A street art renegade builds a career in graphic design

Art and life have always combined for Jason “Newkon” Ulep.

Ulep’s art obsession began in his hanabata days, doodling on walls with crayons before street art and graffiti became his vice of choice. This was long before it became the norm to sketch elaborate works of colorful inspiration for the world to see.

His passion has always been character art, the wackier and more twisted the better.

Fast-forward to the present and Ulep is the senior graphic designer for FOX, an internationally recognized sports and clothing brand and an industry leader in the world of motocross, BMX, surfing, wakeboarding and mountain biking.

The Hawaii art world will welcome the artist home Saturday with a show in his honor at the Prototype store at Pearlridge Center. The showcase, “DeadMan Walking,” will not only mark Ulep’s rise from young graffiti artist to professional graphic designer, it will celebrate the work of a local boy who has done well.

“It’s such a dream come true that I almost have to pinch myself every morning to make sure it’s real,” said Ulep, who grew up in Waialua, moved to California in 2009 and now resides in Irvine.

Hardships he faced in Hawaii as well as the support he received from friends and family here helped give Ulep the courage to push his potential to the limit, he said, when facing the cutthroat aspects of business and the “mainland mentality.”

“Like I tell everyone up here (in California), there are hundred guys better than me back in Hawaii, I just got lucky because I made the choice to try and make it,” he said.

“An excuse is an excuse, so don’t make any. I had an excuse why the industry wouldn’t accept me. (I also) had a motivation to prove myself to be the best as I could be. I chose the second, and I’m living proof that if you want it, don’t ask for it, take it,” he said.

Working in a profession where most of his ideas are never used, Ulep credits the life lessons learned in the islands for his drive.

“As a graphic artist you can’t be attached to your work. You go from doing what you like (in street art) to doing what others want,” he said. “In the streets, if someone doesn’t like your stuff, who cares? In the corporate world if they don’t like your stuff, you’re fired. You can’t have an ego, and you need to be able to accept rejection.”

The Pearlridge show was four years in the making for Ulep, who will be bringing 50 to 80 original art pieces for the occasion. The exhibit also will feature more than 30 local and internationally recognized artists, such as Katch, Aaron “Woes” Martin, Beak, Pancho and Alex Garcia.

It took a while for Ulep’s artistic proclivities to develop into a marketable skill. In the mid-’90s, calling himself “Newkoncept,” he was a street artist, fueled by the illicit thrill of spray-painting his stylized signature or a minimural on a wall. But he also was running Hypersquad Dance Company, a project seen as a positive force in the community.

He vividly remembers feeling as though he was living a double life, and guilt quickly set in, he said.

“What made it a tough balance was that a lot of people looked up to me, as I was a strong figure in the community. What scared me was that I knew the consequence of being a graffiti artist,” said Ulep, who was also part of the boy band DisGuyz in the early 2000s.

Ulep eventually decided to focus on business before illegal pleasure. The decision was not necessarily by choice. He just didn’t have the time for both.

It took 10 years for Ulep’s passion for urban street art to to be embraced by the art world as a whole. Live painting demos, commissioned murals and exposure via local and national art shows soon followed.

“I’m a dead man walking, doing better than I ever have before,” he said. “The most wanted ‘graffiti artists’ or ‘vandals,’ as the media called them 10 years ago, have emerged into rock stars. From clothing brands to traveling the world painting murals, designing toys, the possibilities are endless.”