We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matthew Canmarano. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matthew below.
Matthew , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
The first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path professionally I guess I was a kid I began with graffiti I love graffiti it was a nice outlet it was a nice way of being recognized and getting known on the streets. especially in the San Fernando Valley where I grew up. Graffiti was a huge thing in the San Fernando Valley in the late 80s in the 90s when I got involved with it it was something that was so beautiful you could barely understand it unless you were a part of it… writing our names across freeways and the walls of Los Angeles was a way to be remembered and known and for those of us who were a part of it we become part of a subculture in the LA urban community that brought different groups of people together to form little groups called cruz we made friendships and bonds that would last a lifetime and everybody tried to compete with each other to see who is better or who could get their name in a better position who could be seen more it was amazing a friendly competition so to speak.
Matthew , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have a strong background from graffiti to gangs to US military I served in the US Navy I’m a veteran… I got myself in some trouble and had to serve some time in the department of corrections in California for a little while… As soon as I got out I worked on getting myself clean and sober I started modeling for a company called Solon clothing which I’m really proud to be a part of and I worked my a*s off to be a great good example of change and recovery I sponsor men I help them get sober and I travel around speaking on podcast about Recovery and the journey from graffiti to the US military and gangs it started simply with taking a photo a simple selfie in my bathroom began my modeling career…
I’m proud of my journey and I’m proud of getting sober I’m proud of getting out of trouble I’m proud of changing my life while still being a good representative of the areas in the community I came from I left on pretty decent standing and I’m proud that I can show people that came from the background of gang’s graffiti cannot only be a veteran and serve their country but can also change and be someone you can look up to with good experience that you can believe in.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
On social media I built my audience by being honest by being open by talking about the struggles and the harsh realities of the drug life that I was a part of I also am very open about my love and my pa*sion for graffiti become more and more accepted in the world today so it’s a good outlet and resource for people like myself to use for therapy as well especially with people with anxiety and troubled past…
I’m very open about being a veteran of the US NAVY proudly serving my country at the same time I’m very open also about the mistakes I’ve made which led me to prison and having to rework my whole train of thought and lifestyle in regards to how you deal with the situation in the free world…
So by being honest I was able to build a really good social group on Instagram Facebook and on TikTok as well… Being honest help me to grow an audience that touches a wide range of categories involving the creative artistic community the photography community because I am a model I’m a background actor so I involve the entertainment industry I do a lot of podcast and radio shows so I am utilizing a broad range of groups with social media And I think the common threat is that I’m honest and I share about my journey and what I’ve been through and where I’m going I grow daily and weekly by networking and communicating with a wide range of individuals on all aspects .
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn a lot of my dealings with people involving starting with gangs in prison my backstory deals a lot with making mistakes and going to prison my backstory I dealt with gangs for a period of my life and I had to relearn a lot of the ways that those people deal with the community and other individual individuals…. Those ways are good and working in those communities however they don’t transpire to the free world you have to watch your responses we have to watch our behavior I have to watch how I deal with individuals I might not always agree with people but I can’t react the same way I did in my past so I had to unlearn those attitudes in those trains of thought I had to unlearn how I deal with people one on one at the same time I’ve also had to learn how to hold my ground for my beliefs and my standards in this world that is constantly changing in such a weird way…
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @mohawkmatt_sfv
- Facebook: Matt Cammarano
- Youtube: Mohawk Matt
- Other: Tik Tok @mohawkmatt_sfv
Image Credits
John Travis photographer & Memo Ortega Photographer