If you’re looking for love in all the wrong places, head over to 495 North Hollywood. You’ll find it about 1,200 times.
Renda Writer painted the word “love” in off-red, black, and burgundy hundreds of times on the front and sides of Meaty Graffiti, a new art gallery at that address.
A New York native, Writer, 43, a traveling mural artist who lives out of his van, was the featured artist at a pop-up show February 11th at the gallery. To date, he’s painted more than 500 murals in eight countries.
His public murals in Memphis include a red-and-white “Love” mural at 711 Martin Luther King Boulevard. “That was done during Paint Memphis one year,” Writer says. “I’ve done that (Paint Memphis) three or four times. A few I have in town were done for that.”
His other Memphis murals include a “Love” mural in white, pink, and periwinkle blue by the old Lamar movie theater. He also painted “Memphis” inside a heart at a local brewery.
About 90 percent of his murals involve words, says Writer, who calls himself a “Handwritten Artist.”
“The whole reason I do words and my art is on words is the emphasis of writing things into existence. It’s very important in my work. The work is meant to emphasize that idea and also the power behind words. The idea that words, especially, carry energy and are a tool or vessel for conveying energy or moving energy forward.”
Writer, who was a poet before he ever did any visual art, also uses an L7 pattern, which he describes as “a series of uppercase Ls and abstract 7s.”
He puts all the Ls and 7s together “in various configurations so all the negative space is filled” in his art works.
Writer painted on a bus, a baby crib, a beer tap for a brewery, and a wooden sushi boat for a Miami chef. He also painted on people — body art. “My art is all about handwriting, but I’m a mixed media or multi-media artist. I like to do something other than words on a canvas.”
Writer also has painted 82 murals, which he calls “World Peace” murals. He currently is working on one in Hialeah, Florida.
And, he says, “I’m also doing digital art now, which is the future of the art world. It’s a whole other tool in my tool box now.”
Jennifer Tiscia, who owns Meaty Graffiti, “fell in love with his art” after she learned about Writer on Instagram.
“The whole reason I opened this gallery is I’m just a fan girl of street art and pop art,” she says. “I’ve been an accountant for all these years sitting at a desk working on spread sheets. The last few years I’ve taken all my vacations to go to mural festivals.”
Writer is “a big reason why I did this at all. One day when I was sitting in an office looking at a spread sheet, which I still do by the way, I just had this feeling, ‘If I have to look at another spread sheet today, I may jump out of the window.’”
Those are the times Tiscia will take a break and sketch or look at art works on her phone. “That kind of centers me again so I can get the energy to go back to work.”
This particular time she was looking at her phone. “I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw one of his pieces that said, ‘Your Comfort Zone Will Kill You.’ And when I saw that, it hit me and I thought, ‘That’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m sitting here in my comfort zone and I feel like it’s killing me.’ I needed to stretch a little more and take a chance and do something I love.”
She officially opened Meaty Graffiti last November. “We don’t have something like that in Memphis where we really celebrate our street artists and celebrate our pop artists like that. I just wanted to bring that here.”
Writer also featured his art work on canvas in addition to his outdoor mural at the pop up. “My concept for all my artists is, ‘I have a blank canvas that I offer you. You can do whatever you want inside and outside of the building,’” Tiscia says.
The next artist could come in and also decide to paint the front and sides of her gallery, which would erase Writer’s mural. “This is temporary,” Tiscia says.
So, what if it started raining while Writer was on that ladder painting his mural at Meaty Graffiti? “I would have just kept working,” he says. “And if the rain got really serious, I’d stop and wait for it to stop.
“I’ve done hundreds of murals in all kinds of weather. I don’t really worry about that kind of thing too much. Part of the zen of being a person is knowing what you can control and what you can’t. You certainly can’t control the weather.”
