As a teenager in the San Pedro Harbor neighborhood of Los Angeles, Mark Machado, aka Mister Cartoon (b. 1969, Los Angeles), was captivated by both local Cholo graffiti and the styles that were arriving from New York. Initially writing under the name FLAME, Machado became a member of the graffiti crew WCA in 1987. He immediately had an affinity for portraiture and character painting and created a personal style that flowed freely between New York–style graffiti and Cholo style. Later, under the name Mister Cartoon, he took up sign painting, screen printing, and airbrushing and painting custom designs on lowrider cars. Through car shows, he met a broad range of clients and car aficionados, including musicians such as Eazy-E, Kid Frost, and Cypress Hill, all of whom went on to hire Cartoon to design logos and album covers. He began tattooing in the 1990s and counted friends in Cypress Hill as early clients; he soon mastered the fine-line portrait and lettering style developed in prisons: done entirely in black ink with the look and feel of a carefully shaded ballpoint-pen drawing. Moving freely between different media Cartoon’s work includes design, illustration, car and truck customization, and fashion. In 1995, he partnered with Estevan Oriol to found Joker Brand Clothing; the two later became core members of SA (Soul Assassins) Studios, a multiplatform creative agency working on independent projects, corporate client work, and film projects. Producer Brian Grazer is currently planning a movie based on Mister Cartoon’s life story.
Art in the Streets, the first major historical exhibition of graffiti and street art organized by an American museum, surveys the origins and history of the movement in the United States and traces its influence as it spread around the world. Privacy Policy