by Marcella Ortega
Daily Lobo
A few years ago, Bradford came to the realization that he cannot draw.
"I still had the urge to make pictures, so I had to find some other way to translate what I saw in my head," he said.
Bradford takes the art of stencil graffiti and applies it to canvas, cardboard, particle board and just about anything else he can get his hands on. His old yellow Volkswagen Beetle is covered with stenciled black
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bananas.
He said stenciling gives him instant gratification.
"It's like playing God," he said. "You point your finger and command color to appear."
Bradford signs each of his paintings with only his first name. He said it is not because he wants to be like Madonna.
"I don't like the way my name sounds, so I just go by Bradford." he said.
Bradford grew up in Albuquerque and graduated from Manzano High School. When he is not at work screen printing T-shirts, Bradford spends his free time painting at Studio Broadway, an art studio at 1814 Broadway Blvd. S.E.
"I choose to blame the Studio Broadway for me being an artist," he said. "It's not the building, but the people. Much like a church, it's not necessarily a building - it's the people who fill it. Without them, I would be nowhere."
Bradford said he likes to recontextualize famous photos in the stencils he makes for his paintings. "A Dropped Call" depicts a boy similar to the one in the Diane Arbus photo "Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park."
"Part of the joke is like, 'What's she going do?'" he said. "I like using work by people already recognized, because it grabs people's attention."
Bradford replaced the hand grenade in the child's hand with a cell phone in his painting.
"He's all zombified and frustrated," he said. "You see people in that position all the time, and the sad part is that I see children with cell phones more and more. They are supposed to make our lives easier, but they end up making it more complicated."
The stenciled word "blasphemo" appears in the background many times, which is typical of his paintings. He said the word has several meanings.
"Everybody seems to have some word these days that they attribute to themselves, especially in the graffiti scene," he said. "Originally, blasphemo stuck because it sounds like a Spanglish version of blasphemy, which it is not at all. It started out at that because I've been called all sorts of things, and blasphemous is one of them."
Bradford said the word also has religious connotations.
"For a Catholic to call a Muslim a blasphemer, it is an insult from the Catholic's perspective," he said. "But to a Muslim, it is a reinforcement of their own faith. So, to be called a blasphemer by someone who doesn't believe in what you believe in is kind of a back-handed compliment. So, I was always intrigued by the word
blasphemy."
Bradford said the word is also a pseudonym for him when it is divided into "Blas Phemo." He said it represents the Catholic St. Blaise, or San Blas, the patron saint of throat illnesses.
"I attribute sore throats to lost voices," he said. "With a sore throat, it is hard to communicate."
Bradford said in the future he would like to design billboards and make wall-size installments of his paintings.
"It's therapy - painting," he said. "I don't have the money or time for a psychologist, and we all have our bad days."
See Bradford's work at the
Blue Dragon
1517 Girard Blvd. N.E.
Dec. 18-Feb. 18
Monday-Friday
7 a.m.-11 p.m.
Saturday
8 a.m.-11 p.m.
Sunday
9 a.m.-11 p.m.
