Nels (Los Angeles) Graffiti Writer Spotlight

My Graff name is Nels One and I’m From TLB SFE LAW & WAI crews.

As far as my graffiti experience, My First introduction to graffiti and the graffiti-writers lifestyle came thru skateboarding in the early 1990s. Skateboarding by default took me places covered in graffiti while we searched for the next skate spot and had many graffiti writers involved in skateboarding too.

My first time going out tagging was in 1992 with a fat cap I took off a window cleaner spray on an ultra flat black Krylon I stole from my dads garage. I grew up in south-east Los Angeles during the rise of tag-banging and luckily was more attracted to the craft and putting in street bombs than the gang banging/tagging hybrid that was tag-banging then. I first wrote Grind as I was a skater but within a year had switched over to the name I write now, Nels. I started up TLB crew in 1995 with core members Skuz, Merk, Ploe, Weble & Paradox. I grew up seeing around & inspired by 90s LA writers like Hex, Mear CBS, Skill UTI, Pistol 45 (P.45), Gin & Duece from TNT, Ozie YR, Slick, Fear & Dove, Dream from Oakland, Gkae, Tyke NASA crew, Pryer SKA, Vox One, and fellow crew member Craola CBS WAI among the many that were active during my early years in the graff game. Books like 12 oz prophet, and the video graff VHS series were hard to come by but were also highly sought after in the days before internet for insights into other graffiti scenes. Painting graffiti yards on weekends were sure places to get some pieces in and also catch other writers in action as well as maybe see someone get caught slipping. Yards like The Commerce Yard, The Belmont Tunnel, Motor Yard, Soto Yard, Venice Pit, Ferguson Yard, The Swamps, and there was always the seemingly never ending LA River were popping off then.

I think I’ve retained the LA mid 90s style I picked up. I’d def describe it as inspired by the 1990s graffiti active during those days although I do try to keep the funk and techniques current. Stepping out of my comfort zone lately with characters and more detailed backgrounds I feel is important to keep the craft relevant and push the crews I’m apart of up. I joined SFE crew in 1997 and LAW crew in 1999. Around 2002 I joined WAI crew also known as WAISTED crew. Now I do graffiti art professionally and full time and get to travel the world and work with other creative minds and artists in a field that is both rewarding and lucrative. I’m proud to be apart of a culture that started from the streets in the shadows and is now recognized for being a powerhouse of creativity and artistic innovation.