{"id":58824,"date":"2019-05-02T12:15:27","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T16:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockx.com\/news\/?p=58824"},"modified":"2019-10-01T11:52:55","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T15:52:55","slug":"sw-freddy-cinco-de-mayo-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stockx.com\/news\/sw-freddy-cinco-de-mayo-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist SW Freddy on Cinco de Mayo, South West Detroit, Vans, and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, StockX caught up with the artist Freddy Diaz<\/a>, aka SW Freddy. A homegrown Detroiter hailing from South West Detroit, Freddy has been creating graffiti and street art since he was 11. Most recently he’s been painting murals honoring his heritage, his community, and his city.<\/p>\n

In addition to his aerosol art, he’s also designed shoes for Vans which we’re giving away through a Cinco de Mayo social giveaway. To be eligible to win a pair of SW Freddy’s Vans, you must follow @StockxSneakers<\/a> and @swfreddy<\/a>, “Like” the post, “Tag” 3 friends, and “Comment” with your shoe size. The giveaway begins 5\/5\/2019 and lasts until 5\/6\/2019, 12:00 pm EST.<\/p>\n

The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. <\/em><\/p>\n

StockX: Please introduce yourself.<\/b><\/h2>\n

SW Freddy: My name is Freddy Diaz. [The name] SW Freddy came when I started to think about branding. That really didn\u2019t come about until I started doing murals. But I\u2019m just a young artist from Detroit, born and raised. I\u2019m the son of immigrants from Mexico. My parents lived in North Carolina first, and then moved to Detroit when they had an opportunity to work for Ford.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SW<\/p>\n

What is Cinco de Mayo?<\/b><\/h2>\n

People really get it confused as an independence day. It really celebrates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla. In the states, people celebrate it way different than in Mexico. In Mexico, people don\u2019t really celebrate it at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Detroit, it became it\u2019s own thing, where you start to see parades, lowriders come out, not only Mexicans but Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, all the Latino community comes out for the parades. That\u2019s how I was educated about Cinco de Mayo growing up, as a Mexican-American. <\/span><\/p>\n

So what does South West Detroit do to celebrate Cinco de Mayo? <\/b><\/h2>\n

Every Sunday following Cinco de Mayo, there\u2019s a parade. People would register their cars, floats, and all the businesses would get together to do the parade. It\u2019s cool, because South West has a long identity as a Hispanic community, so for us to have a parade every year is great. Thinking about this history has been really important to me because it\u2019s inspired me, and instilled a sense of identity in me as an artist thinking about what do I want to create and who do I want to represent. [The parade] and Cinco de Mayo has been a stamp of cultural identity for South West and also having people come out to the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BljrSwbHJDZ\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link<\/p>\n

Is Cinco de Mayo celebrated citywide? <\/b><\/h2>\n

Everybody comes to South West; you get people from everywhere coming to South West. You get families from everywhere coming in to see the parade. Everybody just wants to do something on a Sunday, a family thing. Aside from the holiday overall, it\u2019s always been a thing that brings families together. In Detroit, it\u2019s always been the jumpstart to summer. You always get the fresh energy, and everybody is super happy.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BljqtMNH326\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link<\/p>\n

Tell me about the Vans you designed. <\/b><\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve always worn Vans, I think they\u2019re the most comfortable shoes, and I grew up around skaters and graffiti artists who all wear Vans. Also, I always wanted to make something accessible to people. As an artist I sell paintings, and what you charge for a painting you can\u2019t necessarily charge the same for someone who\u2019s local [in South West Detroit]. They might only bring in 700 bucks a week to pay their bills. So I can\u2019t charge them a $1000 for a painting, I know they can\u2019t afford it. So I started thinking: how can I make myself more accessible to my community, and on an international level, I was starting to think about merchandise, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

So the pack I put together features one of my murals, and the other has a serape design. Seeing my work on a pair of Vans made me want to pursue putting these shoes out. House of Vans came through in January, and they liked my design so much that Vans produced a pair for me. The first shoe I designed was a slip-on, it was more like South West as an identity, a way for me to identify where I\u2019m from and a shoe I dedicate to South West Detroit. The other shoe I created is a unisex one, one that anybody could wear. That\u2019s the one I did with the Mexican-inspired serape print. I did my research, too, and no one has really ever done a shoe like this.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SW<\/p>\n

What do you hope happens with your Vans? <\/b><\/h2>\n

I see this [the shoes and the giveaway] as an opportunity to see what kind of audience is out there and reach out to as many people as possible to see these shoes. I hope to work with Vans to create a limited edition pack of these and put them out. Also, I want to be able to create merchandise beyond the shoes that feature Mexican American culture and reaches out to the Mexican American community and spotlights Chicano culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SW<\/p>\n

How did you get into graffiti? <\/b><\/h2>\n

On my way to school, I would see graffiti on trains and underpasses. South West Detroit has a really, really rich history of graffiti. The neighborhood has always been really good in keeping the elements of hip-hop\u2014the DJ, breakdancing, graffiti\u2014alive and active.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around when I was maybe 12, I started to be around certain types of crowds. You start to identify yourself as a person, who you want to be around, what you want to do, and I chose to do graffiti just out of necessity. I was a creative and I wanted to draw, but I was attracted to the whole culture around graffiti. Shit, at that time you couldn\u2019t get spray paint. You would have to go to the dollar store and say, \u201cyo, let me get one can to spray paint my bike.\u201d You had to be real<\/em> persistent with the clerk. We\u2019d tell the same lie at six or seven dollar stores until we had enough paint. That was a full day of work before we even started to paint!<\/span><\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, the graffiti generation from the early and mid-90s was really active.\u00a0 So we would get enough paint and go over and paint under the Dequindre Cut, it used to be called \u201cThe Graveyard,\u201d with this older generation. Everybody that went down there followed underground rules: don\u2019t go over anyone; if you\u2019re not burning me, then don\u2019t go over me. As young kids, we used to aspire to laying something out that nobody would go over, that was our aspiration as young kids. So we would just sketch, sketch, sketch, it\u2019s like anything, any career, there\u2019s a path and ladder you have to take, and that\u2019s what we were doing. Our first goal was to get good enough: so we would sketch and develop the piece until it was good enough to do it with spray paint.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SW<\/p>\n

Fast forward a little bit, and I ended getting in trouble with the law my freshman year in high school, and I ended up missing quite a bit of school because of it. They sent me to a credit recovery program, and that\u2019s where I met one of my biggest mentors. His name is Frank Venegas. He took an interest in me, and he was one of the first people to take an interest in me and my work and pay me for my work. He asked me, \u201cwhat are you in for?\u201d I told him graffiti. He said, \u201care you any good?\u201d I told him I was the best! I started showing him some sketches, and he said, \u201cwhy are getting in trouble for this when you could be making money from this?\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, Erik Howard, a photographer in South West Detroit, had a garage we called \u201cFoto\u2019s Alley.\u201d He was the only person who provided the platform, as far as legalization of graffiti, by offering his garage door. And it was the same thing, the same rules: no going over someone unless you\u2019re going to do it better. That\u2019s what we grew up on, it was a very competitive art scene in South West; we were in our own little bubble. <\/span><\/p>\n

Tell me about Detroit\u2019s street art scene? <\/b><\/h2>\n

In 2013 and 2014, the street art scene just exploded! Shepard Fairey came; Library Street Collective opened; 1xRun was doing really well, too, and they started “Murals in the Market” and made it an international festival. I\u2019d been doing murals around the neighborhood, but when I was exposed to a mural festival, it just opened my eyes to how much higher you can raise the bar. I was only exposed to local artists, and when you get people coming in from all over the world, all of a sudden it\u2019s like you\u2019re in art school! When the street art thing blew up, it gave me a direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

How would you describe your work, your art? <\/b><\/h2>\n

As far as my identity goes, it started to happen within the last two years or so when I started to work closely with Jesse. He\u2019s the owner of the Taqueria Mi Pueblo in South West. Me and him started to get together because he gave me my biggest project at the time having me hand paint all the tables in two sections of the restaurant. When we talked about what he wanted, he said that I have a distinct style and that I needed to start incorporating more of my heritage. He said if I started to include my heritage and identity, I wouldn\u2019t have to try so hard to fit in. <\/span><\/p>\n

So my work has increasingly been all about Mexican heritage, with serape patterns, sugar skulls, and hand-painted tiles. Things like that, just learning how to incorporate these things into my work; It can reach so many different people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SW<\/p>\n

When people think about murals and Detroit, Diego Rivera immediately comes to mind. Has Diego Rivera influenced your work? <\/b><\/h2>\n

He started to come into my life when I started to mature and get a little bit older. Now that I appreciate the process\u2014and I\u2019ve worked really hard to get where I\u2019m at\u2014I\u2019ve started to really look at influences and artists who\u2019ve come before me. Now that I\u2019ve gotten older and more educated on Diego, he\u2019s a huge influence. <\/span><\/p>\n

He was a pioneer. He was not an artist that would sit in his studio and create. He wanted to see the world and see what was going on and leave his mark. For me, Diego has created a platform and foundation as a Mexican artist. I\u2019m a first generation Mexican American artist, but it\u2019s important never to forget your roots. I recently painted a mural with an automotive company where I paid homage to his work and what he tried to showcase: Detroit as an automotive city and labor, hard labor. <\/span><\/p>\n

From your perspective, what is the history of art and graffiti in Detroit and South West Detroit, in particular? <\/b><\/h2>\n

I think the history in Detriot, as a whole, has been something where we [Detroiters] want to make something happen, but we just don\u2019t have the resources to do it. If you think about techno back in the day, underground techno, abandoned buildings; if we don\u2019t have a venue to party, we\u2019ll just find a space and do it. Very DIY, and that\u2019s how I think southwest and our culture has always been.<\/span><\/p>\n

I came up under graffiti. This is how it was: if you weren\u2019t out painting, then no one knew who you were. There are no shortcuts. You literally had to work for your identity, your fame, and your credentials, and then no one could tell you anything because you did it. I was very lucky that I grew up witnessing it and when I was 16 and 17 I was lucky enough to be able to meet artists who were pioneers in the Detroit graffiti scene who were then able to earn a living as muralists and have pieces in galleries. They became the ambassadors between fine art and graffiti. <\/span><\/p>\n

Everybody is open-minded, and everyone is supportive. I feel like the art community is really connected: if I\u2019m doing something, or Tony Whlgn, or Ouizi, or Sheefy [McFly], a bunch of artists, like Ellen Rutt, Pat Perry, Malt, and Tead, there are so many good artists out there doing stuff and supporting each other. Not only artists but now you have Red Bull House of Arts, 1xRun, StockX, and Library [Street Collective], we\u2019re all doing stuff together to help keep the arts alive in the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, StockX caught up with the artist Freddy Diaz, aka SW Freddy. A homegrown Detroiter hailing from South West Detroit, Freddy has been creating graffiti and street art since he was 11. Most recently he’s been painting murals honoring his heritage, his community, and his city. In addition to his aerosol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":59094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"brands":[],"series":[],"verticals":[],"class_list":["post-58824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nArtist SW Freddy on Cinco de Mayo, South West Detroit, Vans, and More -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, StockX caught up with the artist Freddy Diaz, aka SW Freddy to talk about SW Detroit, Cinco de May, and his art.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/stockx.com\/news\/sw-freddy-cinco-de-mayo-detroit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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