Mr. Wash interviews Compton muralist Mel Depaz in “Artists in Space”

As a muralist, Mel Depaz is a storyteller. But when you look at her work overall, it’s clear how much her surroundings influence what she puts down with her brush. She’s all about community.

Mel’s paintings are about Compton and the elements that make up the city. I think that her work is very important because it allows the people who live here to have a visual of their community. For example, her mural featuring the Compton Cowboys. When you come through the city, you don’t really just see people riding horses around at all times of day. Then Mel’s work makes you wonder: Where are they at? How do I get close? Her work is inviting the public to take a closer look.

I met Mel at her family home on the east side of Compton, before we took a short drive to see her murals. Like her large-scale work, Mel’s paintings told the story of our shared city.

Mr. Wash: All of your work and your whole practice is in the outside space. Let’s talk about it in the sense it’s your studio. What do you like about it?

Mel Depaz: Getting to know the neighborhood. I don’t use spray paint. I only brush, so it takes me a while. I usually spend a week minimum on a mural, and I get to know the regulars. People are really nice — at least they’ve been nice to me. I’ll get offered free food, sometimes free drinks.

I feel like I know different areas of L.A. pretty intimately. I’ve been outside and I’m watching all the cars and seeing the people go by. I like that aspect. And then I also like being away from home all day and coming back and being tired. I like being exhausted at the end of the day. It’s a good feeling. Like, damn, I really put a lot into the wall.

MW: What do you not like about it?

MD: Sometimes it can be sketchy and you feel vulnerable. The other day I was up in the ladder and I had a box of brand-new paint, and some guy just got out of a car and stole it. But then he came back ten minutes later. He was like, “I’m sorry, I had a change of heart.”

MW: Really? Wow. Can you talk through the practicalities of having an open-air practice?

MD: The reason I haven’t moved into a studio or rented one is because as a muralist, you don’t really need it; the outside is your studio. So I just have a car. I’d rather spend what I would on a studio on a car, ’cause I need a big one. I have to think about transportation and space and things like that.

MW: I go down to Texas to work with my nephew Poncho. He’s a mural artist. He basically works out of the bed of his truck, going back and forth. So you are working as an artist here in Compton, you mentioned you have a car. Is it a hatchback? Is it an SUV?

MD: A Jeep. A Wrangler. It has storage capacity for buckets and stuff. I used to drive an older Camry and it got to the point where I was crossing ladders through the passenger seat and I popped the spraycan in the backseat. I ran it through. So I was like, OK, I can get a used car. But I also had used car trauma — my check engine light coming on, my dashboard lights. So I thought, I can get a used car or just get a new car with space. And I really needed one that’s closed. If I bought a truck, someone could steal my stuff while I get lunch. With the Jeep, I’ve been good at keeping it clean. I’m thinking about buying it. But that’s why I was like, let me get a car instead of a studio, because that’s really what I need.

MW: Smart decision. How long have you been a muralist?

MD: Six years. The NHS [Neighborhood Housing Services, Center for Sustainable Communities] one was my first mural.

MW: Can we talk about that connection?

MD: That was the first time I saw you. That was crazy. I came to the opportunity to paint that mural because I did a painting for Patria Coffee. That’s the first Compton-based painting I had ever done.

They had a regular who worked at the center at NHS, and he got my Instagram. He was like, I see you don’t have any mural experience, but we need a muralist. Do you mind finding another Compton artist that might have experience? I’d seen Anthony [Lee Pittman, also featured in this book] at a show maybe a month before. So I DMed Anthony like, “Hey, I got this opportunity. I have a meeting tomorrow. Do you want to be part of it?” We met literally 15 minutes before the meeting and we got the job.

When I was painting with Anthony, you came one day. I had just got off the scissor lift and then you said you were supposed to paint the wall, but got too busy. I was like, that’s crazy.

MW: Yeah. That was crazy. That was way back. What was it about the first mural that had you hooked and wanted to keep on doing them?

MD: I think I just liked being able to drive somewhere and stare at how big it was. I’ve always been a fan of street art and outside work, and even graffiti is a pathway to that. I’ve never been good at graffiti or none of that. So I just brought what I learned in school through painting to walls.

MW: Well, you’re very good at what you do. Neat, clean, and a storyteller. How many murals have you got in Compton?

MD: I’ve done 27 total, and 14 in Compton.

MW: How do you think painting murals in Compton has changed your relationship with the city?

MD: I grew up in the east side of Compton, and I would say I feel more connected to Compton overall now that I’ve been in little pockets of it through several hours and days.

I wouldn’t sign the first few murals I did because I wasn’t really too happy with what I was doing. I still felt like I was learning. But these last ones that I painted I signed them. This older Latino man came up to me and he was like, “Hi, mija. I’ve seen your work before. I want to say thank you for everything that you’ve done. I’ve looked for your name and I haven’t been able to find it, and I’m so happy that you’re here.” And then he gave me some lunch money. I guess he was religious, and he blessed me.

It was a cute moment because I didn’t even know people knew of me. And there’s little moments like that where it’s like, oh people are really watching and you don’t even realize.

MW: I was thinking that a lot of people who live in Compton, they’re seeing your work as part of their everyday, and there’s something really special about that.

MD: Lately I feel more proud of what I’ve been doing. There’s more sense of like, damn, I really did that. But in the beginning it was kind of that imposter syndrome. Like, I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m just going to keep doing it.

MW: That’s how it grows. Listen, same here. When I painted the first picture, I knew what I wanted to try to do, but when it came out onto the brushes, it wasn’t what I had in my head. It was just something totally different.

I was like, should I start over? Should I quit? Should I throw it away? I said, no, I’m going to keep it and I’m going to find lessons inside of that and just build off of that. You get better and better.

This interview was excerpted from Artists in Space by Mr. Wash, available for pre-order on Feb. 16. Fulton Leroy Washington, a.k.a. Mr. Wash, is a Compton-based, self-taught artist and criminal justice reform advocate. His work has been exhibited at Jeffrey Deitch L.A., the Hammer Museum, LACMA, the Huntington Library, Palm Springs Art Museum and more.