Meet Sean Barragan | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sean Barragan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sean, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My initial thought was it’d be great to be paid for what I loved to create. Being an artist is all about community. Ideas and attitudes transmit from person to person and the artist’s role is to create visual representations for these ideas. I first dreamed up my art business when I was a graffiti artist in Yuma, Arizona at the age of 14 in 2007. This was after being encouraged by my peers to do so. My peers loved seeing my work and I loved showing them and how good it made them and myself feel. My art had a fierce and rebellious attitude, often showing the darker and mysteriously spiritual side of life that was often excluded from most narratives we saw. My peers digged it because it represented how they felt as much as it represented how I felt. They would encourage me to draw, and would commission me to draw for them. Saying things like they’d love to see my work on a T-shirt or that I should make some stickers and they gladly pay me for it if I did. My business unofficially started then, with those commissions. I created album art for local rappers, and fun personal drawings for friends, eventually graduating to making stickers and T-shirts. I wasn’t able to fully launch my business until 2015 after 4 years of saving up money in the Navy. In 2015, I created Pharocious Art, launched a website, and began selling prints of my pieces, stickers, temporary tattoos, and commissions. As long as the people still like it, I’ll keep making it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is dope! It’s an interesting mix of the rebellious Hip-Hop attitude of graffiti art combined with mystical and the fantastic. I use my personal experience in the mean streets of Denver and the Chicano culture of Yuma Arizona, my scholarship of the ancient mystery traditions of Khem, and the spirituality of the Mexica and use all of it to tell the often neglected spiritual side of the more disenfranchised communities to show the world that we got power and spirituality too. That our stories and our spirits are Pharocious!

It sure wasn’t easy, I got to where I am today by trial and error and a lot of hard work. I failed time and time again, from ordering more shirts than I could sell to not building a website to supplement my business as I sold at art shows in person. I’ve had clients fail to pay, deals fall through as companies went through mergers, and people who stole my artwork. I’ve since corrected those mistakes, but I understand my brand Pharocious Art is a work in progress and never will be complete but will always refine. Each day I learn more and more about business and art to continue to bring my A-game. I am proud that I continue to create and improve despite all obstacles.

There were many obstacles in my journey. Such as retaining my sanity after my mentor Joshua Bersuch was killed and living with the fact his murder may never be solved. I also faced the active suppression of my artwork at Centennial Middle School in Yuma Arizona where my art supplies were routinely confiscated. It also includes being falsely labeled a gangster in art class at Cibola High School in Yuma because of the way I wrote my name and that teacher refusing to grade my work for the entire semester and kicking me out of all art classes. I also had the security guards of Cibola try and confiscate my work also under the erroneous claim that it was gang-related. Not all graffiti is gang-related, but bigots don’t learn. I faced arrest for vandalism, actual gangsters who likewise didn’t realize my work wasn’t gang-related, and power-hungry cops who love to point guns at and threaten the lives of minors.

I even dropped out of high school for a bit at the age of 16 to try my luck in the art business. As public school often fails to teach us about business, taxes, or being an entrepreneur, I didn’t have the right knowledge and my first attempt at getting into the art business failed pretty much immediately. Thankfully I was able to find an alternative high school, Colorado’s Finest, and graduated early at the age of 17.

I survived all that ignorance and violence by knowing my purpose and studying the wisdom of the ages and the mystery of life. As well as watching a lot of Youtube videos to learn about business. This scholarship allowed me to stay stubbornly loyal to my mission regardless of anyone who tried to snuff me out and I lived to join the U.S. Navy at the age of 17 where I continued to create art for 8 years for those who serve our country.

Even then I faced challenges such as certain superiors in the Navy using my art without my permission and being denied access to the Coronado weekly art show because my style “didn’t belong there”. Yet, I remain and still got paid by my fellow sailors for my commissions, I created and flew the only flag made by a graffiti artist in the U.S. Navy on a deployment in 2016, and found other art shows in San Diego that weren’t so snooty.

My story is one of resilience, and I’ve learned that life can be full of danger, bigotry, and treachery and one must have a Pharocious attitude to survive and thrive. Despite the lack of support from institutions, despite the physical and social threats and exclusion. To take solace in the wisdom of personal experience, to take advantage of the knowledge others share, to stack skills like pancakes, and remain dauntless in the gaunlet. To put in the hard work, fill in the blanks, stay true to one’s word, and give the people what they want. That’s what Pharoah and Pharocious Art stands for and I put all of that energy and lessons into my artwork.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh, my friend is in for a treat! I know a whole lot of dope spots. We can bust it out on a daily.

Example: I’m driving, my friends riding. We start off by hitting up Breakfast on Broadway in Englewood to get some Johnny Cakes. After, my friend wants to get wild and throw some axes. We hit up Axe Whooping on Broadway in Denver. Then go people-watching at the 16th Street Mall while sipping on Little Owl Coffee and exploring the shops. Feeling a bit wild still, we decide to hit up The Shootist Range in Englewood and pop off some 9mms. Then it’s time to eat again this time we want a lil Mexican food so we get some Chilanga tortas at Las Tortugas on Alameda. My friends are a bit crafty so then we go to the Upstairs Circus in LoDo where we can craft and drink alcohol. I’m nursing one drink cuz I’m the Designated driver. My friend picks some additive-free edibles at the L’egal dispensary and starts munching as we finish off the night at Aria Social Lounge on Evans for some hookah and chai.

That’s just a taste but there are all kinds of stuff we can do:

For breakfast: Lucille’s Creole Cafe, Snooze an A.M. Eatery, Denver Biscuit Co., Breakfast King, and Trompeau Bakery.

For lunch: Cubanos at Cuba Cuba, Cochino Tacos, Dim Sum at the Empress, Native American tacos at Tocabe, Gourmet Hot Dogs at Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs, there’s a huge variety from Venezuelan to Ethiopian at Edgewater Marketplace in Lakewood. You eat healthy? Modern Market Eatery or True Food Kitchen.

For dinner: Hot Pot at Seoul K-B.B.Q.& HotPot, Pho on Federal, Blue Sushi Sake Grill, Kiké’s Red Tacos, Comal Heritage Food Incubator, or The Bindery if you’re feeling fancy.

For coffee, Corvus, Kaladi, Nixon’s, and Atlas Coffee.

You got some frustration to vent? We can hit up the Smash-it Breakroom on Evans.

Do you want some adventure and mystery? We can do an escape room at the Epic Escape Game on Gilpin. Still want adventure but don’t like confinement? We go to Meow Wolf that’ll keep up busy for hours solving all kinds of trippy mysteries.

Want to see some graffiti art? We can cruise Sante Fe, Broadway and RiNo.

We got hot springs in the mountains, we can go hiking to Hanging Lake or Alberta Falls. If you’d like an easier hike we can do Roxborough State Park or the Monarch lake loop. If you like it moderate we can do Gem Lake in Estes Park and we can hit up the Nepal Cafe afterward for some sweet Indian food.

Like I said. I know ALOT of spots I can go on like this forever. From chill to wild, from Mesa Verde to the International Church of Cannabis I know a place for any desire.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are quite of people that were essential to my story! I won’t be able to name all of them but I’ll cover as many I can. My dad, Jaciel, was an artist himself, and I admired his pencil portrait drawings a lot and he encouraged me to create my own, which I did. My moms, Angie, noticed my knack for art and provided me a lot of supplies, from markers to pencils and even my first and second drawing tablets.

Then there was Joshua Bersuch a.k.a the Redemer. He was my 2nd cousin and my mentor growing up from 1999-2004. Josh was pretty wild and came to live with my family after running into a lot of trouble in the gang life in Modesto, California. He was like an older brother to me and would help my moms take care of me and my 2 siblings. Although I was already a fan he taught me a lot about Hip-Hop culture that I didn’t know. He taught me how to draw characters like in comic books and how to do graffiti. Unfortunately, Josh wasn’t able to escape his gangster past and he was brutally murdered in Denver in 2004, his homicide remains unsolved. The unresolved nature of Josh’s murder really bothered me and I made it a mission to carry on making art not only for me but also for him since he couldn’t anymore. Everything I make now is in remembrance of Redemer.

I’d also like to give a shoutout to my friends that encouraged me to still create after this tragedy. My boys in Yuma, Arizona as part of our tagging crew BTC or “Bomb The City”. Zachery Hansen a.k.a. Dvour, Isaac Mosqueda a.k.a Scribe, and Rodrigo Molina a.k.a Relok. Without the trouble I got into with them, I doubt I’d be the artist I am today.

Much love y’all!

Website: https://pharociousart.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pharociousart/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-barragan-42922213b/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PharoahOfAurora

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pharociousart

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVWKxOHOSZf9f3dXhppKYsQ

Other: https://linktr.ee/pharociousart