I was walking on Grove Street from Hoboken to Jersey City one afternoon when I saw that there was something blocking the sidewalk that I usually walk on. At first I thought it was someone who was filling a van up with something from a large cart of some kind, but then when I got closer I saw that it was some kind of official city van and the cart was something that looked like it was for repairing or painting industrial spaces where leverage and height is needed. I saw that there was space to walk by and that I would't have to cross the street, and as I walked by, a man who was walking toward me stopped just before crossing in front of the open van door and motioned for me to walk by first. I thanked him and did, and when I got to the other side of the door I saw that there was another man there who was painting the wall with a mural. Jersey City has a wonderful Mural Arts Program and I've seen so many of the beautiful murals and met some of the Artists, sometimes when they're working and I'm walking by, so I asked the man who was painting who he was. He said he wasn't the Artist, that his name was Matt Wolf and he was the Assistant, and said that the Artist was someone whose street name was Cekis, and he pointed to the man who had let me walk by just before. I walked back over and introduced myself, and that was how I met Nelson Rivas Cekis.
The mural when I saw it was still in progress, but it already so beautiful and so full of life and light in the space where it was being painted. I walk that way often, and it is usually one of the parts of my trip that is the least pleasant. It's a short tunnel, but I always walk through it quickly because it's dark and loud with the light rail train going overhead and it seems very unhealthy with pigeons roosting and water damage on the sidewalk and walls. Just beyond it is an empty lot with wildflowers and trees and native plants growing, and on the other side is a parking lot that also often has plants growing wild, but until Cekis appeared to turn the darkness into light, that tunnel always seemed like a dank and dreary place. With bright colors and shapes that felt like they were living and growing and thriving plants and flowers, his mural design had completely transformed the area on both sides of the tunnel walls.
When I began to look up Cekis when I was home again I found a link to his website on his Instagram page. He has told me that he used to use the name Zeckis but that he had changed it to Cekis because it was easier for Americans to understand the pronounciation. I found a blog that he had written under the earlier spelling of the name, and he described himself in this way, "Cekis's career as a visual artist began in the city streets of his native Santiago, Chile. He started painting murals while in high school, and was inspired by the New York graffiti culture and the social mural propaganda from the heavily marked political stage in Chile in the 1980's. After graduating High School, he then decided to become an active graffiti artist. Over time, his work embodied a young generation of artists. His work transcended communities, helping to create a new massive appeal for a new street culture in Chile. In 2004, Nelson moved to New York, seeking to grow more comprehensively as a creator and adult. Due to the lack of access to paint public walls in New York, his work started to move slowly into the studio and it has broadened into an experimental and investigative collection, developing his own way to paint. His unique perspective as a foreigner only adds more intrigue. Nelson has participated in numerous exhibitions and mural projects locally and across the United States as well as internationally."
The work I saw on his website is stunning, and the images on his blog and Instagram of the festivals he's has taken part in and projects he has done are truly magnificent. Meeting Nelson Cekis was an honor and a highlight of my experience of walking around Jersey City and encountering the beauty of the Mural Arts Program and meeting the Artists who live and work and add their beauty and inspiration to the walls and fences and buildings of the city. It is always the Artists who add so much light and life who somehow are found in those quiet moments when we are simply walking by. If we're in too much of a hurry we might not even know who the Artist is because it's their art that tells their stories. They often are so quietly doing the work of transformation that if we don't take that moment to stop and ask we could easily just walk by and miss the opportunity to come face to face with greatness.
