- 10,000 for this painting.
This one goes for 400 now.
These are 1750, I'm a (bleep) paisa from East LA
that grew up on EBT.
In reality, I should humble myself
and remember where I came from, right?
I should be like oh, take it for free
because I was born broke so I gotta stay broke.
No, (beep) no, that's not the mentality.
Just because you were born broke,
you don't stay broke.
You don't go to college coming from a poor family
to get a higher education to charge pennies.
You go to college to be able to ask for
and demand for a certain payment.
So just like the broke chick from the hood goes to college
to higher up her status and to be able to charge more.
Me, this broke chick from the hood,
learned and hustled and learned this business
that I created, which is my art,
in the streets and I have a college degree in the street.
I have a street degree, hustling in the streets.
So I am entitled to ask for whatever money I want.
(upbeat dance music)
My name is Sand One.
Today I am hangin' out with Curly.
- Ow! - Cheers.
And we're going to talk about my dolls, my art and my life.
(dramatic electronic music)
- [Curly] Tell me how you started.
- So I started when I was 10 years old.
When I was 10 years old, I did a drawing.
- Uh-huh. - I said, I did a drawing
of a doll and Ms. Stefanovich was like,
this is amazing, this drawing is so beautiful,
you're an artist.
She was giving me so much props
on my little drawing that I did
because, I remember putting effort into it.
After that day with Ms. Stefanovich,
I became obsessed with drawing.
And then when I turn 16, I become the artist of the class
in my Chicano studies class.
And it was this teacher named Ms. Regal.
Ms. Regal was so supportive.
She would always let everyone know
that I was the artist of the class.
That was the first time ever
that I did not fall asleep in class,
'cause I was such a rebel like ah, screw school,
but I was always into drawing.
She tapped into me wanted to draw cholas.
It was the big hair with the pompadour and the long nails
and I was just so obsessed with drawing that.
- [Curly] But it all started in a small garage.
- In a garage!
My garage, that was the beginning of everything.
I started in my garage in East LA and that was it.
That was the spot.
I put like four spotlights, pow, pow, pow, pow
'cause my aunt had moved out of her house
and they left to Vegas so they left us
all their junk, so I found spotlights there.
I ran a big orange cord from my kitchen window,
all the way to the outside.
Made a hole (imitates drill), electrical work right here!
In that garage when nobody cared about me,
when nobody was calling, when nobody was looking for me,
when nobody wanted to buy my art,
I was sat there every single day
and I would be embarrassed sometimes
'cause my mother would be like,
Sand, when are you gonna get a job?
Because all her coworkers would tell her like,
she's a chola, she needs to go to college.
And I refused to go to college
because that was gonna tamper with my dream
of having the Sand Factory.
After that I graduate high school,
and during 16 to 17, I find out about graffiti
and I was like, dude I wanna be a part of LA.
I wanna be a part of my city through spray cans and walls
but I had to learn how to use spray cans
and how to not be afraid of heights.
(dramatic electronic music)
I wanna paint a doll with long nails,
smiling with a gold tooth, big eyelashes,
and Madonna chola eyebrows and crazy red hair.
I start training myself to get up on ladders,
to use spray cans, to learn how to do a line,
to learn how to create a doll through air and paint.
All I knew was East LA.
- Yeah. - And that's where I start.
- Yeah. - Then I started
discovering that there was Beverly Hills,
West LA, Mid-City, Santa Monica,
pow, my world opens.
That bus pass took me so far.
So from like 4 p.m. and all night, I'll be painting walls.
I would be out in the streets of LA, painting dolls.
I just believed in my art,
I believed in it so much when nobody believed.
People tell me that I'm not worthy.
My own culture always tells me that.
There's so many women that I read on Instagram,
which it doesn't bother me, but I do read
a lot of women and when I look at their profile,
they're Latinas, they're minorities and they're like,
(beep) too expensive, you shouldn't charge that much.
Why the (beep) would you open your mouth and say that?
You're a minority just like me
and you just told me that I'm not worth
the price that I believe that I'm worth.
Do not devalue my price.
So I've always been very confident.
Deep inside, those feelings are in a box
but I do feel sometimes like, am I charging too much?
But hold on, this is making up for all the years
that I didn't eat, that I couldn't pay my bills,
that I couldn't afford anything because I was learning,
I was putting myself mentally through college,
in the streets of LA painting murals for free.
This is years of my life,
years of my life to be able to figure out
how to do this cut-out doll, years of my life
to be able to make this cup you're drinking out of,
years of my life to be able to create this material printed,
to be able to create this crop top with my art.
Hey, I do deserve it.
Why it's not worth it?
It should be $10.
Why, because you can't afford it?
Step it up, you don't go to Mercedes-Benz dealer
and tell them they're too expensive, you own up to it.
If Coco Chanel that was a poor orphan,
singing at (beep) cabaret, made it to be
the biggest fashion house in the world,
me, my little Mexican ass, Mexican-Guatemalan from EBT
with a single mom, growing up in the hoods of East LA,
walking through Whittier Boulevard,
taking the bus with a bus pass,
peddling a bike, I can do it too.
- What would you say to someone who's young,
who does have this talent who wants to go
but they're scared and maybe they do have something?
- I feel like, look, I've spent all my youth
creating Sand One, becoming Sand One,
waiting for that moment and I always feared,
getting older and not doing (beep) with my skill.
So I put aside love, pregnancies, boyfriends,
I put all that (beep) to the side
because that was de-routing me
and I decided to put my focus 1000% into my art,
to not waste any minute of my life,
because I was like, it would be a (beep) shame
to have wasted my youth not doing (beep)
with my skill and then become a bitter bitch.
Work with what you have.
I have worked with my own stuff,
whatever I've had at every stage of my life,
it's what I work with.
I'm my own investor, I'm my own product manager,
product developer, I'm my own creative director.
I'm my own every single professional name there is,
position that anyone needs in their business.
I want women to be like, damn, (smooches) she was the artist
of like the forgotten chicks.
Like, she painted for the streets, you know?
Like she created a culture that wasn't there, you know?
Like my girls go to Wal-Mart, they go to Target,
they go to the welfare office,
they're going to school, they're on student aid,
maybe they got, they're Dreamers, they have DACA,
they probably are single moms,
or maybe they're young girls with dreams,
they're girls that are trying to find their way
and I'm their artist, you know?
There's so many different women
but they all connect with me because they feel me
when I talk about my bicycle, my bus pass,
they're like, (slaps chest)
that's me Sand, that's me right now,
or that was me, or that used to be me.
Me and Russell forever!
Russell, nobody can hurt us anymore!
(quiet, upbeat music)