In Little Village, artist fights graffiti with graffiti
Epifanio Monarrez does not want people to think of Little Village as "a rundown neighborhood with graffiti all over."
He says this standing over a box full of spray paint cans on Labor Day, black paint on his hands as
he steps back from the enormous mural he is painting near the intersection of West 31st Street and South Avers Avenue.
Monarrez, 30, is combating graffiti in his South Lawndale community — with graffiti of his own. With permission from the wall's owner, he splashes vibrant scenes over gang tags, spanning entire walls with his graffiti "productions" that feature superheroes, cultural icons, kaleidoscopic colors and, most recently, a defiant Aztec princess meant to celebrate the role of women as Mexico's Independence Day approaches Sept. 16.
Many walls in the area have become the tired battlegrounds of city graffiti blasters and vandals, where each cursory doodle is met with an unimaginative block of mud brown paint, only to be vandalized and covered up again.
Monarrez's idea is that the bright, cultural murals will deter less well-meaning graffiti vandals while inspiring pride in the community, which has strong Mexican roots. The area's alderman, Ricardo Munoz, 22nd Ward, approves.
"When you have an artist fill the void of a blank wall, it reduces the presence of what would be illegal graffiti, and not just illegal, but ugly graffiti," Munoz said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Munoz said the majority of graffiti in the area is from gangs establishing their territory, "scraggly letters or names of people claiming some turf." The Two-Six and Latin Kings street gangs are big in the area but have not touched Monarrez's work.
The gang members seem to respect his art, Monarrez said, and some even have approached him while he was painting to compliment his pieces.
Monarrez grew up in Little Village, the son of Mexican immigrants. In high school, he started out painting illegally — as most graffiti artists do — with tags, or simple, loopy signature-type marks.
It felt rebellious, Monarrez said, like taking space back from the drone of advertisements. His parents were not pleased. Once, trying to stomp out their son's hobby, they threw out about 80 aerosol cans.
"Realistically, you get in trouble when you're finding your way," he said. "We felt like we never hurt anybody, but that conversation made me realize that not everybody can understand typical graffiti or letters, but they can understand art and images which I strive to do now."
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