BY Tom Goulden

Ekundayo Reid is only 26 but already a successful Los Angeles-based artist and illustrator. He creates incredibly detailed characters through a laboured layering of watercolours, inks and acrylics. His often troubled and burdened visions of humanity – with obvious smacks of his graffiti past thrown in – have nonetheless an 'ugly beauty' that shines through in every piece. My Name Is? caught up with him to discover how his tumultuous early life “on the run” with his dad still inform his work and determined artistic approach
 
Ekundayo's formative years don't sound easy and far from 'regular'. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1983, he lived with his parents until the age of five when his father – no longer able to get along with his mother – took him away from Hawaii without his mother's knowledge and effectively went “on the run” for seven years as Ekundayo recounts: ‘I went on a crazy journey in which we traveled all over the US and lived in various US states as well as spending some time on the Island of Guam. After my father died I moved back to Hawaii and stayed there until I went to art school in California. In a major way I feel like all the places I have been to when I was on the run with my pops exposed me to a lot at a young age and that experience finds its way into the work I do today.’
 
After his father lost his battle with lung cancer in 1995 the 11-year old Ekundayo eventually settled with his sister. It was during this period of time that a chance discovery of his uncle's graf back book – his uncle was part of the LA-based graf crew called CHB – was to kickstart his art career. Writing culture acted as the perfect tool for getting him started and nurturing his ideas, as he recalls: ‘My father drew but he never pursued it. I was always interested in whatever he would draw and I would always ask him to draw this or that but I never picked up the pen my self. After my father died I got into a lot of trouble at school and my home life wasn't going good. Then one day I got suspended from school and I was up in the attic trying to find my uncle's weed stash when I stumbled upon his black book. I had never seen anything like that before. The characters just jumped up off the page and I was sucked in. After seeing his book all I did was draw. I copied every page in that book and just did whatever I could to learn more.’

The FULL interview with EKUNDAYO appears in issue 6 of Mynameis? magazine - click here to purchase your copy  www.graphotism.com/Subscribe-Graphotism-or-MyNameIs-Magazine.74.0.html