The visual layering  that surrounds us in the city produces an aesthetic born of history. Remnants of what has been left behind by commerce, neglect, and the struggle for identity create a cultural collage. In this dynamic patchwork, the unique visions of many lone artists have bested corporate ubiquity in the competition for our attention. This is the arena that Blanco has thrust himself in, at once figuratively and literally a contributor and beneficiary of this Darwinian world.

Where are you from?

I have spent significant parts of my life in Massachusetts, the Texas panhandle, Wyoming and upstate NY but for the last six years I have been living on The Planet Brooklyn

How has your home shaped what you do?

For me, my surroundings have always shaped my life and what I do, but I think the thing that has influenced me the most was my time I spent in Texas. In the first and second grades I attended an elementary school which was primarily Black and Hispanic, on free and reduced lunch, while I lived on the other side of the city which was primarily white and affluent. On the one hand I had friends who slept two or three kids to a bed, they had only two sets of clothes and some of those kids were working already in first grade. And then on the other hand I knew kids whose parents had two houses and everything they wanted was supplied for them. Seeing that kind of inequality at such a young age has had a huge influence on my life and the things I want to create.

Are you formally educated and what influence has it had on you and your work?

I am formally educated in things like history and anthropology but not really any art. I took a photo class and a drawing class in college. I have tried to educate myself through observation. I think that because I don't really have any formal training for creating things there are a lot of fundamentals that I am lacking, and I need to work on. Sometimes if makes me less confident.

What mediums are you drawn to?

Street art, because I think it can be more communicative then work in a museum, gallery or something like that. Its a relatively small number of people who actually go to galleries and museums. For me, I want to go to the people.
But answering the question more specifically; I'm just learning mostly, but any medium could interest me at any time, it just comes down to means. Most of my work is with stencils but lately I have been working on doing more free hand painting acrylic, pen and ink, screen printing, cut paper, and I want to start doing some linoleum cuts. Anything that lends itself to the streets.

What is your inspiration?

So many things. Lately: papel picado, T.C. Cannon, Islamic patterns, Os Gemeos, Kehinde Wiley.
Long term inspirations: Swoon, books, the people around me and things happening around the world. 

What is your work process?

Make things, put them on street, hope people see them before the buff comes.

What are you working on now?

I am trying to create a piece based on Ralph Waldo Ellison's “Invisible Man”

Photo by Luna Park

Photo byJake Dobkin

Photo by Luna Park