Arko and Owl are two Charlotte artists who keep their identities secret for a reason

Artists Arko and Owl met at a wedding in 2009. Owl had been invited to play the violin and Arko was there with his family. Although Arko’s Colombian side of the family knew Owl’s parents before either Arko or Owl had been born, the two had never been introduced.

“We actually met on the dance floor at a wedding,” said Owl, 28. “It’s the cheesiest story in the world.”

A few days after meeting, despite hating the idea they had met at a wedding, Arko and Owl found each other on Facebook. They married in 2010, 13 months after that introduction.

Arko and Owl are aliases, used publicly to keep their art and real identities separate. They started using them in 2013 to “erase the person behind” the art, Owl said The aliases remove gender, ethnicity and any other preconceived notions someone looking at the art may have of the artist. It allows the viewer to just experience the art.

“Our actual names aren’t really necessary to enjoy the art or to appreciate the art because it’s all created under this auspice of these characters,” said Arko, 37. “It doesn’t matter who we are. It’s the characters and the connection we make through art that does that for us.”

The name “Arko” developed from the artist’s ability to write those four letters well in graffiti. He liked the sound as well as the number of characters in the name. It also means arc or rainbow in different translations.

A sense of freedom

Owl wanted a name that would reflect her history, last over time, and tell of her journey on this planet. Her mother and mother-in-law’s love of owls and the positive images connected to owls influenced her decision to choose it. Owls are also gender-neutral and mysterious.

“It really brought a sense of freedom,” she said. “I never thought, as an artist, that I could create this different alternate reality (…) that could become my career.”

In addition to using aliases, Arko and Owl started wearing masks to protect their identity. Arko wears a skeleton, like his character. Owl dons a sphinx because she identifies with the feline mentality and likes how the owl and cat images play into her character.

“We saw that it was a great way for us to interact with our audience,” Owl said. “It was also a way to see how we could keep our identities sacred to us. For me, ...you couldn’t tell if I was a man or a woman. And it was liberating for me to know I had a way to not show that I was a woman or a person of color. And that’s where I found the freedom to talk to people while I was at a show.”

Arko’s style

Arko and Owl are not only partners in love but also in the business of creating art. Each has a distinct approach to their work. Arko uses vivid colors to create a make-believe world for his main character, also called Arko. The illustrations depict whimsical scenes with a cartoon-like Arko eating ice cream or hanging out in outer-space; some include eyes drawn on houses and plants exploding into clouds.

“I call it recycled art,” said Arko, 37. “I do a lot of bright poppy colors. I try to focus on my character Arko, who is a skull head.”

Arko often adds a positive message: Create, Smile, Stay Positive. Much of his art is made with recycled cardboard and is given out free. It’s not unusual to find a piece of his work in a neighborhood or store with the words, “Take me.” Arko wants art to be accessible to everyone, not just available in a museum, where some people feel excluded or don’t have access.

Owl’s style

Abstract patterns and lines in repetition characterize Owl’s art. Without sketching beforehand, she uses spray paint or markers to create the work.

She describes this mark making as a “blob language” — a simplified way to describe the visual language she’s developed. She likens it to freestyle dancing, “you don’t know where the next step is going to come from but because you’ve practiced enough...you continue to create these compositions that people connect with.”

The couple also combines their contrasting styles to create Arko and Owl walls or murals. Often, Arko comes up with the story line and characters and Owl designs the layout for the concept. The Arko in Space and Arko Island murals in South End are examples of how their world’s collide.

“For the Arko and Owl walls, we have really pushed ourselves to make it a place where these two different styles, abstract and illustration, come together,” Owl said. “It’s forcing us to see where that interaction (can) come from. It creates these stories that we didn’t see coming, but they’re very interesting and fun.”

Other-worldly spaces

In 2018, Mint Museum Uptown commissioned Arko and Owl for its first Constellation CLT, a program to engage more local artists in the museum’s programs. Arko and Owl painted murals and integrated 2D hanging sculptures on three walls in the museum’s public spaces.

“They fuse two distinct styles together,” said Jonathon Stuhlman, senior curator of American art at the Mint. “I like how they can work as a team, talk it out and create these other worldly spaces. I think they’re drawing from the language of graffiti and mural art.”

Charlotte Center City Partners chief creative officer, Robert Krumbine commissioned the duo to help transform the exhibit hall of the Charlotte Convention Center for Center City’s 2019 Vision Awards last spring. Arko and Owl designed 30 panels of graffiti to complete the urban construction site theme.

Last fall, Owl painted the outside of two shipping containers at Victoria Yards on North Tryon and 7th Street as part of a Center City revitalization effort.

Krumbine appreciates how Arko and Owl use the characters to separate themselves from their art. Although murals and street art have become a mainstream form of art, the aliases and masks add to the mystery and romance of being a street artist, he said.

“It hearkens to the whole graffiti movement and the people who would hide behind these names,” Krumbine said. “And the fact that they took masks to add to that piece is even more interesting to me.”

What’s ahead?

Owl graduated with an associate degree in fine arts from Central Piedmont Community College in 2015. Instead of pursuing a four-year degree, she joined Southern Tiger Collective to “breathe in local art,” she said. Arko studied design and sculpture at UNC Greensboro and received a fine arts degree in 2005. He works full-time as a land surveyor..

Owl has definite ideas for how she and Arko will proceed in the coming years, much of it shaped by the opportunities she’s been provided by her community. Owl wants to make public art more accessible to others in need in Charlotte and beyond, serve as a resource to others and give back when she can. One goal she’s set for herself is to create a building where people can go to be creative.

“I want people to know that they can be creative,” Arko said, “and that they can find happiness in themselves and in the friends and the world around them.”

This story is part of an Observer underwriting project with the Thrive Campaign for the Arts, supporting arts journalism in Charlotte.

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This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 10:55 AM.