THE CROWD:

He grew up in Newport Beach, but his life path did not follow the Orange County image of life on the coast. Tyler Alexander Gill was raised by his maternal grandmother, Jackie Chenelia, and her husband, Frank Chenelia.

His mother, Jackie’s daughter, struggled with substance abuse and associated challenges with the criminal courts, while his father died at a very young age. Jackie and Frank did their best to create a stable and healthy home life for their grandson. Tyler attended Newport-Mesa schools, ultimately landing at Newport Harbor High School. Struggling with adolescence, he ended up dropping out.

What might have seemed like a recipe for trouble has actually morphed into a unique path for this young Newport Beach native. While Tyler never quite fit in to the standard line of childhood progression, his grandmother from a very early age recognized, inspired and promoted his artistic nature and abilities. He says he spent much of his childhood and teenage years feeling like an outcast in Newport Beach, but through his art found both a comfort and a calling in life.

“I became known as that weird artsy Newport Harbor kid,” Tyler said. He left the Reyn Spooner-shirted crowd on the coast and traveled to Los Angeles, where he got involved with L.A.’s notorious “heroin chic” performer Mickey Avalon and dove into photography, shooting rock bands such as Unwritten Law and Whitestarr. He discovered the work of the late Andy Warhol and claims to join the iconic realist of the 20th century in sharing a certain “film obsession.” Tyler comments, “Warhol is my idol, or I should say his work I idolize, but I’m not attracted to all that sketchy stuff.”

Perhaps it is because that “sketchy stuff” was introduced to him at birth in his own life, and the destruction of substance abuse and other forms of the chaos in modern society taught him demonstrable lessons in survival.

The strong guidance of his grandmother kept Tyler on the straight and narrow, for the most part, while diving into the edgy youth culture of Los Angeles. Like Warhol, to some extent, Tyler was still an outsider standing on the sidelines as an observer watching his generation come of age. He took what he saw and translated it into his own art form. Tyler began painting shoes by hand, mostly tennis shoes and other athletic shoe brands transformed into a new form of street art.

A couple of years and hundreds of painted shoes later, Tyler’s creations caught the attention of the world-famous celebrity clothier Fred Segal on trendy Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. Soon his unique hand-painted shoes were selling for $400 a pair or more and turning up on very famous feet. Sir Elton John purchased a pair, and soon Tyler’s shoes were spotted in tabloid magazines and video clips all over the world.

Recently he has created a one-of-a-kind painted shoe art for Nike Air Force 1 sneakers, which will be carried in stores in London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, South Beach and Los Angeles. Tyler Gill now goes by the name Tyler Alexander and has named his shoe creations “Tyler Alexander’s City Series.” Even Perez Hilton, who fronts one of the most popular gossip sites on the net, is wearing Tyler’s shoes. Andy Milonakis ordered Tyler’s “New York” shoe, and Sara Quin of the indie rock band Tegan and Sara shows off Tyler’s custom-made “Montréal” sneakers and was photographed wearing them at a recent performance at the Glass House in Pomona.

In addition to his “City Series” of shoes, Tyler is creating and painting custom sunglasses and most recently started doing limited-edition tote bags, working with LA photographer Ellei Johndro, whose work is often seen on the photo website www.shadowscene.com.

“I wasn’t one of the kids hanging out at Sharkeez,” Tyler says, adding, “But I was lucky to grow up here in Newport and to see the world from so many points of view. I don’t know where this is all going, but I am definitely excited to be on the ride.”

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