Rising Stars: Meet Stamy Paul of Ohio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stamy Paul.

Hi Stamy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was at a crossroad with my career and human resources when I developed division to bring a Platform for Graffiti Artist and street Artist in the greater Cleveland area there was a time when I was searching for a Graffiti Writer to do a commission piece in one of the Hall in one of the walls of my home in Tremont and I had a difficult time engaging an artist in the area to do this. I’ve found an artist a Graffiti artist in Cleveland but not without the help of a contact in New York City that’s when I decided there needs to be a better Platform in Cleveland for Graffiti Writer street., Artist who may be Underground that are interested in bringing their art to public spaces in a approved and commission opportunity. This vision grew with strategic pillars, such as providing educational opportunities to use in the form of scholarship funding for The Cleveland Institute of Art as well as hands-on workshops that are offered and facilitated at the Graffiti Heart headquarters at 4829 Superior Ave. in Cleveland since then the organization has been responsible for facilitating managing and funding several public materials as well as private commissions for homes schools, hotels offices, and other businesses Graffiti Heart was started in 2013 with the first project happening in 2014 during the gay games in CLEVELAND, OHIO where several artists were brought together to paint several murals that we still have today with more than 60 public murals and more than $110,000 in scholarship funding Graffiti Heart is now set up to expand its operation with its first full-time position as a new deputy director of the organization. In addition to this Graffiti Heart also has brought legendary Graffiti riders and Artist from all over the world to Cleveland to infuse global talents with local talents to further elevate the stage for Artist in greater Cleveland such as Taki 183, Blek le Rat, Risk, Beau Stanton and WRDSMTH, YoSh, and soon, KOBRA.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
This organization has been a grassroots Crowdfunding organization since 2013 relying very little on grants for the last 10 years up until recently when we hired a program Director, the biggest challenge has been Building the trust and network of Graffiti writers who have traditionally been anonymous or Underground into identify identify waste and opportunities to bring the Graffiti style art to commission walls. This however, has grown tremendously with more of a draw and interest from the community not only in Cleveland, but across the country.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve been a human resources, professional and executive for more than 30 years and the Graffiti Heart concept and organization was founded by me in 2013 while I was in the midst of my career and has been developed operated and grown through grassroots volunteerism led by myself I’ve run the organization in the evenings or weekends when I wasn’t working in my professional day-to-day job and since then I’ve recently retired this past May and now can contribute more time to the organization even more exciting for me is that we will soon announce that we have hired our first full-time deputy Director and director of creative programming for Graffiti Heart Valerie Schumacher, who will take the organization to the next level to date in 2026 alone, Valerie has spearheaded our Grant development with close to $100,000. And Grant funding to help support our strategic plan or program mean around people with disabilities and to help support our significant project this September featuring Artist KOBRA from Brazil who will install the largest Mural in CLEVELAND, OHIO

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I’m very lucky to say that I had a very good and happy childhood so really most of my memories are good memories. I would say some of my fun memories are just being with the family riding my big wheel growing up with my nephews learning how to golf an impersonating Michael Jackson.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.graffitiheart.org
• Instagram: @graffitiheart1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DXny9zmQq/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• LinkedIn: Graffitiheart
• Twitter: @graffitiheart1
• Youtube: @graffitiheart2021