Markos Egure
The man behind successful mural company Wes Kos Images, Markos Egure, is a talented and creative painter, graphic designer, and muralist. Fiercely dedicated to his community, Markos designs and paints murals at all types of Sacramento locations (and some beyond), and dabbles in other artistic pursuits as well.
Markos produces various types of art products under three different artistic banners/identities: Wes Kos Images (murals, creative paintings, graphic design); DRAFICS (engineering drafting, graphics, renderings); and HippieCholo.com (expressive personal graphic design products and paintings). This Feature focuses mainly on his mural work, but be sure to check out his other talents as well!
Getting started in the arts
Markos’ artistic inclinations came to light at an early age, when his second grade teacher pointed out to his mom how Markos would erase and rewrite his name over and over on his papers, until it was written as perfectly as possible.
Growing up, Markos was consistently influenced by the surroundings of his Chicano neighborhood’s multi-ethnic culture, from stories of his parents’ agricultural labor roots to the birth of the ‘80s underground hip-hop graffiti movement, and put these influences into drawings as an artistic outlet.
Art was never promoted as a viable job, however, so, after graduating high school, Markos threw his artistic journey on the back burner and pursued a CADD drafting and design AS degree. He got a job in “Safe Job America,” but quickly felt stifled by his limited education, corporate policy issues, and the daily cubical world. (He did enjoy the work itself, however, and later launched a consulting business to continue work within the industry). Obligations of single fatherhood kept him in his cubicle job, though, until he was finally brave enough to venture out on his own.
After the first attempt at an artistic business in 1993 failed, he returned to engineering, but understood clearer the realities of self-employment and strove to work toward that goal. He applied and was accepted to the San Francisco Academy of Art in 1995 (though he did not go due to the level of parental involvement he wanted to have with his son). In 1996 he was finally granted his first professional mural commission, a piece at his son’s daycare, Graceday Childcare, in Downtown Sacramento.
With that commission under his belt, he relaunched his artistic business in 1997 and worked on growing that alongside his engineering consulting business. In 2007, as the civil engineering industry busted, murals and creative painting became the prime and Markos has seen success as a full-time creative painter ever since.
Building an artistic business
Established professionally in 1997, Wes Kos Images serves as the mural production side to Markos’ artistic business. Wes Kos Images has produced numerous murals and creative paintings throughout the Sacramento region, as well as statewide throughout California.
His business has grown exponentially since it began, and today Wes Kos Images has earned an extensive list of clients, with mural productions and paintings an everyday occurrence. Markos’ current goal is to reach 200 individual pieces of artwork, and he is already at 170 murals and creative paintings.
He identifies his work in four different special project groups: The Family Alma Mater Projects, which include 28 pieces on his family’s schools; The South Sacramento Community “MCP” Projects, made up of 47 pieces within Markos’ own neighborhood/community of over 40 years; South of the River Productions, 81 pieces found south from the American River to the Elk Grove northern city limits; and is working on the future WKI Mural Tour A, which currently includes 38 pieces at 11 different locations throughout Sacramento.
With 20 years of the artist lifestyle under his belt and 16 official years with Wes Kos Images, Markos is looking forward to the next level of inspiring visual contributions.
Find his work
Markos’ most recent pieces are the “Snake-n-Grass” project, which is a 3D creative surface for the children’s area at the City of Sacramento’s Southside Community Garden, and the “Rio Music” Project, a 1400 square foot mural installed at Rio Americano High School (pictured above) (a mural ceremony is taking place Tuesday, April 30).
His work can be seen at many familiar Sacramento locations, including Fairytale Town (pictured below), Sleep Train Arena‘s Skyline Restaurant, Christian Brothers High School, Hyatt Regency, Kaiser Permanente, St. Robert Catholic Parish, Laser Tag of Carmichael, Sacramento City Unified School District schools, etc.
He’s currently working on implementing a Wes Kos Images Mural Tour. You can download the current list or download the map (note that some school locations are not available to the public at this time) and Markos will be leading tours himself in the future (stay tuned for his website).
On the horizon
Ever the busy man, Markos has several upcoming mural projects on his plate. Be sure to keep your eyes out for these in the coming months:
Keep up with Markos
Wes Kos Images
HippieCholo
Wes Kos Images Facebook
HippieCholo Facebook
Email
Sac365 Artist Profile