VNICE World is standing in a drained pool painted black. The temperature is 90 degrees, but inside his universe, it feels much hotter.
He holds a paint brush in one hand and a bucket of primer in the other. The inside of the drained pool is baking in the afternoon sun, but the opportunity is evident: It’s a blank canvas.
He crouches down to bring his “heavy metal mood” to life and paints the first touches of his art piece – white strokes from the edge of the pool to the middle. The strokes don’t make sense to an outsider, but he understands the intention behind every curve.
“The less you understand it, the better,” he said, before making the second arc.
The 29-year-old artist is known for his murals scattered across buildings in east Tulsa. His murals sometimes depict political issues, which have led to online harassment. He asked La Semana to not publicize his legal name.
Tulsans can find his art in the underpass driving into town from Highway 169 toward East 21st Street. Or on the sides of the Elevate East building near 21st and Garnett streets. It’s inside restaurants and businesses, and, in today’s case, a pool for a show hosted by Art House Tulsa, which offers programs and resources to local artists.
“Who better to do it than somebody that’s part of the community, you know, just down the street,” he said. “I grew up right here on Garnett. This is basically my second home.”
VNICE has left a literal mark on east Tulsa over the years. And it started with a friendly act from a neighbor.
Finding ‘a real job’
His family migrated to Tulsa from Mexico in the early 2000s to join his grandparents.
As early as first grade, VNICE recalls sketching horses and cars with an art set gifted by his neighbor. He sold his first commission of a religious painting a few years later, but art was just a hobby.
Long-time friend Joel Ramos said he remembers when VNICE began expressing himself artistically in middle and high school. He started hanging out with a more creative crowd and carrying himself differently.
“When someone has a feeling that they’re meant for something and they go towards that goal, it’s fulfilling in life,” Ramos said. “I feel like he’s doing the right thing in his life.”
VNICE remembers thinking that he had to get “a real job.” He enrolled at the University of Tulsa and eventually graduated with a business degree in energy management. He put art to the side and only picked it up for fun.
“If I really believed in myself way back, right when I started college or maybe even a little bit before, I feel like I would have been further ahead,” he said.
Connecting with art again
VNICE graduated in 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He struggled to find a job in his field. He picked up shifts at a bar and reignited his passion for art on the side.
He learned to control a spray paint can relatively quickly. It only took him about two months before he began painting more detailed murals, including portraits.
By November 2021, he completed a mural at Chimi’s on Cherry Street. His next client saw the mural there and commissioned him to paint another.
“From there on, it was like a snowball effect, and it just kept me busy,” VNICE said. “Now it’s just full-time art.”
He painted a mural at the former downtown bar MixCo in January 2022. Next it was a mural at the Arts District’s Soundpony later that month. Then another commission at Eiffel Tower Grilled Cheese Co. a month later. He spray painted the Jambito Bus.
The paint kept spraying, and the list of murals grew longer. It wasn’t until last year where he felt the “waves were finally calming down.” But the work continued.
As part of a city initiative to improve the Crosbie Heights neighborhood, he painted a Van Gogh-inspired mural on the 3rd Street underpass of I-244. Then, the Tulsa Global District commissioned him and a few other artists to paint the welcome mural under the Highway 169 underpass.
He’s also collaborated with Art House Tulsa to bring other murals to life. The organization ignited around the same time as he was reconnecting with art. It was one of the first times he saw a younger artistic crowd.
“Seeing people like them that were kind of almost my same age as me and Mexican and the same group of friends, it felt nice just being around that,” VNICE said.
Ramos, his longtime friend and owner of Tuly’s Tacos in downtown, said it was a no-brainer to pick VNICE when he wanted to add artwork to his brick-and-mortar location.
“With him it’s not just talent. It’s like, definitely a vision thing,” he said. “If you ever see him, the way he does his work … just observing him, his tactics are pretty creative, you know, really creative.”
Bringing a different perspective
Some people consider spray paint artwork graffiti, but to Ramos that isn’t the case. VNICE’s artwork brings a different perspective to east Tulsa.
“VNICE is showing that you can express yourself and have a career,” Ramos said. “He’s demonstrating that you have the power to make something beautiful despite the stereotypes out there.”
Francisco Treviño, executive director for the nonprofit arts center Casa de la Cultura, said VNICE is one of the only muralists in Tulsa putting Hispanic names out in the art world. The two met in 2021, when VNICE had just started his journey back into art.
“As an artist, he doesn’t just belong in east Tulsa, he belongs all over Tulsa, and even Oklahoma,” Treviño said. “For Tulsa, VNICE is one of the artists that puts a good name out there for Hispanics.”
VNICE won’t be putting down the spray can any time soon. He draws inspiration from his family and his goal to ensure they don’t have to worry about working when they get older.
“If I’m not doing one medium, you know, I’m doing another,” he said. “And if I’m not doing anything and my dad or brother catches me, they’re like, ‘Hey, you want to come work with me on this?’ So I always have to be doing something.”
That “something” today is the pool. He’s still baking in it, still spraying.
The once black-painted pool is now home to his heavy metal-inspired art. Lines textured similar to rock letters, a green beetle and a body outline are spray painted into the tiles.
It’s a world his childhood self couldn’t have imagined. But VNICE knows how that first grader would feel seeing his success now.
“Man, I’d be proud,” he said.
Lea este artículo en español aquí.
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.
Francisco Treviño is a member of the community advisory committee for the Tulsa Flyer. News decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
