AIISP Soup'er Series - Traditional Graffiti with Brandon Lazore

Join the American Indian & Indigenous Studies Program for our weekly Soup'er Series luncheon in Caldwell 400. Each week our students connect with Indigenous leaders, and community resources. Our 10/29 program with Brandon Lazore is open to the public. No pre-registration required.

 

ABOUT BRANDON LAZORE

Brandon Lazore
Onondaga, Snipe Clan

 

My name is Brandon Lazore. I am a Snipe Clan member from the Onondaga Nation. My maternal grandmother raised me in Syracuse, New York, and my father raised me on the Onondaga Nation Territory. I grew up experiencing both city and reservation life. I attended ceremonies at the Onondaga Nation Longhouse.

Growing up, I was fascinated by the graffiti art I saw throughout the city of Syracuse. I enjoyed seeing the huge painted names on the highways, buildings, rooftops, and anywhere these street artists could put their names up. I started collecting books and VHS tapes about graffiti art, and I began drawing it. Then one day I met a graffiti writer who would teach me different techniques and how to design and execute a mural. Eventually, we collaborated on murals in several East Coast cities and locally on corner storefronts until the late 1990s.

In 1999, I stopped painting graffiti murals because I was learning to be a Concrete Construction Engineer in Washington, DC. On the job, I learned drafting skills working on blueprints. In 2008, I moved back to Syracuse and furthered my education at Onondaga Community College, where I graduated magna cum laude. While at school, I studied classical painters who did self-portraiture as a gauge to measure their skill level, so I decided that my first painting on canvas would be a self-portrait. I instantly fell in love with painting on canvas and felt inspired to create in this newfound medium.
After graduating college, I began to create paintings that blended Haudenosaunee Culture and my urban experience. I call my current style of art “Traditional Graffiti” because I lay out my paintings on canvas as if they were graffiti murals by incorporating drafting techniques and traditional patterns along the borders of my paintings. This style has allowed me to share my culture with the world, and I’m very thankful to have many different paintings, murals, and art installations throughout Turtle Island.

 

ABOUT AIISP
The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program at Cornell University seeks to aid the development of new generations of educated Native and non-Native peoples who will contemplate, study and contribute to the building of nation and community on a global scale. Learn more at cals.cornell.edu/american-indian-indigenous-studies