Meet Sean Roswell

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sean Roswell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sean below.

Sean, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

Mine is partly growing up in a family of 5 kids and partly growing up in 5-points in Denver where there was more creativity and talent than money in the 80’s and 90’s. There was competition within the family (my mom was the kindest of hippie artists and tried to pass that on as much as she could) and also in the neighborhood, every kid was kinda known for one or two things creative as well as the kicks they wore.
I had a knack for remembering music and between my parents vast LP collection and all the collections of my friends families, my head was always full of some of the most amazing music in the world, I started building early and then spun hip-hop and drum and bass before signing with Terraform/format in Denver and learning to produce so that the final rung on the ladder could be reached, which was starting a hip-hop label in Denver. I was climbing that ladder the same time as a few groups of friends, so the reason we all worked 40 hours a week and then dipped into the lab for 4-5 hours a night was creative competition sitting on the edge of social media, We all knew what was coming and the 90’s was a nuclear bomb of amazing music, new styles and all giving 110% . You had to put in the work, Denver was not East Coast or West Coast so if you wanted your sound or your art to get over the Rockies to California, or take the word train to Chicago, you had to go hard in the paint. So now that I am doing stickers with arty friends of mine, I try to bring that sort of Michael Jordan’s 90’s hustle to me and my friends art.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

When people ask about my art I usually just say, “Yeah, Denver is a pretty special place.”
I did music for over 20 years and when I folded my label I just spent a lot of time roaming the tracks around Denver and the miles of alleys in the city listening to music and taking pictures of what was a vibrant, free gallery of graffiti and street art.
I had already mixed with some of the original painters in Denver (Big-ups to Revoluciones for bringing the 4 elements together every weekend) but still needed a way to quietly transverse the city and burbs with my camera and headphones. On an odd night in the summer of 2012 after sushi, me and my amazing friend Erin “DJ Lucky Kitten” Evenflo were joking about having a cartoon character of myself on a sticker….and a few hours later, Roswell was born.
A character that was linked to a newly made Instagram account that featured only Colorado graffiti and street art under the hash tag of #KeepDenverBeautiful . It served 2 functions, a showcase and a way for me to hand out stickers as a business card to show, I was just there to document, give props and zip my mouth about locations and faces.
Erin and I did a few more versions of him for grins and then she moved to Texas and started her clothing design work, so we had less time to work on slaps. Then an artist in the UK named Coloquix was doing a let me draw you in my style project and I sent him the sticker to see if he would do my character…he turned in my first ‘VS’ sticker and I have done 23 since. They are two artists collabing on one sticker so you can both hand it out and get double the exposure…and they are a whole lot of fun. It is a good way to represent and share Denver art and artists as well as meeting artists across the globe to trade with and collab with. Its like a crazy global sticker club sharing art in tiny form all over the world as well as becoming friends and penpals, that is why I do it and why it is special to me. It has also lead to me being able to curate art events around town with themes to them delivered by the many artistic styles and themes cataloged between my ears. I am currently working on a Comics themed show in Englewood at the new Mutiny Coffee and Comics store with local graffiti artists doing their versions of their favorite comic characters. Bringing artists together locally and globally keeps me busy between cooking, reading and working a solid 40.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Communication. All art needs a voice and in most instances that voice needs constant repeating for it to be heard louder and further away. Digital communication is so effective these days…and completely impersonal, make the time to meet folks in person, share some coffee, have a beverage and go take photos of them doing their thing. Be analog, hug and support those around you and share their art with your friends.
Equality. Art is a vast and always changing rainbow, it is its own beast and the people that make it are a bunch of weirdos…amazing,unique, special weirdos. Those that see it as one of the worlds biggest clubs where everyone is invited and all styles are represented are going to get all the colors, community and comradery out of it.
The third is simply a concept I have always followed…”Art made strictly for profit is never good” That one just speaks its own truth.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

This question just speaks to the sticker traders mantra of doing ‘VS’ sticker with artists you love, and occasionally one you adore. It is the lifes blood of trading and also getting your character displayed in cities around the globe, either in collections, sticker shows or in a bathroom of the local skateboard bar.
Most folks we look for are artists who first kinda mirror our style or message but then as you do more and more it becomes a mission to find more and more unique artists on the other side of the globe as well as locals who are young and putting in work. It helps if you have made a sticker before of your art or brand or character but its not essential, sometimes finding the middle ground between two different paths to the same artwork is part of the communication you absolutely need.
With that in mind, most of the artists I have met and then collaborated with I have linked with on Insta as it kinda gives a solid look at your artwork, your tenacity and also if you are a collector or a street artist. Its kinda like a visual resume between creatives.

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