A Crowler Art Q&A with Coca Shahed
/By Dan Carlson
Our current crowler label, created by local artist Coca Shahed, is a fun and beautiful piece (note: it’s also, as of Jan. 22, all sold out. That’s pretty amazing - we almost never go through all of one crowler label. So we’ll be using some older labels until we release next month’s label).
It’s full of Worcester easter eggs - look, it’s Scratch! And Orson! - as well as many personal symbols that tell the story of the artist’s life.
But underneath all the fun parts, there’s an acutely serious and important message - about race relations and diversity, and the real, human stories about the impact that gentrification takes on people from rapidly changing neighborhoods.
For anyone interested in craft beer - and especially those from “up-and-coming” cities like Worcester - these are important stories. Craft breweries are a harbinger of gentrification, often receiving glowing press and accolades about their “revitalizing” effect on “rundown” neighborhoods. It's an inextricable part of our story. We try our best to be cognizant of the effects of gentrification in Worcester, and to find ways for our presence to benefit a community that we have inserted ourselves into. But there are no easy answers here, and many of the forces behind gentrification are bigger than any one business.
That’s why it’s crucial that we listen to voices like Coca, a talented woman from Worcester who is deeply proud of the city she grew up in, and is grieving and angry as it’s replaced with one that she feels isn’t thinking about the people that were here first.
Below is our Q&A with Coca about her background as an artist and the message behind her crowler art.
How did you get started as an artist?
I have been doing art since I was 10, but I got more serious my freshman year of high school. I thank the universe for the principal I had. I wasn’t interested in any of the other classes and wasn’t paying attention. But rather than send me home, they sent me to art class. They came up with a different way to do things: I got a package of homework for my other classes, and then I just sat in art classes for like, 60% of the day. I would still go to like three classes, but for four periods straight, I sat with the art teacher and just watched and learned.
I have still yet to use algebra, but I can draw a perfect circle by hand.
Why was art the only class that managed to capture your interest?
I feel like art is the one place where I can go and say things without having to say anything. And I could meet people who could be understood and could get me without saying anything. I didn’t have to talk and could let the art talk for me. And it was the one class where I didn’t have to think much - I just let it flow.
How have you evolved as an artist since then?
I’m a Capricorn - I want to be good at everything and I want to know how to do everything.
I started off with pencil, and then progressed to watercolor, and then I started with acrylic, and now I’m into gauche, which is more a mixture of acrylic and watercolor. I love it, and it flows so easily. I also taught myself digital artwork this year, and the crowler piece is one of the first digital pieces I’ve done.
Today, I own my own online art gallery. I’ll create throughout the day, like my hand-painted rolling trays, and I have an online spiritual shop with talismans, tarot readings, things like that.
I just started doing commission work again this year, too. The crowler was actually my first commission which I started doing again this year.
How did you come to develop your personal style, and how would you describe it?
The style evolves from detention! It started off with me practicing signatures in a graffiti style. When I was younger, I used to draw art on sneakers, and everyone wanted to show off their names in that graffiti-style letter. I would draw on paper like I’m drawing on bricks and it Just kind of stuck. It evolves from the streets.
My style is more urban and it’s Worcester influenced. I exaggerate the features of the people that I draw - fuller lips, bigger eyes, bigger and brighter jewelry. I make it bling. And I like the focus on the subject by making everything in bright colors while making the background dark. It’s walking graffiti.
Let’s talk about the crowler art you created for us, because there’s a ton to unpack from it. Let’s start with the main subject, the woman. What’s her story?
That is me - this entire crowler label is based off of me. When I was asked to do this, it was at the perfect time. I had just figured out who I was and what I wanted to do. I get really nostalgic about the things around me - the neighborhood, the old stores, just, you know, all the “remember when” things. It symbolizes me growing up and the things I want to keep and want to keep.
The reason I have three eyes is because of my favorite quote: “have three eyes; two to look and one to see.” I’m obsessed with that quote.
Growing up, it took me a while to really see things. I’m mixed, raised by a single white mom and she was like “I don’t see color.” She never really knew how to tell me what was going on. But I grew up in some tough parts of Worcester, so I got to experience the real world firsthand and teach myself a lot of shit. I could look at what my mom would tell me, but then really see what was really going on. Things like race relations and gang affiliations. I saw the truth more versus what my mom told me.
And obviously, there are a ton of symbols and icons woven throughout the piece. What’s the meaning behind those?
The artwork itself is based on my life and how I see Worcester, and all the pieces of me and where I’m from.
Like the Ice Cats logo is there because it’s the first hockey game I went to, and Pinz was the first place I ever bowled. And the Harvey Ball smiley face is known around the world, but I want people to know it’s from here.
And the Turtleboy statue. I don’t really know his story, but I want to keep it here. Worcester’s changing so fast, and it’s gentrifying like crazy, but I want to keep these things. And with the new ballpark, I know a lot of things won’t be available, so I want to hold onto those things.
And some of the symbols are more personal to me. Like the gold rings, there’s one for each of my friends, and my niece and nephew and my sister. They’re intertwined into my hair so I can’t let them go. They’re stuck with me. And the sea shells are there because I wear them all the time for good fortune, and I put the Evil Eye on there for a little bit of added protection for myself. The Evil Eye protects people against slander, gossip, bad thoughts, anything.
Even in the Pinz logo, there’s a letter “K” in the bowling pins. That’s for my cousin Kevin Mulready, who recently passed away. He was a big part of my life and a big part of Worcester.
Orson the Polar Bear is there because when I was in Big Brother, Big Sister, I used to go to camp in Maine. I have really bad anxiety, so I’d fall asleep on the bus ride home, and when I woke up I would search for the polar bear and I knew I was home. If I was anywhere on the highway, I’d find Orson and I’d know I was back in Worcester.
And then I became obsessed with seltzer water.
One of the first things we noticed was your letter ‘C’ from the Black Lives Matter mural over the summer. Tell us about that experience.
When people ask me to do things in the city, I usually say no because I have discoid lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes a severe sensitivity to the sun even on cloudy days, so I can’t be outside. But I really wanted to do this - and I didn’t think it’d be that big! I thought the feet were inches. But I had an amazing team they paired me up with and we got it done in a matter of hours - I got there at 4 pm and we didn’t leave until 10 at night. People were telling me to simplify, that I won’t get it done. I refused.
It was one of the more intricate designs there and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. And it was insane, all the people coming to watch. It’s opened up so many doors for me.
And the hair pick piggybacks off the BLM scene. It’s intertwined into the braid because people are trying to destroy us, but I want to remind everyone that we're here and we’re not going anywhere. Worcester was built with us.
I just want everyone who looks at my art to remember that people from the inner city and the hood, this is where we’re from. Even though it’s pretty now, I want them to know we come from a pretty-ass place and this has BEEN a pretty-ass place before them. Worcester has always been beautiful. Before the cookie stores, the overpriced plant stores, the overpriced consignment shops and thrift stores, the lofts that cost $1,650 to stare at Table Talk Pies. I want them to remember that when they see the kids riding their bikes in the streets, doing wheelies, doing tricks. I want them to remember that we were here first before they run to Facebook to complain about a city they’re guests in. Because that’s what they are, they’re guests.
This girl wasn’t supposed to graduate high school. I should’ve been dead a few times by now, statistically. The city had asked me to do this mural, but it wasn’t that long ago that I was being chased by the cops for painting under a bridge. Now they’re paying me to paint on the street - the busiest street in the city.
