We Were Here, We Will Return

Evan “ESK” Wilson is a fine artist, calligrapher, muralist, and tattooer based in Northern California. His work is balanced on the line between graffiti and abstract expressionism, with his own personal style of calligraphy being the bridge that connects the two disparate modes of work. This calligraphic style is made up of English letters, but are abstracted through calligraphic mark making strokes. These letter forms draw from and celebrate ancient calligraphic traditions, including Old English, Farsi, Japanese, and Khmer, which are filtered through a contemporary graffiti lens. The resulting works are meditative visual networks of calligraphic line, guiding the viewer towards a looser, more visceral interpretation of written communication.

Founded in a meditative approach towards expression, ESK gives his audience a sensation of peace while being presented with an assortment of mediums: sculpture, ink, paint and more. Each sculpture & piece is full of fragmented objects, seeking to re-contextualize the things so frequently discarded.

Taylor Reinhold was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California. In 2009, Tay founded Made Fresh Crew, a collective of artisans ranging in talents from pottery, glass blowing, videography, painting and jewelry making. Since then he has worked to promote creativity amongst the youth through artistic community outreach projects. He has organized and led workshops in multiple non-profit organizations including Youth Now, Mariposa Arts, and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

Tay has become a major part of the PangeaSeed family, not only as an artist but as an integral part of planning and production for Sea Walls festivals far and wide. Tay has planned and implemented Sea Walls Santa Cruz as the project director, supported ground operations at epic proportions during Sea Walls Boston and Sea Walls Bimini, and painted massive murals as a Sea Walls ARTivist, all while keeping the morale high of the artists and crew. Tay Lion is a legend.