WRITTEN BY AVEED KHAKI | PHOTOS COURTESY SHANE GRAMMER
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Hope Through Art There were few instances of beauty amidst the rubble left behind by the Camp Fire. New life signaled by a flower budding out of the ashes and colorful wildlife returning to the area, juxtaposed against environments totally devoid of color, were the few glimmers of hope we all needed and clung to in what felt like a sea of hopelessness. When local artist Shane Grammer saw the destruction for himself, he felt called to commemorate what was lost and return beauty to an area where there was none. Creative from a young age, Shane Grammer found his first foray into art when he was 10 years old. He began sketching characters from a Walt Disney book and discovered it was the perfect outlet for his creativity. Sketches turned into crafting, and crafting led to building. Eventually, he found himself making Pinewood Derby cars, sculpting a 6-foot African mask, and drawing whenever he could find the free time. “I didn’t think I would be an artist.” Shane remembered, “I certainly never had aspirations to be one, but as I started making things and
taking classes from Mr. Simmons at Chico High School, I began to realize I had a knack for it.” Though Shane was naturally gifted at art, basketball was his identity throughout high school. After graduating, he found himself without direction. He attended Butte College and chose to major in art but only lasted a semester and a half. After getting cut from the basketball team, he decided college wasn’t the path for him after all. He returned to building things, working jobs in construction and taking any opportunity he could to explore outlets for his creativity. “A friend was doing a documentary on New York graffiti.” Shane explained, “He was watching the Style Wars documentary, and it blew me away. I started doing graffiti legally for youth groups and business owners—I even practiced inside a bee keeping company in Durham. The owner told me I could come in and paint all day and all night. It was a freedom like none other.”
Youth With a Mission opened doors to the outside world for Shane, offering him a position to work at an inner city youth ministry in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. The stark contract from Chico’s atmosphere opened his eyes as well. Immersed by graffiti and hip hop, he was constantly exposed to street and contemporary art wherever he went. Shane found the early 90s street art scene in San Francisco to be far more amazing than the art he saw documented in Style Wars. “There was a free wall area for artists called Psycho City, and I was absolutely blown away by the art I saw there. Street artists were always on hand painting incredible murals. It hooked me like nothing else had, and I began seeking out mural projects from youth pastors. They’d pay me a couple hundred dollars and provide me with food to paint a mural. My first paid job was in San Jose which led to painting a graffiti mural on stage in front of 5,000 people. That opened the door to Dallas, Texas, and people started asking me if I could do props, so I transitioned into stage sets.”
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