The motion of drawing sketches or writing stories in class was something Hosway Valadaze commonly did while attending O’Brien Middle School when he was a student there himself. However, there wasn’t much of an outlet for students interested in art.
Around 2016, he became the new art teacher for the school and was shocked when he walked into the art room to see empty walls.
“It was whack, there wasn’t anything on the walls,” Valadez said. “I said this is the most uninspiring room ever. I was like, yeah, I gotta do something about that.”
Valadaze began thinking of people he could invite to help brighten up the room. He couldn’t pay anyone, but he figured offering food and drinks would get the job done.
He messaged two good friends, Chris Kepley and Doomed Movement, both local artists. From there, they continued to reach out to other artists they knew, and over a dozen local artists came out to paint murals inside the school this summer.
Spraying different colors onto a bright orange wall, Doomed Movement created a gumball machine character right by the entrance, hoping to bring some smiles to the students.
“I'm gonna do a gumball machine because I had this old Jelly Belly thing in my garage,” Doomed said. “So I made a character out of it and just hope the kids laugh and like it, it’s colorful.”
Kepley painted a cartoon-styled girl taking off a mask, with imagination flowing out of her head.
After another artist brushed on paint to create an abstract piece nearby, Kepley said it turned into an amazing collaboration.
“He kind of merged his onto mine and it connects,” Kepley said. “It just fills the space really nice and looks really great, it holds the inspiration towards more creative work.”
All three artists are working on new, separate projects to boost the community. Valadaze is working on reviving an old project called Animarte, an art and music nonprofit to help underserved communities experience different art scenes.
It began in 2018, and every week there would be a different class taught by someone in the community.
When the Covid-19 lockdown hit, they’d deliver art kits to the kids so they could still participate on Zoom.
After that, Valadaze and Doomed continued the project with something called Art in the Park, where different members of the community would travel to different local parks to teach kids different art projects.
“We would do graffiti with the kids or we'd have a drum circle setup, or some kids would be able to paint their own little clay pot and then plant a plant in it and then learn about it from like one of our people so I'm trying to revive that,” Valadaze said.
Valadaze is working with his wife to revive the project, who travels back and forth from Mexico to make her own tortillas. The goal is for that to become a source of income for a community center, or at least the project they’re reviving.
“We're just trying to plan different seeds and watching them grow and prosper into something beautiful that goes and gives back to the community,” Valadaze said. “Whether we’re feeding their creative Spirit or just their actual bellies.”
Doomed Movement is looking to paint murals at different schools around the area. He was awarded a grant to paint one at a school he lives by, but the project fell through.
“If anybody wants murals and no cost to you at your school, they can happen or they can make it happen quick, you got it,” Doomed said.
Kepley is working on funding a project at the Reno Generator on Oddie Boulevard. He discovered free walls around the building and wanted to create a graffiti and mural park.
Kepley is paying out of his own pocket to get the area set up so that more local artists can share their work.
“I wanted to bring something back because I feel like graffiti is art culture,” Kepley said. “The murals in this town are beautiful too. I do wish to see more local artists get work here though because there are so many talented people here.”
Kepley also wants to invite locals to come out to the site, either to help with the labor or just to get inspired for the location's future.
“If anyone is interested in joining that labor or just wants to be a resident artist we can get you, the plans are kind of tenuous at this point in time,” Kepley said. “All we got to do is build first and then we'll just start having events, graffiti battles. I don't know. It's just, it's ambitious.”
All three artists offered advice to young or inspiring artists in the Reno community.
Kepley said the only way you’ll succeed is if you fail, and you have to be OK with that.
“You absolutely have to make a bunch of garbage-looking stuff and move on and when you have good stuff don't celebrate move on because the next thing you know, you're dropping like the giant painting that you didn't know you could do,” he said.
Valadaze wants people to know it’s OK to mess up as well, as long as you’re trying. Surrounding yourself with inspirational people is going to help, too.
“So many students, they're just shy to share their work and I look at something like you know that so sick,” Valadaze said. “You could just see them like oh damn. Okay, like all right, somebody acknowledges this kind of dope. Okay, because it's just that lack of courage that they have. So I'm just hoping I inspire them.”
Doomed kept it simple, saying in his words that he doesn’t care what others think. Do what you enjoy, and respect each other, especially here in Reno.
“Post it. Don't post it, who cares,” Doomed said. “Leave what you did the day before in the past and keep moving forward, and a note on Reno, Reno is tight. So be kind to each other we can help each other out so much,” he concluded.
Our Town Reno reporting by Dominic Gutierrez