98 |^5280 |^ AUGUST^2019
Anyone who’s seen Thomas Ev-
ans’ vibrantly colored portraits
will find it difficult to believe
that when the now 34-year-old
moved to Colorado in 2006,
his main artistic pursuit was air-
brushing T-shirts. And when the
inaugural CRUSH was held in the
alley behind Exdo Event Center a
few years later, Evans was there,
but he wasn’t painting. Rather,
he was break dancing as part of
the Hip Hop Congress chapter
he founded at the University of
Colorado Denver. In between
business classes, however, Evans
transitioned to creating works
on canvas and
finally, in 2015,
on a wall as part
of CRUSH.
Since then,
Evans, who also
goes by Detour,
has been work-
ing to master both his technique
and the logistics of being a full-
time artist—and helping others
do the same. His Art Tip Tuesday
series on Instagram led to a book
deal; Be the Artist is slated to be
released by Fulcrum in February.
Although Evans is well-known
for his celebrity portraits—for
the past two years of the festival,
he’s painted notable musicians
next to Nocturne Jazz & Supper
Club—he prefers to focus on less
famous faces. “I’ve been the only
black artist in Denver who re-
ally does murals on a consistent
basis,” Evans says. “So I want to
make sure people who look like
me are represented.” That’s why
he chose five-year-old Britton-
Grae Chapman as his model for
a huge piece on the backside of
RedLine Contemporary Art Cen-
ter (see page 96) and also why
he’s inviting black muralists from
other cities to come paint here.
That recruitment is a task he says
CRUSH Walls is making easier.
“Now it’s like, it’s not LA, it’s not
New York,” Evans says. “It’s Den-
ver that’s hot.” @detour303Thomas
“Detour”
Evansf
brushes in a warehouse across the street. Once a week, she’d wheel it out to cover
up the spray-painted tags that had appeared on the exterior of her motorcycle and
scooter shop, one of the first retail operations in the neighborhood. Fast-forward
to 2019: Beldock recently paid Denverite Casey Kawaguchi (see page 104) to cover
the entire side of a building in spray paint.
It’s no coincidence that the rise of the festival now known as CRUSH (Creative
Rituals Under Social Harmony) Walls happened during the same time span. When
founder Robin Munro, aka Dread, started talking to property owners in RiNo about
allowing him to graffiti their walls, “it took a little convincing because the culture
was new and pretty taboo still, even 10 years ago,” Dread says. As evidenced by a
stroll down Larimer Street today, though, he and Colorado’s cadre of talented street
artists and muralists have persuaded them, leading to a greater acceptance of both
sanctioned and unsanctioned works. Within a single block, you can find elaborate
multistory pieces, literary quotes sprayed onto the sidewalk using stencils, utility
boxes covered in stickers, and dumpsters decorated with tags and characters.
CRUSH’s growth from Dread and a handful of friends putting up graffiti to the
100-some artists who will create works in a variety of media during this year’s week-
long fest, September 2 to 8, hasn’t been without pain. There are debates about whether
flashy, Instagram-friendly murals (embraced by the city and developers as a way to
deter illegal graffiti) are drivers of gentrification. Those feelings were exacerbated by
decisions—like paying big bucks to celebrity artists such as Shepard Fairey while
some locals reportedly received much less—made when the RiNo Arts District offi-
cially took over 2018’s festival. (This year, under the direction of co-founder and new
president Tracy Weil, invited artists will be paired with locals for collaboration pieces.)
Still, a record-smashing 105,000 people at-
tended the 2018 event, rebranded as CRUSH
Walls, and it was the first year all artists were
paid, a trend that now extends well beyond
RiNo’s annual celebration. There’s no better way
to dive into the scene in Denver than explor-
ing the neighborhood’s streets and alleyways as
they’re transformed once again next month—but
first, consider this your primer to the complex,
often misunderstood world of street art.In the early 2 000 s, Tai Beldock, co-founder
and marketing director of Erico Motorsports in
RiNo, kept a little red wagon full of paint and
c From top: CRUSH
founder Robin Munro/
Dread; Erico Motorsports
co-founders Tai and
John Beldock“Now it’s like,
it’s not LA, it’s not
New York. It’s
Denver that’s hot.”
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