Isaac Pelayo Speaks on His Early Career and Musical Inspirations
WORDS WITH WORDS INTERVIEW #6: Isaac Pelayo
A MESSAGE FROM ISAAC PELAYO:
“The Motive” by Isaac Pelayo:
Yo, it’s the Pope, 1000WORD$. Isaac Pelayo's work is known for his reinvention of the smiley face, which has become a signature motif in his art. Although his art is often associated with Westside Gunn and Griselda Records, Pelayo has made a name for himself in the art world through his own unique style and approach to art. He draws inspiration from his travels, including a trip to Europe that he says completely changed how he views art itself and his own art.
Despite his young age, Pelayo has already achieved a great deal in his art career. His work has caught the attention of several high-profile celebrities and brands, with many seeking to incorporate his work into their own projects. Despite the widespread bootlegging of his smiley face design, Pelayo remains unfazed, viewing it as a testament to his success in bringing the art to a wider audience.
This is a conversation between myself and Isaac Pelayo. We talked about his art, including his infamous smiley face, his progression in his art career, and his most recent gallery show titled "The New Renaissance."
1000WORD$: This is 1000WORD$ from WORDS WITH WORD$. I'm here with the fucking legend, Isaac Pelayo. Isaac, let the people know, man, salute the people.
Isaac Pelayo: What's good? What's going on?
1000WORD$: Yo so, Isaac, very straightforward, how did it feel seeing your artwork on vinyl for the first time?
Isaac Pelayo: It was definitely strange. Growing up being a hip-hop head, it's funny, I didn't collect vinyl myself. My grandmother had vinyl, only vinyl, Motown stuff, funk, oldies, and things like that. Being a hip-hop head and going to record stores and seeing those vinyl, I wish I collected vinyl, but I collected art, art supplies, and spray cans instead. I think it was one of those things that I felt like I was part of something much bigger. I remember as a kid, being obsessed with certain album covers. It makes me feel like how I think of "Ready to Die," or how I see "Illmatic," or one of 2Pac's joints. [The covers] are so iconic that you hear the music when you see the cover. It's that type of shit. So the first time I saw the [Chris Benoit] shit on vinyl, it felt like this was something that was going to last forever. And my name was on it. It's not me, but it's part of the bigger picture, which is dope. I think I love being a part of things that are bigger than me. I think to be a part of something that's solely just me doesn't feel as grand. That makes me feel like I understand a little more why people are religious. Because they feel like they're a part of something grander, that there's something that is far bigger than they are. It's kind of like an ego death. It's not about me. It's about being part of a team and creating something with other dope people. You got [Westside Gunn] who's an amazing curator and artist in his own right, and then you have the collaborative work of all the producers, and I'm coming in with the visuals. To be able to contribute something to a relic in a music genre that I'm such a fan of, it's an honor. Every time he drops a vinyl it's like a plaque. To me, that's a plaque.
1000WORD$: 100%.
Isaac Pelayo: I don't have a fucking Spotify, or Apple Music, or a fucking RIAA plaque on my wall, but that is my flag. To me, those are trophies. Those are like my Olympic medals right there.
1000WORD$: How do you feel when you get supporters coming up to you with the covers and they want you to re-flip them.
Isaac Pelayo: I mean, I don't knock the hustle.
1000WORD$: Nah, I mean they want you to redraw on them. Like I've seen you draw a skeleton face on Benoit.
Isaac Pelayo: I know which homie you're talking about. That's the homie though. He's always looked out for me. He's always brought me vinyls, extra vinyls. He's the guy that always buys a couple extra and keeps one for himself. He listens to one, sells one. And every time I miss out on the vinyls, he reaches out to me. He's like, "Yo, did you cop this vinyl?" I'm like, "I didn't get one." I'm not with West every day so I can't claim my shit when they drop, but he hooks me up. I didn't mind hooking him up and doing that for him. But I get a lot of people that will go to the shows and they're like, "Oh, can you doodle something on this?" It's cool. I would rather take the time to do it because I remember a time when nobody was approaching me to do that shit. I don't know, I'm not no fucking celebrity. I'm not no one special. There was a time where I didn't get that type of love and I wanted that love, and now that I got it I'm gonna be like, "Nah, fuck y'all. I'm not doing this shit." I would rather be able to have that problem than not have that problem. I mean, they're making their bread, they're making their side cash. I mean shit, I should probably flip a few on my side. Fuck it, why not?
1000WORD$: What music do you listen to when you tap into your focus to paint?
Isaac Pelayo: I listen to a multitude of things. It starts off in one genre and sort of leads to another. It depends on what I'm painting. So let's say I'm doing one of these classical portraits, I'll start off listening to some classical piano, some Mozart, some Beethoven, or Erik Satie, even some Edith Piaf. I listen to some French music or something in that nature and then once it starts to get more rough, I'll start switching it up. Maybe I'll throw on some jazz or blues, and then that will segue into some funk, some James Brown. I listen to a lot of James Brown, a lot of Curtis Mayfield, some Marvin Gaye. Man, now you got me thinking. Fuck man, some Sam Cooke, some Jackson Wilson, for sure. Then I'll start going into some 80s shit. I'll start listening to Michael Jackson and Prince, and then maybe I'll switch it up and throw on some Rock and Roll. I'll listen to some Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath. It's just a slew of the whole spectrum of rock. Once I started getting into hip hop, obviously, I throw on fucking Griselda. I'll fuck with some Jay-Z, some 2Pac, [The Notorious B.I.G], some [Wu-Tang Clan], some fucking Pharcyde. I could go on for days. There's just some songs, some artists that I'll listen [to] on repeat. [Westside Gunn] is one of those artists that I could just listen to, especially because I feel like I have to tap into that energy, that street energy. I feel like I need to hear that street talk in order to really fucking jump into that shit. Like, I'll throw on some fucking 50 Cent [on some] "I'll Still Kill" type shit, or fucking "Hate It Or Love It."
1000WORD$: Haha, tap in.
Isaac Pelayo: Yeah so, I think it all just depends on my mood. It'll start out one way and end up going into another. I actually listen to a lot of atmospherical type of music too, like movie soundtracks. I got a secret weapon that I listen to, that I I don't know if a lot of people listen to it, but I listen to a lot of Gregorian chants on YouTube. I started listening to Gregorian chants probably back in 2016 or so. I've always been a fan of different languages. I've always been a fan of music that sounded very sacred. I love music that's all melody and harmony, no drums or anything like that. It's just atmospherical. Gregorian chants give me that type of vibe. Especially when I'm working on this Renaissance shit, I want to feel like I'm in the fucking medieval times, and I want to feel like I'm in the fucking 15th century, and I want to listen to some fucking knight music, then I'll fucking throw on some medieval shit just to put me in that mindset. It's kind of like method acting. I'm trying to play this character and I need to fall into this world. So music can definitely help me transcend into the character that I need to become in order to execute this type of work. And I wouldn't even say so much that it's a character; it's me, but I need to feel like I myself am in that time, or in that place, with these people, with this conversation. You can't be a street motherfucker if you're not listening to street music, or [aren't] in the fucking street. You can't be a gospel person if you're not listening to fucking gospel. There's a conversation to be said and to be conversed and I need to listen to the right shit that will get me there.
1000WORD$: What does art mean to you?
Isaac Pelayo: That's a loaded question. I think there's too many answers that are too good to give one. Off the top of my head, I think art, for me, is a way of communication. It's also a tool. It's a language. It's like a dance. Art is anything that moves somebody. Anything could be art. Fucking chess players are art. You can make art out of anything. It's whether it makes you feel something. To get a reaction out of someone is art. When I go to one of these contemporary galleries and I see some abstract shit and I have zero reaction to it, I'm like, "That shit ain't art." It makes me feel a type of way. Art is supposed to make you feel something, whether it's angry, scared, sad, happy, excited, whatever. It's supposed to make you feel something. If it doesn't make anyone feel anything then it's not art.
1000WORD$: How do you feel about dudes - not to say you - but I found some artists that shame people that use iPads, or trace, or anything like that. What is your opinion on that?
Isaac Pelayo: To each their own I think, you know? There's a lot of people I realize that are salty for whatever reasons, and I think that they're just salty. And they want to talk shit because they want attention and they just want to have something to complain about. It's like when you hear fucking Lord Jamar always talking shit about Eminem and shit. It's like, "Shut the fuck up, bro. Just shut the fuck up, go fucking write a lyric or something. Damn bro, you're just sitting here wasting time talking shit about nothing, dude. Shut the fuck up." It doesn't matter if you're making art digitally, if you're making art with fucking rocks, you know what I'm saying? Motherfuckers were making art with fucking pigment from fucking flowers and throwing it on rocks 30,000 years ago. Shut the fuck up. A lot of people at one point were talking shit about people doing graffiti and shit. I think it's a useful tool. I've made art using my iPad and stuff and I use a projector. More times than not I use a projector to create my compositions, or to get my proportions down on my canvas so I can fucking kill more than half the time. It takes forever to sit there trying to get my proportions right when I could just use a projector, and get my fucking outline done in five minutes and I'm already cracking on my painting. When your dumb ass is over there fucking sitting there doing this number, you know what I mean? Like, shut the fuck up. You're wasting all that time doing that shit and your art is still ass. You still can't sell a fucking painting. That's why I can fucking draw on a $1 bill and sell that bitch for fucking five racks.
1000WORD$: Haha, facts.
Isaac Pelayo: Again, everybody's got their own opinion. I think at the end of the day, if you're making dope shit, then who cares how it was made? Look at Takashi Murakami, and Damien Hirst, and Jeff Koons, and all these other fucking artists. They don't make their own shit. They got teams of people making their shit. We should be praising the people that's making it, not these motherfuckers. They're coming up with the idea, but they're not making it.
1000WORD$: Facts, that's the truth.
Isaac Pelayo: It's like a director. You got the director who's directing a movie, but the actors are fucking making the movie.
1000WORD$: Like I said, Ronald McDonald never flipped a burger in his life.
Isaac Pelayo: For real, yeah. What the fuck? It's fucking crazy. Look at Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a genius for his ideas, but he wasn't fucking making these movies; fucking animators were; fucking talented ass artists were.
1000WORD$: What was the first piece of art that you remember drawing? Where were you?
Isaac Pelayo: Well, the first piece of art that we have is probably the first drawing ever drew when I was two-years-old. It was a smiley face. My dad has it tattooed on his forearm.
1000WORD$: Nice.
Isaac Pelayo: Go figure, fucking smiley faces.
1000WORD$: Yo, I've seen the smiley face being bootlegged everywhere, bro, like in Marshalls. How did you feel about that when you see that shit? Cause I've texted you a picture one time, [there] was a shirt that I saw in a Marshalls.
Isaac Pelayo: Yeah, man. I mean, it doesn't surprise me though. I think [Westside Gunn] and I have done a decent job getting that shit the fuck out there. I didn't invent the smiley face. I just reinvented it. I made it different. So when I see people using it, and incorporating it in their shit that's very similar to my shit, I just giggle. Maybe they took it from me; maybe they didn't.
1000WORD$: Haha, yeah they did.
Isaac Pelayo: Yeah, it's cool. I mean, what's funny is that when people see that, they just think of me. So then that's dope.
1000WORD$: Word. Job accomplished.
Isaac Pelayo: They're just making people think more of my shit. Can't complain too much.
1000WORD$: Now that you're grown up, how does your father see your progression, and see where you have taken your art to? How does he feel? How does he express that to you?
Isaac Pelayo: He tells me he's proud, for sure. He tells me he's impressed with how far I've come. I don't think it surprises him much, to be quite honest. We've always set that goal for me. My goal was always to be bigger and better than my dad, technically. That was always the bar to surpass. I think once he saw me doing my thing as a young teenager, he already knew. He already knew what was up. He was like, "Dude, this kid's got fucking 20 years ahead of me." Cause my dad didn't start exhibiting his work until he was like 33. I started showing my work when I was 10. So I got 20-23 years ahead of him. So I think it was pretty obvious that I was going to start doing some shit pretty young. Where and exactly what I would be doing, I don't think either of us expected, but I think it's all been really dope. He talks about it all the time with his friends. They always ask them, "How do you feel about your kid, Isaac, doing this and that?" He's like, "Yeah dude, he's fucking doing all types of crazy shit." But that's because he knows exactly why. If you ask him, he'll tell you exactly why I've gotten to this point, and why I continue to go further. This is coming out of his mouth. He knows that I'm a fucking charismatic person. I'm good with people; I'm hungry; I'm a risk taker, willing to learn, aggressive, persistent, consistent. I'm good at picking something up quite quickly. And these are all qualities of someone who is bound to fucking do some crazy shit.
1000WORD$: Facts.
Isaac Pelayo: We talk about it all the time and I know he's impressed, but he's not surprised, if that makes sense. He's impressed with the people that I've worked with, and he's impressed with the amount of work I've produced, and all the things that have happened, but he's not surprised that I'm doing great things. He's just impressed with what I'm doing. I think he probably thought I was just gonna do gallery shows. I don't think he ever saw me fucking doing stuff with all these brands, and having these celebrity collectors and shit. That's for sure impressed him.
1000WORD$: Tell me about your most recent gallery and what was the name of it? And how was the experience of putting your most recent gallery together?
Isaac Pelayo: My last solo show was put together myself, as were my previous solo shows. The show was titled "The New Renaissance." "The New Renaissance" was a title dubbed by fans of Westside, who refer to me and him as the coming of a new Renaissance, as they say. Westside is like the Medici to my DaVinci. That body of work all came forth based on a trip I took to Europe that completely changed how I viewed art itself, and my own art. It's funny because West was actually supposed to present the show himself. Not many people know this, but West was supposed to present my show as a Griselda production, like "Griselda Presents: Isaac Pelayo." That was supposed to be like my Griselda studio album release, as a visual artist. This was supposed to be my introduction, like, "Alright, this is all Isaac now." However, things happen as they do, and unfortunate things come about. So it didn't turn out that way, however, he was very much a part of the show; in the sense of being supportive, and coming all the way to the show, picking up his pieces, and letting people know about the show, and all that good stuff. I think either way, it was dope the way it happened, and it would have been dope if he was a part of it as originally planned. But yeah, it was it was a pretty insane show. It was like 70 pieces. I rented the gallery myself. It was not even a gallery space. It was just the studio space used for photo shoots, and magazine shoots, and events, and stuff. But they didn't see that it looked so much like a contemporary gallery. I could see that. So when I approached them, I said, "Hey, I want to do an art show here. I want to rent the space for the weekend. Trust me, it's gonna work." And I did my show there and the shit costed me a pretty penny, but luckily, I made my money back.
1000WORD$: Haha.
Isaac Pelayo: Yeah, it costed a lot. But I put all my chips in and I was betting on me.
1000WORD$: Shout out to you, man. You're only 26, right?
Isaac Pelayo: Yeah.
1000WORD$: Yo, man, you're super talented, bro. Seeing you from afar, even before meeting you, [and] seeing your work was just like, "Damn, yo, this dude's fucking killing it, bro." That 2Pac joint was fucking crazy, man. I remember I saw you, I think you was posted next to it, and you had your glasses with the three circles and shit.
Isaac Pelayo: Yup.
1000WORD$: That was the "Vision" gallery, right?
Isaac Pelayo: It's funny, that gallery, again, [was] the same situation. It was a shop for printing on T-shirts, and I had my second solo show there right after West and I had dropped the "Supreme Blientele" cover. That whole body of work was the third eye stuff and I titled the show "Vision." It was originally called a "Third Eye Vision," but I just shortened it to "Vision."
1000WORD$: I recently included you in my installment, part two of the "Polaroid House." I did that because I paid homage to my camera and the people that I take pictures of. And you're one of the people that I took pictures of. I've seen you in plenty of places and I've seen you in a lot of your moments, man. I've seen you, literally grind, bro. I say grind because whenever we in the zone together it's just hours of like, you just gotta make sure this shit go right. So I wanna say, man, as a Latino and for my indigenous background, you inspire a lot of kids. You're very young and you inspire a lot of kids, as I can see on social media and everything, man. So it's very dope to see you evolve, bro, and keep evolving, bro. I can't say I'm proud of you because you know I ain't got shit to do with you; I just gotta say, I'm amazed at what you do, bro.
Isaac Pelayo: Thank you, and likewise too dude. You know it's funny man, I tell the homies that are always with me, like my homie Marco, you probably know him better as Pietro, Papi Pietro, I'm like, "Dude, you need to look at 1000WORD$ as a prime example of persistence. This dude adopted the Polaroid camera as his fucking shield and sword. Now look, now he's fucking sponsored, and working with Polaroid, and traveling all these places, and taking badass, fucking iconic Polaroid shots. I would argue that you're the modern day Andy Warhol, when it comes to Polaroids. I don't know anybody else that is prolific with a Polaroid camera like you. You are the first person that comes to mind when I think of Polaroid.
1000WORD$: Man, thank you.
Isaac Pelayo: You've made that your fucking thing. Anytime I see people take pictures with a Polaroid, I'm like, "Yeah, it's not like 1000WORD$ though. That fool was doing this and been doing it for a long fucking time." And then you start adding the fucking limited edition strips on the side, I was like, "Dude, this fool fucking knows exactly what he's doing. He knows exactly what he's doing, and he's got everybody's respect because he's always there. He's on point. He's in and he's out. [He's here] to do one thing and get the fuck out of here." You get the shots that you need to get and then you're on your way. And yeah dude, you've grown a lot too. And then you're over here doing covers too, you got the fucking Conway The Machine, and don't you got a Stove God Cook$ cover too?
1000WORD$: Yeah, I got Hidden Character, Big Ghost LTD., and a CRIMEAPPLE joint.
Isaac Pelayo: See what I'm saying? So you know exactly how I [feel]. How does it feel to see your shit on vinyl?
1000WORD$: You know, my moms used to have vinyl, like Julio Iglesias, and Juan Gabriel, and shit like that. So when I showed my mom my vinyl, she was like, "Wow, Mijo como.” So it made me feel good because this is shit that you grew up seeing. So it was like, "Yeah, I made it." I didn't make it no where, but I felt like I made it.
Isaac Pelayo: They're relics for us. I got the vinyls that I did sitting in my bedroom. It's funny because the only person in my family that collected vinyls that was around me was my grandmother, but she collected 45s. So she had the fucking small vinyls, and she had a grip of them, too. She didn't have [them] nice in the fucking sleeves, she had just the sleeve that was in the sleeve. And she just had them stacked like back to back in fucking crates in her closet. Whenever she pulled out her record player, she would play her little 45s and shit, but she was playing old ass shit, a lot of beetles and things like that. That was the only essence of vinyl that I had around me as a kid. My grandma used to listen to her 45s all the time. So it was cool.
1000WORD$: Have you been to the Harvard Art Museum?
Isaac Pelayo: What?
1000WORD$: Would you allow Harvard to hang up a piece of yours in their museum? Because, yo, I’ve been to their museum. Bro, they got some heat.
Isaac Pelayo: Harvard has an art museum?
1000WORD$: Yeah, my bro. Yes, bro. Bro, you gotta come down.
Isaac Pelayo: If you get one of my paintings in a Harvard Museum, I owe you.
1000WORD$: Haha.
Isaac Pelayo: That would be dope. That would be my second university that owns my work. UNLV owns one of my pieces. I used to go to school there.
1000WORD$: Yo, I appreciate you bro. Thank you so much.
Isaac Pelayo: Likewise, dude.