15 minutes with “That Graffiti guy”- JEB1!
ARTIST FEATURE: JEB1 - LORDS CREW
Introduce yourself, What do you write and where are you from?
Hi, my name is Jeben. As a graffitist, I am best known as JEB1, but through the years I have been connected to Tukas, IFSO & YNOT?, and in corporate circles I’m often referred to as “that graffiti guy”. I currently reside in the same city as the remains of humanities greatest champion Muhammad Ali, and its greasiest pitchman for licking fingers, the patron saint of chicken slaughter, Colonel Sanders. My origin story started in a small hospital in Billings Montana, the Big Sky State where I roamed the high plains throwing rocks at trains until a fortuitous mis-adventure in the mid 1980s brought me to my first ocean, the Pacific. It was there, in the criminally prosperous Bay Area of 1990s San Francisco California, that the creative arc of my life was first ignited. I was so lucky to have landed there then. That exclusive time and place still exists in the annals of creative criminal empowerment as a forge that inspired the work and careers of graffiti heroes and icons. One would had to have been a complete milk dud not to have been caught up in the visual velocity that was being pouring into the streets of the Bay Area. Hindsight being what it is, I was a clueless even in the midst of it, but I was there, slapping stickers, writing shitty tags, and biting everything relentlessly.
How long have you been painting? What got you started?
My cherry popped in 1989, with my first hollow fill of “Jeben” in Antioch California at the hardly famous Jack-Off wall. It was a spot that was frequented by locals who were just getting into the game. It was a great place to start learning how to spray, a place whose usefulness only came to an end when cops, thinking they got the bust of a century, nabbed a few of us giving us our first taste of the other side of graffiti. Would got me started was years of seeing graffiti in its parts all across the Bay Area. A couple of influential friends who were a step ahead of me were hugely motivating. My friend who is now known as Pastime was hugely important in fueling my fire. Additionally, another friend of mine, who is now and off the grid technologist with no graffiti career to speak of was the first person I knew who was using mean streaks to tag all over the bay area. He had a parent that lives in San Francisco so he was getting city exposure and bringing it to the suburbs of the Bay Area. I’m certain he has no clue what his small tags meant to me at the time.
What does “graffiti” mean to you?
Graffiti is a term we used to describe a style of expression that is simple from the outside but wildly complex from the inside. It’s an art form that has a well developed hierarchy, it’s an art form that is a gateway to the art world for people that don’t have access, it is protest, it is arrogance and peacocking, it is a way to assert yourself in a world, where how much you put into it truly can equal your value to the whole, and it is an independent, style of self expression, with rules that bend and meaning that fluctuates. Graffiti is identity, and is most simply expressed with letter styles reflecting all the graffiti ever done mixed with all the possibility of creative manipulation and personal vision. Graffiti is the full spectrum. As simple as a nondescript tag in a remote place, and also the most advanced expression of color, shape, and visual energy. Graffiti at its purest is illegal and without permission. But graffiti can also be the most casual day, flexing the unfiltered fun of letters, words, and characters with your best friends.
How do you define “Style”?
Style is simpler than graffiti to explain. For me, it’s the history of the whole represented in the way you showcase your tag and all of its subsequent expressions. It is localized, it is differential, it is derivative, and if you leverage your style at the highest level, it becomes a calling card for you when you are not there to explain yourself. Color, shape, energy level, and vibe all rolled into your work over time.
What is your proudest achievement (number of spots, something massive etc)?
My proudest achievement in graffiti is being part of a crew that is formable and has a long history. The LORDs crew started in 1986 in San Jose. With a crew leader, BIZR R.I.P. who was kind and mentoring, while also diplomatic and had a vision to grow and evolve. In the course of my career, I have been paid six figures to paint works for corporations. I have painted in many different countries, have made friends across the world. One of my great delights in life is to have a friend send a photograph of a sticker or a tag that I have put in a remote unknown place. Places where you have to work really hard to be there in the first place let alone do graffiti once you arrive.
What's your Dream paint spot?
I don’t have a great answer for a dream spot, but I do know that the graffiti I love seeing the most is a single solitary legible stamp in an abandoned place with no one else around it. A solitary burner against a horizon. My homie Style has elevated his graffiti career by doing just this, and I admire every instance of it.
What keeps you motivated through creative burnout/slumps?
One of the greatest characteristics of graffiti is that when you get bored doing one thing, you just move onto the next and find another area to explore and exploit. Graffiti is not limited to any specific boundary, it is the product of what we do, and how we imagine it existing. Truly, any material, any tool, and any place might be the peak moment of one’s career. If one wants to stay inspired for the long haul, one has to be inventive and move in and out of the formula. Always remember that any rules are meant to be defied.
How has graffiti affected your mental health? (finances, relationships, career etc)
Graffiti has rarely ever negatively affected my perspective on life. It is made me a lot of money, it has given me intense friendships, and it has been a ruthless teacher that insists on me bringing red hot, inventiveness and creativity to familiar terrains. That being stated, graffiti is material, intense, meaning it can't be done without tools, travel, and the willpower to make it happen. That costs money and time, so get things done properly when it comes to managing your income and resources. Well, I've been known to get my come ups, that was an unsustainable path.
Any chase stories or strange encounters while out painting?
We all have these. I'll offer up one, which is a story more of me being dumb than anything else. Here's the scene, let's call it the Twin Peaks Muni tunnel fiasco in San Francisco. Around midnight we had entered the tunnel from the lower Haight side to paint. It's easy to walk into, but you have to venture in deep to find spots as the first 1/4 mile had been fully bombed. I was with Tricks TPS/RF/MTA, Pastime Lords/HTK, and others I can't recall. We found spots and started painting, and of course a late night train coming from the ocean side of SF rolls up slowly. We see the lights and try to skinny up onto the wall of the tunnel, the train engineer sees us, starts blasting his horn, and the brilliant scholars I was with all start booking toward the same way we came in. Me though? I start booking deeper into the tunnel, (mistake number one), unknown to me, it's a really really long tunnel, like miles long. The train tracks slowly behind me, horn blasting, trying to tell me to turn around, but I'm panicked, and at some point it stops, reverses and heads back toward the direction we came in. He gave up on trying to get me to just turn around. I keep running, it becomes pitch black, the air tastes poisoned, I'm sucking wind, paint fumes are lingering because the air is so still and stagnant, and I just keep walking straight, scared shitless and sweating paint fumes. An hour+ or so later I emerge on the other side. Mistake #2, I was the driver that night, my car is on the other side of Twin Peaks, miles away, no cell phone, no money, still gasping for air. So I just start walking the next few miles toward home. I spent the next 10 days so sick, barely able to breathe, with dark dreams of trains and tunnels. I never went back to finish. Fuck that tunnel.
How do you balance Graffiti with your day to day life?
I believe the trick to all life is get old and have balance. Graffiti is no different, and with consideration and meaningful thought one can find a balance that fulfills them both. Make sure it works (in general) for your closest family and doesn’t get in the way of pursuing wealth and intellectual prosperity. Sometimes you will say "no", I can’t go on that trip, and other times you pack your bags and handle business. The trick is in learning the when and how of that moment. Today's modern graffiti environment does allow for someone to have great impact without going "all Planet". It's a highly personal goal that we set for ourselves.
What kind of affect has this practice had on your life? Positive or negative? Explain
More positive than negative for sure. Graffiti is a bottomless gift if you nurture and respect it with love, sincerity, and maturity. We all have emotional and spiritual obligations to ourselves, and our families, and graffiti can be a powerful tool inside of that pursuit. It can be the opposite and prove itself detrimental, but with a degree of sharpened "know-better" it can almost always stay inthe benefit category. A better question to ask might be, how can one afford to have the cake and eat it too? A perfect example is taking care of your kids while you still maintain your graffiti pursuits. It's a fine line because I want my kids to recognize that when you have nice things you have to work for their growth and parent them, and at the same time, I want them to understand the thrill I get when I drop a tag in Tokyo. You have to be ready to have those types of conversations and steer your children. It doesn't always work. One way I do this is to make family stickers with all our code names on them so they can be part of the process not just innocent witnesses.
Where do you hope to see the future of Graffiti?
I hope the future of graffiti has more protest and civil disobedience at its heart. I worry that the pursuit of style, clout, and fame have become prioritized over having a dissenting voice and the powerful tool of graffiti to express dissenting perspectives. Graffiti is best served cold and deliberate. Yet there will always be virtue in seeing style and creative expression rendered flawlessly. One of my favorite examples is Twist and his deaf dumb and blind rooftop character of former California Governor Pete Wilson. Style, matched with purpose and intent.
If you could give your younger self, day 1 writer any advice.. What would you tell yourself?
What I wish someone would’ve told me at the very beginning, “do five times more than you think you need to”. Don’t be satisfied, and don’t think you have the answer on lock. The very formula of graffiti is to continually break it down and resurface it as a new part of the canon of graffiti. Remember - EVERY TAG COUNTS. Every single instance we as graffitists add to the culture matters. How many times have you been in a random or obscure place, and you see a tag from someone you know and smile?
Who's your favorite writer(s)? Additionally- Any slept on writers we should know about?
Ah…. the list of personal legends. Cue the band halfway through because you’re gonna want to cut me off. I’ll start with the ones I know well and admire the most. The ones that have been an intricate part of my own story. Pastime, Quake, Drane, Gus, Jolts, Wins, MSNGR, Timber 84, Defy, Gena, Chez, Phekt, Shue, Wesk, Vows, Joins, Fowl, Zaeos, Kangoe, Jeks, Nychos, Alter, Sworne, Apex, Leks, Renos, Cyme, Jster, Orfn, Buter, Sasquatch, Giant, Joker, Six, Linus, Searius, Titan, Spice, Hovez, Meme, Konqr. Haste, Match The writers I admire, but don’t know personally. Rime, Twist, Revok, Ewok, Cycle, Grey, Vibes, Dondi, Jon 156, Jolt (burnunit), Semor, Saute, Dyva, Mars, Miser, Merlot, Katsu, Pez, Odeith.
Shoutouts:
Shout out Lords, UM, UNR. I represent three crews now, and while I have been on others, these are the ones that will be part of my graffiti forever. The first crew I proudly push is UM since 2000, out of northern California. Originally United Marin, but nowadays Union Mobb. The second and largest is Lords (Legends of Rare Designs), and they get all my love and support. I have been on Lords since 2007 and will push them until the finish line. UNR is the smallest, but possibly the most prolific and tightly bonded, we have four members that are also Lords. These guys are the real deal and I have painted the best productions of my life with them.
Bonus: Dream paint session with what writer(s) dead or alive?
Rime, he is the living blueprint.
