On Valentine’s Day, the Free Expression Tunnel hosted a massive piece of art dedicated to singles everywhere: it featured a shark and read, “Love Bites.” When students stopped to marvel, few noticed a spray paint-covered Jason Payne standing off to the side watching.
Payne drives a party bus by day and does mostly illegal street-art by night. He spent his first two years as a street artist practicing at the Free Expression Tunnel, and now he’s back to try some of his more ambitious projects there.
A creative child, Payne explained his art career started with stick figure Ninja Turtles that he would draw with friends. “It went from stick figure Ninja Turtles to being able to draw them off the top of my head,” Payne said. “I always liked to draw and create but painting never clicked with me. I was always into pencil drawing and sculpting.”
Payne moved to Raleigh in 2001 to study graphic design at the School of Communication Arts in Wake Forest, but quickly realized that it wasn’t for him.
“There were a lot of things that turned me off about the school,” Payne said. “If I had pursued what I was trying to do at SCA I would have never picked up on graffiti like I did. I would have never been able to go out and put things up. I would have been stuck inside somewhere.”
According to Payne, it was realizing that he couldn’t work with the traditional methods that pushed him into graffiti. “I lost a lot of my inhibitions on paper,” Payne said. “I hadn’t even started messing with canvas because it seemed like such a daunting task, approaching a blank canvas or page. Even though I felt like I could draw, the medium itself was a challenge.”
Payne explained that, for his process, he approaches his “canvas” with a blank mind and no prior plans. “With any blank area, whether it was an actual canvas or a wall, one of the first things I do now is mar up the space,” Payne said. “A lot of the time I’ll just throw paint on it. I’ll work the wall with different colors, putting it all on there, without a definite plan. It starts coming together and I’ll see things I can do in it.”
According to Payne, it’s important to let an area speak to him. He explained that allowing himself time to soak up the area lets him step back and really understand what he’s working with.
“That was one of the reasons I stopped concept drawing,” Payne said. “When I would come with a plan before the piece, it was frustrating to have an idea and not be able to watch it come to life.”
Since his first tag in 2004, Payne estimated that he’s done a couple hundred pieces. When he first started, he would go out every day and find something he could do.
“When I first started, it was so exciting that I wanted to go out and put up as much as I could,” Payne said. “It’s always been a combination of both wanting and not wanting people to see my stuff. Maybe nobody else will ever see it…it’s been a journey.”
According to Payne, much of his inspiration comes from other artists. Juxtapoz, a west coast art and culture magazine, is a main source of Payne’s inspiration.
“I’m visually stimulated by everything in the magazine,” Payne said. He said that he was also inspired by the articles in the magazines, as he found it interesting to read about other artists’ perspectives and takes on life. “It can pull me out of a slump,” he said.
Payne is currently making plans for his biggest project yet: a warehouse five times the size of his “Love Bites,” piece. “It’s exciting,” Payne said. “If everything goes as planned, who knows what will happen. If you go hard with it, network and keep at it, there’s no telling what kind of opportunities will open up for you.”
