"Graffiti, above anything, came from the streets. It was bred in the streets, it was made in the streets."
"I got into graffiti, because there were some older guys that were doing graffiti, and they kind of mentored me. At that point, it was just, it was a whole found love for it."
And that love has never left the graffiti artist known as Hyper, whose work is both admired and misunderstood.
"Graffiti has always been kind of the black sheep of the art community. We've started to establish ourselves and be considered an art form," Hyper said. "Now you see it in galleries, you're seeing everybody in commercials, in fashion. Everywhere everybody kind of wants to jump on it."
One of those wanting to jump was the city of Everett, who contacted Hyper and his wife Brianna from Hype Murals about painting their town. Literally.
"They came to us in early 2021 and said, 'Hey, we want to be involved. You guys want to do this?'" Brianna said.
After months of talks, the two helped arrange Washington state's first-ever graffiti jam.
"Graffiti jams are a time to come and really show off your skills to your peers. But it's also a time where a city that is welcoming to it can get some really cool art for free," Brianna said. "We put about $1.5 million worth of murals for free for the city of Everett. Did about 40 murals in four days with about 150 artists from across North and South America."
"We have a contract with the businesses that we're allowed to paint these walls on those days."
"If we're able to get them to see what our art form is about, and let them understand it, then they're going to start to open up," Hyper added.
"We did a children's mural with about 60 kids from the community," Hyper said.
"I get a lot out of giving back to the youth, to me that's kind of dear to me. Because I was those knucklehead kids I was, you know, there doing the wrong stuff and so if I can educate them and be a mentor to them, that's kind of one of the most important things to me."
When the graffiti jam wrapped up, the city of Everett, and many minds, were changed for the better.
"One of my favorite quotes that I heard all our jam was, 'This is graffiti?' And I was like, 'Yes, this is graffiti,'" Brianna said.
Art will always be subjective. But Hyper and Brianna hope people will see graffiti, and the artists, in a better light.
"You give them a chance to do their best work out in the open and you give them that love, and they just bloom with it."
Hype Murals does commission work as well. If you would like to see the murals for yourself they have an app you can download with the murals' location and artist info.
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Evening on KING 5 celebrates the Northwest. Watch it LIVE weekdays at 7:30 on KING 5 or streaming on [ Ссылка ]. Find more stories like this on our website: king5.com/evening
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