Mear One has achieved legendary status among the urban/graffiti art circle on an international level. Born and raised in an impoverished single parent home in 1971 as Kalen Ockerman in Santa Cruz, California and educated on the streets of Los Angeles, he decided early that he would pursue an artistic path. He learned to utilize his sharp eyes and able hands to depict and project his art in many different mediums. With a self-taught painting career that spans over fifteen years, he now experiences a notable standing that few street artists will ever accomplish.

Early in his youth, his mother and elementary school teachers recognized his creative talents and encouraged his interests. He won many art contests including the 1980 front page cover to the Junior Art Center at Barnsdall Art Park which subsequently lead to his attendance in art classes. He was eventually invited to join the likes of other art students, 2-3 times his age, at the Otis School of Art & Design and the Pasadena Art Center but due to rough financial circumstances he could not attend for long. With little activity to keep his interests as a teenager, he found father-figure friends that taught him to wander the streets of Hollywood. He began to "tag" his name and place illegal murals around town by painting on walls in dark alleyways, crawling beneath freeways, climbing billboards, jumping into washbasins in the late hours of the night to gain notoriety. The public nature of graffiti immediately captivated him because it created a place where he found acceptance by rebelliously expressing himself. The late graffiti artist, Skate One (SK8), noticed the potential Mear possessed, took him under his wing, allowed him to join the revered graffiti crew, CBS (Can't Be Stopped) and showed him the ropes on how to better get his name "up" on walls.

Together they got into street fights, traveled the coast of California, and experimented with psychedelic drugs in addition to staying out late to paint the town. All of these extreme experiences allowed him to "open up depths of his mind to access multiple realities" and is apparent in his art. The strict regiment school created in his life became impossible when the chaos of street friction started to follow him on campus. A few months before graduating from high school he chose to drop out and live on his own with paying art jobs to support his passion for graffiti. His decision did not waiver even when he was presented with a full scholarship to the Pasadena Art Center. A couple of years in the real world and the harshest of realities fell upon Mear. His best friend and mentor, at the young age of 23, paid the price to street art while "hitting up" his name on a train and getting struck by another.

Mear immediately realized that graffiti was not just about rebellious fun and games but it was a serious reaction to disadvantaged individuals creating a voice in society because no other outlets were made accessible. He believed it was the youth's form of communication to the world that avoided dealing with them. He came to understand that his peers were willing to risk their lives for the opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with the public surfaces of the environment that shaped their reality. In mourning for SK8, Zero One gallerist, John Polkna found interest in Mear's work and provided a space for him to create a spray paint memorial on the outside wall of his gallery which lead to an exhibition. He sold his first-ever created acrylic-on-canvas to renowned collectors, Stuart & Judy Spence.

He has since gone back to school at Antioch University to study philosophy and art history and learned to apply his bold social and political views in an allegorical form. He aspires to share his knowledge about the social injustices created by capitalistic societies through his art. His graffiti and psychedelic experiences are almost always apparent influences and have paved a path for his unique voice. He is creating a remarkable contribution to the inner-city by establishing graffiti in big institutions as major art form and movement. He has been covered in the New York and Los Angeles Times and has been featured with artwork in Juxtapoz, Art & Antiques, URB (33 issues), and Rolling Stones Magazine. He has been invited to present his art to audiences at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Bergamot Station, and The Laguna Museum of Art. He has traveled North America, Europe and Japan to show in galleries and paint murals. Mear is currently the art director for a charity group, Reaching to Embrace Arts (RTEA), that provides art tools to the inner-city students of Los Angeles and continues life creating art which informs and inspires our society to incite change.

Please go to www.mearone.com to further learn about the artist and his body of work.