History

2020—2024

New Frontiers

Everything in life has the potential to alter your next chapter. As I think back on my time driving around the country, moseying from small town to large cities, I think back on the patterns I saw, the invisible lines that connected people from across the country in ways that they wouldn’t expect. The struggles, the joy, the beauty of it all, ever evolving like a cloud in the sky. My work as an artist hopes to capture the vivid moments I’ve had over the last 8 years. The moments where I thought to myself, “that’s so America…” I’m approaching this chapter in my artistic career like I did my first. With ambition, direction and love.

Sketch for “Butterfly” — 2024

new york city

After my trip to the west coast, I ended up back in Tulsa, in a studio my brother and I were renting.

One day my friend asked me if I would help her move some furniture — to New York. I packed up the studio, threw my stuff in storage and took the one way ticket to NYC.

“Dreamland” — 2020

2016—2019

Looking for america

After 7 years of running my screen printing studio, I decided to hang up the squeegee and hit the road.

I wanted out of the city I had always called home. I wanted to see the ocean, the mountains, the desert. I wanted to ride.

I spent 3 years roaming around the country, starting in Dallas for a short stint at a tech startup, working my through Denver on my way to the west coast.

“All Roads Lead to Denver” — 2018

2009—2015

Hillman's garage

After my stints in the garages, a multi-use space that I shared with a father son and a bunch of musicians.

“Synthesize” — 2015

the story of V.ESPARZA and t-TownTeez

HIT the garage

After the initial jolt of inspiration, I started printing shirts out of my parents garage and contacting local stores to see if they would carry them. Luckily for me, Dwelling Spaces took me up on my design and started selling my shirts.

I remember the day I got my first check from them. I quit my waiting job shortly after and started chasing this dream. After 3 years I moved into a house with my brother. It had a big ol’ backyard and garage. I got to work.

“Garage II” — 2012

It starts with an idea

This story, like so many others, starts with an idea.

My friend Jenson Neal had a photo called “The Main Man” of the Golden Driller; a large statue in Tulsa, OK representing the oil industry. His crop of the statue inspired me to look at it differently. It was unique to everything I had seen. At that time in Tulsa, everyone was really looking towards the empty warehouses around downtown and imagining the future. There was an urgency to hype up the city and the potential it had. I wanted to get in on the fun. Something in me had to get it on a t-shirt.

At the same time this was happening, a local gallery was holding together a competition to print different art on t-shirts. I thought “Perfect! They’ll totally love this.” Well … they didn’t. They didn’t choose my design. Maybe it was because my first design wasn’t executed well enough, maybe maybe it was some other nefarious reason that I’ll gladly tell you in person. Whatever the reason was, I knew it wasn’t going to stop me.

That’s where YouTube comes into the mix. Though there wasn’t a lot of videos on screen printing, I still found what I needed and ordered the supplies online. And there in my bedroom, my career as an artist started.

“The Main Man” — 2008
Jenson Neal