Chor Boogie

Biography

Chor Boogie was born Jason Lamar Hailey in Oceanside, California in 1979. He was introduced to art in general at the age of five by a teacher in grade school, after which he decided he wanted to be an artist when he grew up. He first used spray paint at age 10, chose the name "Chore" for himself at age 11 (later dropped the "e") to describe his enjoyment of art from a professional standpoint. He dropped out of high school, and did not receive formal art training, because spray paint was discouraged as art.

He later began to volunteer as the director of mural projects for Writers Block, a San Diego group that created art with high school students. He curated shows at the San Diego Museum of Art and the city's children's museum.

In October, 2010 Chor Boogie's “The Eyes of the Berlin Wall”, sold for 500,000 euro making history for the street art genre. The story was first published on Curbs & Stoops by artist/curator Jeffrey Pena who wrote "The piece is important as a social monument. Chor Boogie's cannon for making "The Eyes of the Berlin Wall." is comparable to the "eyes on the street" theories propagated by urbanist and writer Jane Jacobs. "The buildings on a street equipped to handle strangers and to insure the safety of both residents and strangers, must be oriented to the street. They cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind." writes Jacobs in "The Death and Life of Great American Cities". It is also important as a comparison of the value of art. That is, Chor's piece costed half the price of the price for the entire wall restoration in 2009, one million euro. It introduces the beautiful idea that in our social order, art is above preservation."

Works and style

Chor Boogie lists as influences Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Klimt, Van Gogh, and Salvador Dalí, along with spray paint "mentors" Phase2, Vulcan, Riff 170

Chor Boogie paints exclusively with spray paint, in sizes ranging from miniatures (such as a 2010 range of 2-by-2-inch "boogie birds") to building-sized murals. He refers to his colorful style and its intended spiritual and emotional impact on viewers as "color therapy".

His first major commission was a rock wall he painted in his early teens for a series of motivational speeches by Anthony Robbins. He since had public art projects commissioned in San Diego (a mural at The New Children's Museum, as well as the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art), Beijing, China (for the 2008 Summer Olympics) Vista, California and Melbourne, Australia. He designed and worked with volunteers to paint "Edgewood at the Edge of the World", a 500-foot-long (150 m) mural in the Edgewood neighborhood of Northeast, Washington, D.C.. He has held shows in Mexico City, Brazil, and Dubai, traveled with musicians for live painting, and has painted a number of spray paint portraits of celebrities including Hugh Hefner, Jay-Z, ODB, and Rage Against the Machine. His works are in several corporate collections, including Google and Zazzle,

Chor Boogie collaborated with three other internationally known artists for the "Paint your Faith" project, a 60-foot (18 m) mural at the Metropolitan United Church in Toronto, Ontario.

One of his more prominent works, "The Color Therapy of Perception", is a 100-foot (30 m) mural commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission's "Arts in Storefronts" project to improve the city's blighted Tenderloin neighborhood. While painting that work he was stabbed by thieves trying to steal his tools of communication. Mayor Gavin Newsom visited Chor Boogie in the hospital, and helped complete the painting.

He has designed pieces for display on mobile devices, and painted a room at the famous Hotel des Arts in San Francisco.