My name is Kailani (Campbell) Carrillo.

I am Dinétah (Navajo) and Mexican-American from the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico. I was born in Bellevue, Washington and grew there until I was 2 years old. I have spent my childhood, teen and young adult life in Northern New Mexico creating memories I deeply cherish with all the people I love. The soul of my name, given to me at birth, has lead me to grow roots in Hawai'i, (historically known through the Hawaiian people as the land of Mū).

While living in New Mexico, I became a professional muralist specializing in aerosol art, fine art, graphic design, silkscreen printing, airbrush art and custom auto-body painting. My artistic style has gained a wide range of creativity through these experiences and I owe it all to graffiti art.
 
When I was a child, my dad bought me a calligraphy pen set for Christmas and showed me how to write with a chisel tipped pen. I was intrigued. As I grew older, I morphed my penmanship various times to see what styles I could create. Soft or harsh, large or tinny, tall and slim, wide and short... there were so many ways to style letters.. so many different combinations. Little did I know, there was an entire world that would cater to my letter morphing obsession.

It wasn’t long before the knowledge of Graffiti came to me. I was attending high school in Shiprock when I met a classmate in my biology class and he noticed that the front of my notebook read “BIOLOGY” in 3D block letters. He called it graffiti and told me everything he knew about it. Once I herd that, I was hooked for life. I was 15 years old and it engulfed me so much more than anything else life was showing me on the reservation. I finally knew what to call my obsession and I fully embraced it from that day forward.

 

 

I started writing graffiti in 2006, when I was 16 years old. When I introduce myself as a Graff Artist I like to say, “I came out of Shiprock”. I feel it is very important to show respect for the town that is home to the birth of my graffiti alias. In graffiti, we have a special name that we use and only other graffiti writers know these names. My inspiration at the time was that I wanted to see my name everywhere. I loved the concept of my gender, nationality, and identity being hidden. In this world, no one knows who you are. They just know your name. It’s up to you to show the other writers how far you can push the art form based on your skills only. I fell in love with the freedom of graffiti. Unlike traditional art forms that contain so many rules, I quickly realized that this art form has no limits and this is exactly what I needed. No limits.

The art of graffiti has always pushed me far beyond my own boundries. It gave me a tremendous amount of confidence, self-reassurance, stability and independence. I couldn’t live without it in my life because it taught me how to take control of who I am. It showed me how to not be afraid of a mans world and that I could be just as good as they are. I feel eventually, graffiti was and is meant to be apart of me.

 

 

In a world of no limitations, this opened up many professional opportunities for me. Without a degree, I became a graphic artist and worked for various design companies in New Mexico and Hawai’i. I became a Mural Arts Instructor and helped lead a team of teens in a massive mural project for our community. I conducted my first gallery opening featuring my own handmade paintings. I started a small side business and created my own brand with a clothing line, stickers, art prints, posters, paintings and commissions for clients. I grew a large social media following by learning how to promote and advertise my work. I easily picked up video editing and started to venture into producing my own music. Both of these additional skills greatly improved my online presence. I picked up the art of photography and found a love for capturing people and foliage. I created videos and photos of building my own canvases, live paintings, vector art time lapses, mural time lapses, graffiti time lapses and musical performances of myself and friends.

In this process of discovering all the opportunities that Graffiti had lead me to, I naturally became an event coordinator. Life gave me the skills and a wonderful team in my community to make this happen and I didn’t hesitate. I am now able to lead my own events that are youth inspired in art, music and healing.

Because of Graffiti, I have an impressive work resume, the knowledge needed to stablize my own business, many avenues of creative expression and most importantly, the ability to relate to teens who need my inspiration.

Healing trauma and pain comes in many forms. My experience is just one example in a million. I hope to inspire many others to share their stories with young ones when they feel open to it. All we need is one to uplift another and our world can change. Before you know it, life won’t be so hard anymore..   

Thank you for having the courage to grow with me and read these words straight from my heart.

Kailani

Heavenly Ocean SEASKY