Artist takes work from alley to art gallery

A quip is a witty remark, especially one made on the spur of the moment.

It's also the name of the artist whose mural was on the outside wall of Angel Alley in Nob Hill until recently.

Quip is showing seven pieces in the boutique at the Cirq Art Gallery until April 29.

"Six of them are on vellum and acrylic, and then there is one on wood, and there are about five Sharpie illustrations," Quip said.

A gallery showing is not something she normally does or wants to continue doing often, Quip said.

"If galleries are pretty loose about what you do, then I'm into that," Quip said. "But I think I want to get back into street art. I kind of want to kick it back to the original medium, which is on the street."

Quip said she was first introduced to the scene in Houston when she was in middle school.

"I met this girl who had an older brother," she said. "He was this gnarly kind of dude who was into Slayer and Morbid Angel, and we were never allowed into his room. One day, he was gone doing whatever, and we went into his room, and he just had all kinds of graffiti everywhere. He had all these disgusting books, and it was just pretty crazy."

Quip was born in Los Angeles and moved between there and Houston before coming to Albuquerque.

"I just got into a lot of disco shit and had to get into a lot of trouble," Quip said. "I just came here because I was a little delinquent, and my mom didn't want to deal with it anymore."

Her piece on Angel Alley was one of the best promotional gigs, she said.

"The owners of Angel Alley contacted me on MySpace, and they said they would buy the paint," Quip said. "That's always fun because you get to go to the spray paint store and pick out what you need."

Quip said her first piece on Angel Alley had a bucket of paint splashed on it.

"It's kind of cool that somebody dissed the first piece because I got to paint another one for free," she said.

Quip said it's the nature of street art to be able to let go of your pieces.

"It isn't going to be there forever," she said. "I have kind of adapted that attitude toward everything I do. I have had a few pieces get stolen. I have had a few pieces get ruined just because of my own dumbass-ness. I spilled beer on them."

Quip said it's been a while since she was heavily involved with the street art scene.

"Mayor Martin Chavez got a little too heavy with the buff, so it kind of killed it," she said. "A lot of reasons you want to do that shit is to get up and get seen. So it kind of just discouraged me, so I have been doing more painting and stuff like that."

Quip said a friend of hers was caught doing street art, and since then, his life has gone downhill.

"I saw the degeneration of his spirit happen throughout that whole thing, and I think that is what made me calm down a lot," she said. "You can catch a felony, and he had a really hard time getting back into it. And for a lot of people, that whole thing becomes your identity, so it can be pretty devastating."

Artwork by Quip

Through April 29

Cirq Art Gallery

712 Central Ave. S.E.

Free