Estria began spray painting in Hawai'i in 1984 and has since painted hundreds of murals. He was an influential leader of the "Golden Age" of graffiti Writing (1980’s) in San Francisco, pioneering painting techniques of characters and scenes. He is also one of the inventors of the stencil tip, a modified cap used by graffiti Writers worldwide to create thin airbrush-like lines. Estria has painted in Peru, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Honduras, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Honolulu, Charlotte and San Francisco.
Since 1993 he has taught graffiti Writing classes and lectured at universities on Writing’s social and political impact. He garnered national attention with his arrest for graffiti in 1994 appearing on CNN and the National Enquirer.
Estria’s mural clients include President Clinton, Vodafone, Toyota, MTV, McDonald’s, Sega, McKesson, Nokia, the Mills Corporation, the Cities of San Francisco and Oakland, and the County of Alameda.
He has served the community through his non-profit cultural work for over 29 years.
Estria’s life work has been to build and advance community through mural projects. Currently his focus is on impacting the Writing culture over the next 10-20 years.
He uses color to create moods in ways that can only be created with the human hand, ways that mimic reality, but exaggerate and distort it. His work is fun, cultural, political, vibrant and always technically precise.