Dope Ass Conversations #5: Sentrock
Or: The Man Behind Some of Chicago's Best Murals
If you’ve ever spent a significant amount of time in Chicago, chances are that you’ve come across Sentrock’s artwork. You may not necessarily recognize the name, but murals featuring his signature character of a boy wearing a red bird mask adorn so walls across the city that they’re hard to miss.
Sentock’s latest project actually ventures away from this iconic character though. His most recent gallery, entitled G.A.N.G., chooses to highlight a character wearing a ski mask with doves emerging from their eye creating a very surreal image. The pieces are hand drawn as well, which is also different from his street art as they are typically painted. He’s called this specific project his most vulnerable to date, as these drawings invite you into a dedicated to his late brother. Along with the gallery, he created a zine that adds context to this story, in which he writes “This is a collection of thoughts, reflections and conversations… I constantly deal with survivers [sic] guilt & not being there for loved ones. Not sure if this correlates but it’s all that was on my mind & I had to get this off my chest.”
When I met up with Sentrock— real name Joseph Perez— he welcomed me and my friend into his personal studio in the Pilsen neighborhood. He gave us brief tour and of the front and back space of it. The walls were lined up with different paintings, sketches, prints that he’s worked on throughout the years. I’m always humbled when I’m invited into an artist’s studio, as it feels like I’m entering their personal sanctuary. Before starting our interview, he asked me all types of questions about myself with a genuine curiosity of who I am. It’s not everyday that the interviewer turns into the interviewee.
By the end of our conversation though, which couldn’t have been no more than 15-20 minutes, he welcomed me to come back and visit anytime, as well as giving my friend and I autographed copies of his zine. Despite only sharing space for about half hour, Sentrock made me feel like we’ve been homies forever. He is truly a man of the people.
Q: Who is Sentrock?
A: I will say I consider myself a street artist. I was born in Phoenix, Arizona. I've been in Chicago for the past 10 years is creating, working, developing my art.
You just had your recent gallery for G.A.N.G. and when I checked it out and talked to you there, you talked about how it’s really just all about the importance of family. Can you elaborate on that?
The G.A.N.G. acronym means God's Angels Never Gone, and I was just thinking of that. Well, the first part was just meant like family, as in your people. You know what I mean? That's what it’s like. Who you ride with, who you gonna go with. Live and die with type of thing. Then I wrote the acronym God’s Angels Never Gone because I feel like your family, whether they're here with us or not, they're always gonna be with you. They're never leaving. So I tried to like take that and take on what that would mean. If I were to, you know, share stories from my family and stuff.
You posted about how this project is different from your previous work by being a lot more vulnerable then before. What led to your decision to go in that direction?
I don’t even know if it was a conscious decision. It was more just like, this is the work that started to develop over time, like just creating like, “alright, what do I want this show to look like?” Like what's a good cohesive body of work? And then I just kind of stuck with with the image of a ski mask and people with a mask on with birds coming out of the eyes. And then that's when I came with the name of G.A.N.G. like, “alright, what if I did all these characters throwing up gang signs in different situations they were in.” But I think it just started to develop very organically. It wasn't like a conscious decision like “this is what I want to do, I want to do it different.” It just kind of came out and I had to like, be okay with that. Because I think majority people that follow my work, recognize me or like what I do with the character I developed, you know, like this bird mask character. Which I, you know, I love to do, but I guess with this I just had to allow myself to be develop something different. I don’t know if that answers the question (laughs).
Nah, you good, that makes sense. You just mentioned your bird mask character. I read somewhere that it’s supposed to be a cardinal mask, correct? That bird is really meaningful to me, so I just wanted to ask if there was a specific reason you chose a cardinal mask. Like is there any significance for that bird or was it like another unconscious decision?
Yeah, I would say it's a bit of both. So when I started off drawing birds, it wasn't really “this is a cardinal,” it was just more of like the symbol of a bird. And then, you know, being out here in Chicago, to be honest the first time I saw an actual cardinal was maybe only a few years ago, I actually saw in my front yard. I was just looking out my window, I was like “oh my god, look at this cardinal!” You know, when you see one in real life, you're like, “yo, that's such a beautiful bird.”
Yeah I saw one yesterday, it fucked me up in a good way.
Yeah! Cuz there's symbolic too, you know? And so it was like portraying just an idea of a bird and then doing it red kind of came like, alright, I want it to stand out. And then now it's like, oh, yeah, this this is definitely a cardinal because of, you know, so much symbolism that goes into it.
You mentioned earlier that you’re from Phoenix. What’s the differences in the art communities between Phoenix and Chicago?
The difference I mean, off top is just the history. You know, you got you got names out here that you could spit off the top of your head that are super raw artists, even you know, musicians. And in Phoenix, you don't really, I mean, I can't even think of a couple off the top of my head that are like, “Oh, this dude, that dude.” It's like out here, you got so much history of culture and art. That's the probably the biggest difference. The culture just has so much more history and foundation for someone like me or anybody to build upon and grow.
You just had a collaboration with National Geographic, you’ve worked with the Chicago Bulls, and you got a collab coming with the White Sox. You’ve done a lot of great work with larger quote unquote institutions. Is there any particular collaboration or accomplishment that you’re proud of?
Yeah, Sox collab coming this summer, but they need to start winning (laughs). I mean, obviously, just the ones you know, with the Bulls, they’re a historic legendary organization. Converse reached out to me to do some like the Chucks that was super big for me because me and most people grew up wearing Chuck especially on the West Coast, like everybody wore chucks, that was their daily shoe. Anything that like, when I was a kid, younger me was like, “Oh, this is a goal.” And then now I look back and all these brands are working with me. I think that's a big accomplishment for me to show.
I know you first got into art through doing graffiti and I actually just got into graffiti last year. So I just wanted to ask what advice would you give to any young graffiti artists because it’s like such a weird space to navigate because it’s still criminalized technically.
It definitely still is a crime. It is what it is, and that’s what gives it that edge, you know what I mean? You can see anything as kind of a crime in this society too you know. Like, look at Mexicans, they’re seen as criminals just for coming over here. I think with graffiti, if we’re talking about the act of it, like the part of going out and doing it or we’re talking about the art form of it, I feel like are two separate wings of the same bird. You know, like some people love to just go and get that adrenaline going out and crushing it. And then some people just love the art form of it. So I don’t know, is it maybe some specific advice you’re asking for?
I guess it can be advice about anything. Whether it’s just like how to turn it into an actual career or it can just be advice on like how to avoid getting caught up by the law.
Well, I would say, I'm trying to think because like I stopped doing letters a lot for our community. But I think when it comes to graffiti, it's like that act of defying society and being free. I think just channeling that, you know, channeling that freedom because like every now and then I'll still go out and do something just to get it off my chest, even though I'm in my 30s now, but it's still like that itch don't really ever leave. I think that's what keeps the graffiti street art culture like pure and honest.
Where did you come up with the name of Sentrock?
That’s just a nickname, the homies gave me. So one of the first crews that I used to roll with, they have a chapter out here, it's called GA- Graffaholiks, and another chapter in Phoenix where I got the nickname “Sent” and then I added rock when I started like breakdancing. Breakdancing is still pretty big, but back then in the early 2000s, it was kind of popping back then.
I know you're also recent father. So just how is how's it being a father man? I remember, like, you're tweeting about that shit for a minute. How has that just like really just changed your life and your art?
I mean, it changes everything. If you really want to be a father, it changes everything you know, for the better. It gives you perspective on life, it gives you perspective on who I am, who I want to be as a person because then you start to think like “Alright, I got to raise this little baby into a being.” So it's like what are my morals, what are my beliefs or what do I want him to develop like as a kid? So like, now I had to start thinking about all that stuff before you're just doing your own thing. I guess I'm just grateful that I'm in a place in my life that I'm not as selfish as I used to because I just felt like, you know, we're all a little bit selfish, but having a kid really reminds you like yeah, you can focus on yourself, but it reminds you that there's so much more that you got to focus on too.
Why should people rock with Sentrock?
I just feel like I like to share stories more than I feel like I like painting. I like art and all that. But I feel like I'm more of a creative storyteller. Like I just want to continue to share stories and if you see all my pieces, I feel like they're all trying to say something, and I think I'm going to continue to develop different stories and continue to develop work for the genuine, authentic, average person like me or you.
You can follow and keep up with Joseph’s work by following him @sentrock on IG and Twitter. You can also see him throw the first pitch at this Thursday’s White Sox game, as well as receive a free t-shirt that he designed by copping tix here.
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