LOS ANGELES — Creating art that inspires is what Stan Nuñez has been doing since he was a child growing up in North Hollywood as a graffiti artist. His artist name is Saints, or the Boombox kid. Art has always been a hobby for him, an outlet. Nuñez noted that he “never really did it professionally.”
“I guess I always kind of had that fear that I wasn’t going to make it,” he said.
In 2008, Nuñez started doing freelance work like illustrations and graphic design. A few years later, he started creating murals as a side job. His full-time job is set painter for movies and TV shows, but when the writers and SAG-AFTRA strikes started, he was left with no income or benefits, explaining how he dipped into his savings and credit cards.
“I just couldn’t do that anymore,” he said. “So I really had to go full-blast, full-throttle into my art business.”
As weeks turned into months for negotiations, Stan started doing more work as an artist. He created his latest mural in North Hollywood for a clothing company along with his crew THC. It made him realize the opportunities there are in the world of art.
“I think I could do something big,” he said. “I’ve been doing murals. I do logos, I do illustrations and I just designed a toy that probably be coming out next year sometime.”
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Victor Narro, project director and professor of labor studies for the UCLA Labor Center, says that for people impacted by the strike, it was about economic survival.
“Their skill sets may take them to other places, other avenues where they can still continue to survive economically and have a quality of life,” he said. “And they come back with more opportunities available to them.”
Narro added that it’s similar to what happened to the workforce during the pandemic, people leaving jobs to follow their passion or a higher paying job.
“People reflected and assessed their own workplace situation, and many people left their jobs to go explore other work opportunities, other kinds of skills, employment opportunities,” he said.
Nuñez says he’s not ready to leave his job as a set painter just yet, but the recent strike made him realize that with some time and effort, he can make his art into a successful business.
“My real dream is to sell my art and create characters that everyone is going to love,” he said. “Just stay creative.”