When I joined the Facebook Group The Art and Artists of 614, Sonny Lee L was one of the first members who immediately grabbed my attention. I think the sentiment must have been mutual, because when I approached him not long after that to inquire about an art trade (print for print) I was met with an enthusiastic response. I couldn’t tell you much about the print that I traded—one of my many alley views of the back of a house—faded geometric blocks of pastel deterioration, engulfed in overgrown vegetation. The piece of his, “The Den In the House Where I Grew Up,” hangs just to the left of where I’m writing. I remember how it struck me at an intense, visceral level at the first viewing, harkening back to strong memories from my childhood, and continues to reveal itself to me with every passing day. That’s what good art does, I suppose, and I think Sonny would agree—the two of us have had many conversations on the topic (more online than in person over the last twenty months) about what happens between the object and the viewer, and how as long as that vital interaction continues, the art remains alive.
The encouragement of that vital energy taking place when someone encounters a work of art is at the heart of the work of both of us, along with so many other characteristics that keep my mind regularly whirling. We two have even found enough common ground in our approaches to create a body of collaborative works—but that’s a story for another day. For now, I would like you to have the chance to get to know this digital graffitist a little bit more, to maybe understand some of what makes him tick, and hopefully to develop a greater appreciation for his work.
Sonny and I didn’t talk at all about his background, or any training he might have received. Instead, literally moments after the interview started, we jumped in both feet first, sharing thoughts about his approach—but then again, that’s how he likes to work, in the NOW. Sonny considers himself to be a digital graffiti artist—he wants his work to be on the modern-day walls of society, where people can encounter it, sometimes quite by surprise. For him, that wall is not concrete or wood, but pixels and bytes, revealing itself to the viewer on smartphones, tablets and laptops. He draws his inspiration from the New York City Graffiti artists of the 80’s, but re-interprets it in a twenty-first century context.
Once again, I found myself having the conversation around digital art, and once again the response and consensus was that neither one of us thinks that this is going to even be a conversation in the very near future.
The bulk of Sonny’s work is digital. The irony of this interview is that the individual pieces we talked about together, to demonstrate what he does, how he constructs a piece of art, and some of the techniques he uses, were all on paper and canvas. Everything Sonny does with paint, ink, pencil, collage, found objects—all of that can be done digitally, and a lot faster–or in Sonny’s own words: “I feel that when I put my ideas down on canvas and paper, I’m actually slowing my brain down to do what they want to do, when I could do this in like five seconds.”
For Sonny, in the process of developing style and technique, producing works digitally on a tablet is also much more efficient because he can repeat a technique to the point of mastery so much more quickly.
Sonny wants to catch you by surprise.
If you were to live in a large city, and your primary means of transportation were your own two feet, along with the bus, subway, and an occasional taxi ride (for a splurge) you would experience graffiti art on a regular basis. I was fortunate enough to take my camera on a brief excursion to New York City, and I definitely was the proverbial kid in the candy store. Even in the “nicer” parts of Manhattan, objects on the street become receptacles for the artist’s work—construction fences, poles, old fire call boxes, mail boxes. It’s a very different way to experience art. It’s immediate, timely, spontaneous, and always a surprise. I felt this over and over, walking through Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Living in Columbus is very different. Most people spend very little time on foot, and a lot of time in their cars. Our public transportation system leaves a lot to be desired. Experiencing graffiti art can happen (depending on where you live and work), but for many people it’s nonexistent. Just about everyone participates in social media to some extent, however, and that’s where Sonny’s work comes in. If you understand this, you understand how you are meant to experience his art. Just think of your scroll on Facebook or Instagram like a walk, and you get the picture.
Wouldn’t it be great to see Sonny’s work hanging in a gallery? Well, maybe, and maybe not.
For Sonny, the feeling of what happens between the object of art and the viewer becomes less spontaneous, less interactive, less of a surprise.
“That’s an interesting thing that kind of goes back to like the whole digital graffiti thing, where when you go to a gallery, and everybody stops and looks at it, you know, I mean, everybody’s like, there for the art. It changes the context for me, as far as like, okay, we’re looking at it. It feels more like you’re observing it, rather than it’s a living breathing thing at that point.”
Let’s talk about one of Sonny’s works, and how he formulates an idea for a composition.
“Stars to Guide Us, Stars to Hide Us” is a work on paper, attached to canvas. Sonny uses a variety of techniques with paint to achieve a desired effect, and doesn’t seem bound to tradition when it comes to execution. He expressed to me a definite preference for working with paper over canvas, in order to develop texture and color in specific ways, applying paint most often with his fingers instead of a brush, with a little water (such as in the dark square), or a lot of water (the bleeds near the top), as well as the use of a pastel crayon for the lower border.
In the world of dream interpretation, the main character in your dream (no matter who that character is), is always considered to be the one who is dreaming. We talked about the recurring characters in many of Sonny’s pieces, these forms with very unusual, clearly identifiable shapes to their heads, and particular facial expressions. I noted the print on the tee-shirt of the figure in the painting, and the print (Mother of Exiles) on Sonny’s own shirt that he was wearing. When I asked him about the possibility of these works being self-portraits, his response was, “they are, ,in a weird sort of way. They kind of all are, sometimes.”
One thing that always strikes me about Sonny’s work is its density. The messages fly hard and fast at the viewer, in different ways, and working simultaneously at multiple levels. Even the characters which suggest the artist’s identity, seem easy to identify with. Text almost always makes an appearance, becoming an integral part of the composition itself, such as in this work. Sonny obviously puts a great deal of thought into font, size, and placement, as well as the text itself. References can be important to understand, although not necessarily, and that’s the thing about good art: it reaches the viewer where they are.
Not long ago, I noticed on social media that Sonny had been creating small works using playing cards. I really enjoy art on that scale a lot, and so when we scheduled his interview, I asked him if he could bring some to show me. Out of the three that he brought, “Opportunity in the Modern Age” was the one I chose for us to talk about. First, though, the story about the playing card art.
Sonny’s like me, in that he likes to throw a small freebie in when the customer orders something. Recently Sonny changed the format of his print size to 12” x 18” (largely influenced by a collaborative show that we did back in June). When he did that, prints no longer fit in the flat mailers he had been using, so he started rolling them in tubes. Due to the size of the tube, the format of small freebies that he had been using (at least this is the way I understood the scenario) would not fit, so he started looking for a format that would fit inside a mailing tube, and voila! Playing cards!
“Opportunity in the Modern Age” is a reference to a segment of the population Sonny is in contact with on a regular basis: delivery drivers, more particularly delivery drivers for Amazon (Sonny works in a mail room at OSU). These drivers are completely outsourced, barely have an identity in regards to the company, and show up to work by picking up a van full of packages, and signing onto an app.
It’s a whole new level of dehumanization that we don’t think about very much.
Sonny on his position in the world as an artist, on creativity, and freedom:
“The thing I love about it [what I do] is it’s my own thing completely.”
“I can make a piece of art and put it up on Facebook, and anybody from around the world can see it. That gives you an incredible freedom to where you’re not beholden to any gallery…you literally just put it out there for everyone.”
“I think that that independence has allowed me to be exactly who I am, and I would not be completely myself because I would have to curtail to what I think a gallery would like, rather than, you know, again, it’s always like that David Bowie interview, never play to the gallery.”
“To be an artist, I think it’s about freedom.”