You can smell the aerosol from the airbrush art machine the moment you step into Irvin Sigala’s art studio in his parents’ backyard.
His compressor and airbrush gun sit ready in the right corner along with about 30 bottles of paint nearby. The room has his art hanging on the walls: A green Betty Boop, a closeup of an eye with stars in it, a pillow with a man’s face airbrushed on top.
Clothing hangs from a rod on the back wall. Each piece has a unique design showcasing his airbrush artwork. A purple shirt with his first screen printing design from eighth grade hangs on the clothing rod. His favorite piece from the early years of airbrushing, a white shirt featuring a character, sits on a hanger.
Sigala is one of a few airbrush artists in the Tulsa art community. Airbrush is making a comeback, he said.
“There’s a big generation right now that is pushing out the airbrush and how it was in the ‘90s and in the ‘80s,” he said. “Every decade has its time. I don’t think it ever stopped.”
At only 20, Sigala hopes to be part of that movement and inspire others to try new things — like learning more about different types of art.
Art has always been a central element of his life. He was in eighth grade when he designed his first screen printing shirt. He later took pictures for the high school yearbook, inspiring a love for photography.
“I would just draw just like how every kid would in notebooks and stuff,” Sigala said. “People were like, ‘that should be on shirts.’ They saw this vision before I did.”
Airbrushing isn’t hard, he said —- it simply takes practice. He recommends patience, steadiness and, especially, confidence.
“I was trying to learn the trigger with my hands, so once I got to that I was like, ‘I got to take my time,’” he said. “Four years later, I still need to take my time.”
His older sister supported him from the beginning. Jazmin Sigala bought an airbrush machine meant for makeup and nails for herself. It became Irvin’s first airbrush machine.
From the first time he picked up the machine, she knew her brother had talent.
“It’s intriguing to see how it’s almost like using a brush but you’re not even touching the canvas,” she said.
Irvin Sigala eventually purchased a better-equipped machine with a stronger compressor to airbrush art on clothes and put finer details onto murals.
He brings the art to life through his clothing brand Drip Down Happiness. He also airbrushes art for local businesses, such as Dulce Vida Cafe, a Mexican-inspired coffee shop in south Tulsa, and Ty’s Hamburgers in midtown.
“The art has always been going, but the business aspect, I’ve been refining,” he said. “Like I’m not a professional. I don’t go to school for art or business or anything. I’m all self-taught so, like, everything you see is a trust of time.”
He doesn’t feel like he fits into Tulsa’s art community. He’s young and does a unique art form. The up-and-coming airbrusher has asked for help from other artists — “left, right and center” — and he isn’t always getting it.
“I don’t fit in ‘cuz people don’t want to help each other,” he said. “And for the art that I do, I’m like, I don’t do different art. I do the exact same thing as other people. I don’t think there’s anything special, but I think there’s a sense of love that I show a lot.”
In the future, the 20-year-old hopes the art community stops being as competitive. He thinks you learn by asking, but it’s been humbling.
“We’re trying to be the best person than we were the day before and if you’re not then you’re an egotistical person,” he said. “I just wish people worked together more.”
Irvin’s ambitions include expanding to other art forms including oil painting, sculpture and photography, while still using airbrushing for details on certain pieces. Every artist should try airbrushing as a medium at some point, he says, if even just for the experience of doing something different.
His advice for fellow artists? Choose what you love to do and commit to it.
“If you invest in yourself, it obviously shows in the work,” he said. “Creativity beats a lot of things, but with investment, you got to do that too.”
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
