Graffiti Park Radio w/ CKW Artistry

Chat with the Graffiti Park team and multifaceted, impressionist artist Cody Wombold aka CKW Artistry. 

What is Graffiti Park Radio?

Graffiti Park Radio! 🎨🎧 Where creativity knows no bounds.
Listen to Graffiti Park Radio were we’ll tap in with artists, our proud partners, and community stakeholders who believe in empowering the next generation of art visionaries and the valuable teaching moments that come from living, breathing art.

Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program.

Unknown Speaker 0:03
The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:16
Let's get scratching. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the vibrant world of graffiti Park radio, where creativity knows no bound, we'll tap in with artists, educators, our proud partners and community stakeholders who believe in empowering the next generation of visionaries beyond the hidden alleyways, abandoned warehouses and local city transits, where artists are known to leave their mark, graffiti Park Foundation has redefined and reimagined the persona street Museum.

Unknown Speaker 0:44
Good morning or afternoon or evening, whatever time you may be tuning in to the newest episode of graffiti Park radio, we have Dan and Dan and your host, Anika Jones, here. Hey, hey, we are joined with a very special guest, Mr. Cody. How's it going?

Unknown Speaker 1:01
Hey, good Good morning. How's everybody doing out there?

Unknown Speaker 1:04
I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I'm very close to Daniel's knee right now. So

Unknown Speaker 1:08
we're having next to somebody that you love and care about. Yeah?

Unknown Speaker 1:12
We hope Yeah, you're an inch away from your person's knee. Graffiti Park radio again here today, Cody, tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, good

Unknown Speaker 1:25
morning, everybody. My name is Cody wambold, and I have a company called CKW artistry. Basically, I'm a lifelong artist, muralist. I've tapped into many mediums over the years, and got my start out here in Las Vegas, very young and kind of was fortunate enough to travel some and spend some time in the Caribbean. And then now I'm back in Las Vegas, where I've been fortunate enough to link up with everybody at graffiti Park and really fortunate to do some great work over the last few years. He's

Unknown Speaker 2:01
being very humble. Cody works with us pretty extensively. He has at least, I would say, probably 20 to 30 murals throughout Las Vegas, done through the repertoire of graffiti Park and then on his own. He's a very accredited artist, muralist, tattoo artist, Sticker Maker, stencil is whatever you want to get into Cody's nails at all. And so Cody, I'd like to kind of open up this first one is, what was the first medium you got started in? What got you started in art and made you realize that you are the savage that you are?

Unknown Speaker 2:31
Yeah, so I appreciate that very kind. No, I just, you know, I definitely like to mix it up and keep things interesting with as form of mediums. And what my subject matter is, and compositions and just it's something that I really, I think it keeps my mind moving, is just branching out and doing a lot of different things. With that being said, pencil drawing and sketching was definitely my very first love. I was a very active kid out here growing up, and then I kind of got plucked out of Vegas and onto a little island in the Caribbean, and a lot of the things I did out here didn't translate. And so I really started focusing on drawing, and like developing ways to draw things that were I could see around me. My dad was an artist growing up, so I kind of had that there was already in the household. There was already art. So it was very easy for me to kind of jump in and be like, Hey, this is something I can actually do. So pencil drawing, and then coming back out here for a couple years of high school and just taking your basic elective art classes, nice and really doubling down on those basics and the pencil fundamentals are they're always going to be there no matter what medium you work in. I think that it's very important to have that basis, because then you really have a basis that you can succeed in wherever you're going to go, you know. So, pencil work, color. Pencil work, learning the ways of color and how harmonies work together and all that. It's it was just a very exciting thing as a child and as a youth for me that kept my mind occupied, you know, and again, very fortunate to have grown up in a place like Vegas, where art is very it's always been pretty at the forefront out here, even back to when I was in elementary school, we had the project for the D gates at McCarran Airport, and they went to all the schools. There's a big art contest between the schools, and then certain one class from each elementary school got chosen to have their work in the D dates, which is still there today. Those tiles, the tiles, and so, like my class, we are, we won that for our school. So even from a young age, like I've had the exposure of having my art on a scale where it's like, Hey, this is something that's real. You know? It's something that is a reality. Way to, you know, base your life, your life work on, you know,

Unknown Speaker 5:04
that's so cool. Do you remember what city? Because aren't they different cities?

Unknown Speaker 5:08
The one that we have is Sydney, and it's not my drawing, it's not my drawing, but I did. We all helped, like, color the tiles. Nice. It was a massive, really big project, I think, in 1995 Wow, nice. And if

Unknown Speaker 5:21
you're listening from elsewhere and have not been to Harry Reid International Airport, that's Yep. And when you get off the tram going to the D gate, there are these tiles with different cities, and you can tell that they commissioned a bunch of students to do that. That's great. That's pretty cool. Very

Unknown Speaker 5:38
awesome. Docal sort of history there? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 5:42
now you talking about the scales and and doing something as large as murals, and then something as when you're like in 1995 when you're a kid, doing something as small as a tile. How did you transition from these large scale pieces to something as small as you know, something personal and intimate for a particular client. How do you wrap your brain around? How am I gonna get on this piece, even though it's like this tiny thing or this huge world of things to create? So it's

Unknown Speaker 6:10
definitely taken a long time, yeah, to figure that balance out. You know, from going from small to large, a lot of my work is quite detailed. I like to pack in a lot of little easter eggs and things like that. So bringing that to a large scale, especially for like my younger years, I used to do all of my murals, and still do some, but all of my murals by hand with brush. I've only been really using cans and spray painting my murals for about four years. So that's kind of a new medium. And so with that, that's freed me to get grander on scale by doing it with brush, where you have control over the detail, getting like these huge gradients on a 10 foot wall is like, it's a process zone, whereas with a can, you can really, like, spend an afternoon, get those gradients in, and you're good to go, you know? So I think that was the hardest thing, was learning how to translate my smaller drawings and then make them big and still impactful to the eye, okay, but without having to cram all the little tiny details, right? You know what's necessary in the piece and what's not. And

Unknown Speaker 7:22
speaking of those necessary details, this man's surrealist sort of artwork is unbelievable. Like I was looking at your entire catalog of everything from what you draw to what you paint to just everything that you've done over the years. And it's incredible. Where did you gather that sort of surreal surrealism, sort of inspiration, like

Unknown Speaker 7:45
flowy, exactly, very much. So, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 7:47
all right. So when I was 16, I moved back to the Virgin Islands. I moved back and forth between Vegas and the Virgin Islands quite a bit. When I was a kid, my mom was very set on this is where I want to spend my life. And so, you know, I got tagged along. I love, I love Spica St Thomas, beautiful place. But one thing that I was fortunate up is my family had inherited an art gallery from another family friend of ours, and we were actually located in the birthplace of Camille Pissarro. He is a famous French impressionist. He's not necessarily known as much as you're like Van Gogh's and cezanne's or like Monet is, but Pissarro was pretty much like, I consider him the grandfather of impressionism. He was the guy who was getting everybody to go outside and paint. A lot of people were stuck in their studios and didn't really want to go out and interact with other artists. And he was getting people to go out and fellow artists to go out, and we're going to go sit on the bridge, and we're going to all paint the same bridge every day. And by developing that plein air technique with oils, they really were able to capture the flowiness and how the day was unfolding in front of him, so you could actually feel that street scene that they painted and like what the vibe was for that day. You know. So growing up with that gallery from 16 I ran that gallery from 16 to 22 I was just talking about Pissarro and talking about the history of impressionism, and just really in it every day. So that helped me, by doing that research, it helped me grow with with how I flowed my paint, and learning oil painting. I picked that up around the same time. The way you can manipulate oil paints is quite magical, you know, and it's just, it's, its own medium on its own level, and being able to accomplish some of those techniques is really, you know, a tribute to how you can use the medium. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 9:52
you know, to relate that to some of our listeners. Are you saying more like the Bob Ross style painting, where it's using a certain color? In the background and then working them in. Or would you mind explaining a little bit more when you say it's a it's its own medium, it's its own

Unknown Speaker 10:06
Yeah. So like oil is, like oil paints, they are oil based, instead of water based. So naturally, they're going to take a lot longer to dry, which is one of the nice things about it, is that you can speed up the drying with mediums, or you can use it raw, and you're looking at, you know, between a five and seven day dry to the touch. You know, it takes months to finally cure when you finish an oil painting, but what that leaves you to do is you're able to manipulate the paint for that week while it's wet, so you can really go in and work it. And, you know, Bob Ross, he worked in oil paints, yeah, you know. And he just, he worked as more of a impasto, like wet on wet, where it was like, you're getting one painting one time. Very much how the Impressionists did it, okay, just with different brush strokes. Is the only difference between those two artists really is the way the brush strokes were used, and some might argue, color palettes. So the way that you can really manipulate the oils is they stay wet and malleable for many days, and then once they dry, the opacity of them is just so much more than anything that's water based, okay? So you can really build your tones up and really get your deep, deep tones and your really bright colors without having to rely on black and white colors or like, multiple layers. Yes, yeah, I don't have to hit, you know, with with, like, yellow, orange, green, any lighter colors in acrylic, you're usually dropping three or four layers on something, you know, and then with an oil, unless you you know, break it down with a medium or with mineral spirits. It's more of you're putting it on there, and it's there, you know, and it's going to stay, you know. It also, you can work with textures, with oils, to right? So being able to navigate oils at a younger age and then apply that to how I designed my walls is kind of how that came full circle, to where I can do them interchangeable. Is just kind of learning how to use all the mediums to get the same like idea across, you know, or the same image quality, right? It's

Unknown Speaker 12:24
like oil paint. Sounds like oil paint is more of, like three dimensional medium, where you get more, not in the sense of, like 3d art, but like you there's multiple dimensions to it, versus, like acrylic. It's like, you know, it can be on there, yes, super

Unknown Speaker 12:38
thin, you know, you can, you can build it up, but it does take a lot more work, you know. But then you know, also, acrylics have the greatness of being able to lay down layers and layers. So you can apply those washes, okay? So you can kind of in their own right. It has its own effect, you know, because to get that effect with oils, I have to then go into the oil and break it down with mineral spirits, and then that will give me a wash that I can put over a dried layer and tint it without painting over it, you know. So it's just a lot of nuance, you know. And learning those nuances more

Unknown Speaker 13:15
lengthened process works to get the final product for sure. Yeah, for sure.

Unknown Speaker 13:20
So while you're curating or I guess, running this gallery, are you working on developing your own style and still drawing and doing your personal work during that same time? Yes, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 13:31
I was fortunate enough to basically, kind of finish high school with home school. I had a few credits left when I moved back down to St Thomas. So we wrapped those up, and I got my diploma, and that was like the first year of running the art gallery. And then once school was out of the way, I was able to really kind of just focus on painting. We had at that time, I think about 27 artists that we represented at the gallery. That's awesome. Many of them did live in the Caribbean, and if they didn't live there at the time they had in the past. So everybody was connected to St Thomas in one way or another. So it was very awesome to be able to work with all these other artists. And especially, you know, as a teenager, I just tried to absorb everything I could. And the art scene was was booming in that time in the Caribbean, you know, this was before Park West was on the cruise ships. You know, there was still a lot of demand for people that would go and go on a cruise ship. And they would go on each island and hunt out local art, you know, where, you know nowadays, not to knock anybody, you know, but there is an auction on the ship for art. So you you can just get all your art right there on the ship and then use your vacations, at your vacation time, rather than kind of looking for the local art. You know, there's only one gallery in St Thomas at the moment today, you know, whereas at that time there was probably 15, wow, all in the downtown area. You know, I. Uh, all with multiple artists, and it was, it was a great time to be in that community and just learning so much at a young age, you know, because it definitely being such a small island in a small community, it really gave you that sense of you guys, where everybody was doing something together, and we were all kind of learning together and figuring it out together. Yeah, you know, no matter our age or skill level, we all had the same goals of just painting and trying to figure out navigate being an artist for a living. And

Unknown Speaker 15:34
you see, so so many other people with wonderful experience and both being successful and then also experience in the way of learning different mediums, and so kind of basing that conversation off of that, did you find that you were able to excel much faster by surrounding yourself with other artists? And Were there certain key takeaways that you even think of now as a professional artist that you think back on that have given you some of the experience that's made you the artist you are today?

Unknown Speaker 16:00
I think that you know, a lot of it is just going out and working with other people. You know, for better or worse, you know, you know every experience isn't going to be the same experience. You're always going to have some wiggle room. I think that's how we grow, is from working with other people in different aspects of life and people from other places in the world, and really communicating that we have our personal views, but we can all work together to figure out a common goal, you know. And I think that one thing about working, you know, at that time, with all the different artists, and then fast forward to today with the community of artists that we have out here, you know, through graffiti Park and all that, I've been blessed to work with some of the you know, kindest, best, hardest working guys that I've ever met you know. So it goes a long way to how motivated your community is to create this ultimate goal of having art in our community and trying to make it like just something that's seen, you know, and making, making the youth know that this is something that can happen and, you know, letting these kids in on the secret that you don't have to go and have a nine to five, or you can turn your nine to five into something that you love absolutely, You know. So I think that navigating the art world through different aspects of medium, and, you know, mural painting and art shows and gallery curation and things like that. It really, I've been lucky to kind of see a lot of the different sides of it. You know, again, for better or worse, it's a hard business. It takes a lot of work to, you know, just keep yourself motivated sometimes, but it always comes full around, because you're creating for yourself, you know, and you're creating something for your community that you can really put your love into. And I think that's really just important to be able to nurture that Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 18:01
This is exactly what we're we are providing this platform for you and for others to hear this exactly that you're, you're right on the money with that in regards to exactly what you're talking about. Did you notice that closeness and that collective happened so much more post covid? I know that you had moved back and forth, of course, you know a couple times before 2020 how much of that collective Have you seen strengthened Since 2020

Unknown Speaker 18:26
so I've seen, like a lot of artists that I've been, you know, I moved back to Vegas, right about covid, right? You know, my experience previous to covid, I was just getting back into doing mural stuff. I had kind of been winding down my tattoo career. It just wasn't really something that was making me personally happy anymore. And you know, we all have to make hard decisions for our mental health sometimes. And you know when, when it comes down to what is going to make you healthy as a person, that's really where it comes down to with decisions you make in life. You know, I think after covid, I think we had a lot of people find that they could dabble in art and could, you know, get this expression of things out, because they had the time to do it, and we weren't all stuck behind a desk or running our errands every day, or growing shopping, you know, every day. So I think that it discovered a lot of people, discovered talents. It brought a lot of people out, and it strengthened the core of who is out here to make a difference in who's out here, to just do it, because it's the cool thing to do. You know, I think through graffiti park again, we have a really good community of folks that we've done a lot of great work in schools and just in general, with the Boys and Girls Clubs and just working. With the kids. And, you know, art is such an important thing to have in schools, you know, especially with, you know, a lot of art programs being on the back burner with a lot of educational programs these days, you know. So at least, you know, to have the kids to be able to see it and look at it, and it enriches them in some way. And I think that a lot of people post covid are looking for to have that sense of community, rather than being the lone wolf. Because we all saw, you know, we were all stuck inside and did the lone wolf thing, and it's a lot better together.

Unknown Speaker 20:34
Yeah? It's one of those. You don't know what you have until it's like, gone, yeah. Okay, what changes do I need to make to capitalize on this in any aspect of my life? And then you double that down with to your point, this recent exposure or, like, newfound love for creating, you know, you create, put those things together. And then you have a, you know, the opportunity to join a community out here, whether it's through graffiti park or just Las Vegas artists in general.

Unknown Speaker 20:58
Yeah, it's, it's a thriving area, you know, we're fortunate to have a thriving area with a lot of artists and a lot of artists that are really willing to work with everybody. You know, I found you know nothing but like good vibes with collaboration.

Unknown Speaker 21:17
Yeah. And do you find that as specific to Las Vegas, or have you found that in any other network, in any other place,

Unknown Speaker 21:24
when it comes to like the the large scale murals and stuff like that, it's, uh, it's definitely something new to me. You know, having a group of artists that I am as close with and trustworthy, worthy with as I do right now. I've never had in my life, you know? And I think that's that says a lot about the quality of work that we're producing, and everybody kind of just helping each other learn and grow. And, you know, maybe somebody's a great artist, but they're not good at paperwork, so let's get them good at the paperwork, and help everybody build together. You know? I think that that's in the long run, the work and what we are all putting out has grown significantly just because we've all been trying to work together so well, you know?

Unknown Speaker 22:12
Yeah, I mean, that's what you're talking about. Is literally the impetus for graffiti Park Foundation, in and of itself, is working in that mural space and with artists and recognizing, to your point, of these fantastic talents that we, you know, are exposed to, and I've had the opportunity to work with not understanding the paperwork side of things, or the client relations side of things, or however that is. And that's literally when Dan and I were like, Okay, well, how can we address that? Yeah, you know, and then, for sure, and then get people connected to folks like, you know, and like, how do you utilize your resources? What is the benefit of having a community? Yeah, for sure,

Unknown Speaker 22:47
and a lot of what we're trying to do is eliminate the stigma, obviously, but really show some of the trade secrets, which sometimes can be looked at and not the most positive way. But then on the back end of it, Dan and I see this opportunity to teach them resources, kind of to talk about what you talked about earlier, to see where's the work ethic. Are people willing to take these new skills and implement them into their business, into their lives, into their art, or are these things that, you know, we could give the way, these trade secrets, but at the same time, if people aren't willing to go out and use them and utilize them and put them into their work and create new things and try new, different methods. Ultimately, we're not teaching anybody any of the trade secrets if people don't go out and do it. And so you are just a wonderful shining example of somebody that's gone in, done all the things, right, gotten the LLC has the paperwork on the back end. We've hooked you up, you know, got the insurance, the workers comp, all of the nuanced stuff that it's not bene stuff, yeah, stuff that artists want to deal with, but we are just so we'll put you up on a pedestal, dude, not only are you a savage, not only are you so incredibly talented when it comes to art, but you're also putting in all of the work on the back half that nobody gets to see to do it properly, to set you up for longevity. And I think that can't be lost on some of these artists and some of the people listening, because ultimately, you can have the skills, you can have the know how, but until you get up and go out and do it, for sure, it's all very dusty, yeah, for sure,

Unknown Speaker 24:14
absolutely, that is there anything right now that you're working on that you're really, really proud of, or something that's coming up that you're really excited about, that you want to discuss with those

Unknown Speaker 24:22
so I just got done with a very awesome, awesome project with Clark County. I did a mural at the Parkdale community center. Nice. They have a little outdoor amphitheater area and just some like, real basic cement stairs. So we were, I was approached to do, to do a mural on the front of the stairs. And I talked them into let me do the whole thing. Okay, we like, basically, I wrapped the stairs with this real cool mural. But really, the cool things about that project was the community. Engagement and working with the kids over the summer in the program and having the kids artwork directly influence and also directly be on involved in the mural. Yeah, that's we built a little 3d neighborhood that directly reflected the neighborhood that they live in. Oh, wow. And we colored. Everybody colored their own houses however they wanted. And then we built it in 3d and then literally built a little neighborhood with a road. Everybody put their houses with trees. We did it all out of paper, so I used those houses for one section of the mural. Okay, so all the colored houses correspond with the mural I love. So the kids can literally pick out when they walk by, they can be like, That's my house. And then I also did a, like, small chalk festival. I'm really big into doing chalk artwork. It's super fun. It's a great way to get out for a full day and just kind of hang out with the community, talk to people and do something cool on the ground that, you know, people see chalk, and they think of using chalk to make tic tac toes when they're a kid, you know. And to see what you know artists bring out with the chalk is amazing. So it was fun for the kids. And again, what we did was, I was trying to be something engaging that would keep them involved, but also get feedback on how they felt about their neighborhood and and what was important for them to see in their community. Yeah. And then we, I kind of took those pieces from the chalk art and elevated them into what the mural turned into. Okay, wow. So it came really full circle of working with the kids in the program, working with everybody at the community center. They have a senior center there where I got to know everybody that was there in the senior center, because I was there early in the morning, painting, trying to beat the heat. But yeah, overall, that was it was a very important project for me, just because of how much community engagement I was able to have and, you know, really interact with the people of that neighborhood to give them something that was meaningful for them. I can put what I want to see there, but is that really a mural that that community is looking at? You know, so

Unknown Speaker 27:17
very reflective. That's awesome,

Unknown Speaker 27:18
man. It's cool. We gotta go check those out. So Cody, if someone is interested in finding you or learning more, where can they go? Well,

Unknown Speaker 27:29
I do have Instagram, CKW artistry, or I do have a website also, which is very bare bones, but it's getting there. I finally just got it and launched a couple months ago. Website is CKW artistry.com, awesome, but, yeah, it's a couple places there that you guys can reach out and check my work and stuff like that. I'm getting ready to do a big post about that Parkdale community on the website. It'll be on the homepage about that whole project.

Unknown Speaker 27:58
Awesome. We will also shamelessly plug if you are interested, feel free to swing by at graffiti Park, our lead location. Next week, Cody will be teaching one of our free rolling Class series on stretching your own canvas, free to attend if you are interested in meeting Cody in person, or just swinging by and learning more on how to use your resources,

Unknown Speaker 28:19
it's going to be a great way to learn how to save some money on some canvases and doing it your own. You know, I'm a firm believer that you build something yourself, and you're going to have that little bit of extra durability and umph behind it, you know. So, you know, by doing the canvases, it's going to be a fun class, awesome, sure.

Unknown Speaker 28:38
And if you are interested in learning more about graffiti park, you can find us at graffiti Park underscore. LV, thank you for tuning in to another episode of graffiti Park radio, Cody. It has been a pleasure. Thank

Unknown Speaker 28:51
you guys so much. It's been great. This is fun.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai