more commercial now, creating more opportunities for people.
At the same time, it gets a little muddy because there are people that are not graffiti artists that claim they are graffiti artists, you know? They're capitalizing off the culture, and then when you see these rudimentary designs and logos, it's like, eh, someone else could have done that better. These people are looking for the cheap way out because guys like Tats Cru, CRASH, and everybody else want to get paid for their work. The days of a hundred-dollar logo are out the window. People still ask me about my canvas work and then offer me just a hundred dollars. Are you kidding me? You know that's an insult.
I think it should be rewarded just like any other art form. It is more international now too, which is a beautiful thing. You got Art Basel down in Miami in Wynwood. I'm not too big a fan of Art Basel because Wynwood was a predominantly Boricua community, and it’s been art-washed. They perpetuated the gentrification in that area by using artists to "liven up" the blocks and stuff like that. But when you're livening up that block, you're putting up murals and artwork for them to sell a unit.
Graffiti has definitely evolved, and it has grown in popularity. Some people think they all could be graffiti writers, but they don't want to put in the work. Graffiti starts from a tag. lol. If you don't have a good tag, you can't evolve into a writer and someone who does a piece or has a unique style.
So, I know that you’re outspoken about issues in our community. Could you talk a bit about that and how your experience as a graffiti writer and artist has impacted or been impacted by, some of these issues?
We painted a beautiful mural for this girl that went missing and passed here in the Bronx, and much after, the wall was buffed-out, destroying the mural. We posted about it, sent out emails, and everything, and there was no support–nobody wanted to give us a wall. Meanwhile, you get all these street artists from other boroughs or countries sponsored by politicians and organizations to work in our communities.
They paint murals in the South Boogie and El Barrio, where we already have people. Why is it that our people aren't given access to these spaces? We need to have the community involved. I can't stand it when street artists come into our neighborhoods and do not engage with our community.
I make it a point to get community engagement with every mural I create. It's important to me because you want the community to feel like this belongs to them. They're the ones going to see it every day. It might be a good photo op for me on Instagram and stuff like that, but the people who live in these neighborhoods are the most impacted by it. When you paint something that doesn't appeal to locals, it reminds them that someone else infiltrated their community.
Oftentimes, people want to leave the hood. They're like, Wow, I'm going to college, I'm going to boarding school and never coming back because it's so terrible. But no, you should want to come back because you should want to invest in your community. Invest in the people. Who better than you? No one else.
Any message for the next generation of graffiti writers or artists?
Just be passionate about what you do. Stay true to your ethics, morals, and yourself, and take care of yourself. Self-love is always the most important thing. You cannot help your community if you don't help yourself first. Never be afraid of your art, and have a message with what you do. Keep up the fight, invest in your community, and give back to your community. Just love what you do and love your community.