SAVO
Tommy Turner
Multidisciplinary Visual Artist, Muralist & Creative Entrepreneur
San Diego-based artist and founder of Tha Block. Professional art practice established in 2015. SAVO creates bold, story-driven work rooted in transformation, identity, resilience, Hip-Hop culture, public art, personal growth, and community pride.
Pop-art-influenced realistic portraiture rooted in Hip-Hop, comics, and street culture.
SAVO, the professional artist name of Tommy Turner, is a San Diego-based multidisciplinary visual artist, muralist, and creative entrepreneur whose professional art practice was established in 2015.
Founder of Tha Block, SAVO creates work rooted in transformation, identity, resilience, Hip-Hop culture, storytelling, public art, personal growth, community pride, and community empowerment.
His visual practice centers on bold portraiture that blends recognizable figures, graphic color, emotional storytelling, and the visual language of Tha Block.
The first person who saw the gift was my mother.
Origin Story Image
The image that pulled SAVO toward his first remembered drawing — a black velvet painting of a child with a tear.
SAVO remembers clearly when he first understood that art was part of who he was. He was six years old, lying underneath his mother’s coffee table on a rainy day, drawing while his mother sat in the kitchen drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and talking with neighborhood women who became like aunties to him.
On the wall hung a black velvet painting of a Black child with a tear coming down his face. That day, something pulled SAVO toward it. He began to draw it.
When he finished, his mother’s reaction changed everything. She passed the drawing around, praised his gift, asked to keep it, and encouraged him to draw more.
That short interaction gave SAVO something deeper than permission. It gave him belief. Family remains central to his creative life, and that foundation continues to guide the purpose behind his work.
Art became the place where all of my gifts finally came together.
“I still create because art gave me a way to turn everything I have lived through into something with purpose, meaning, and power.”
Before fully committing to visual art, SAVO followed another passion: entertaining people. He performed on stage, appeared on screen, worked in movies, television, streaming, live events, car shows, comedy, and radio. At the heart of it all was one thing: he loved making people happier.
After his mother passed away, he moved to Ocean Beach, scaled down his life, walked the shoreline, and searched for his next chapter. A conversation with a muralist below his apartment and the discovery of artists streaming on Twitch helped everything click.
The next chapter was clear.
He would bring together art, comedy, theater, teaching, entertainment, music, storytelling, Hip-Hop, and the energy of the block. But this time, his talents would build his own dream instead of someone else’s.
SAVO still creates to make people feel seen, remembered, inspired, and happier.
Community Impact
SAVO’s art lives between fine art and real life — on walls, at festivals, in homes, in businesses, at conventions, and inside community spaces where people can actually feel it.
Public Art • Schools • Businesses • Community Spaces
SAVO’s work has helped transform school spaces, business walls, public-facing environments, and community events into places where art becomes part of the experience.
Public Walls
SAVO believes art belongs on walls people walk past every day. Murals can transform blank spaces into places of beauty, pride, identity, and conversation.
Personal Memory
His commissions, memorial pieces, family portraits, pet portraits, and custom artwork help people remember, heal, celebrate, and feel seen.
Culture & Connection
His work connects through Hip-Hop, comics, comedy, sports, music, gaming, family, grief, survival, joy, and cultural memory.
My future work is for the people who are still becoming.
Expanding the Work
SAVO’s future audience includes collectors, schools, businesses, cultural organizations, public art programs, and communities looking for artwork with story, identity, and impact.
SAVO wants his future work to serve people who may not always see themselves represented in galleries, museums, or public art. His work is for Tha Block, the neighborhood, the family, the young creative, the music lover, the person healing, and the person still becoming.
At the center of his future work is Hip-Hop and all things Hip-Hop: the music, culture, style, struggle, humor, storytelling, confidence, memory, and survival.
Representation, encouragement, cultural pride, healing, and visible proof that transformation can happen.
The Need
SAVO has built real momentum through murals, commissions, festivals, and public-facing artwork. The next challenge is expanding that impact with stronger materials, equipment, documentation, and support systems that allow the work to reach more people.
Many neighborhoods need beauty, pride, and cultural representation. People need to see their culture reflected back to them because that reflection sparks conversations about identity, history, struggle, possibility, and success.
SAVO’s work responds to the need to honor everyday people at a public scale — people from the neighborhood, people with real stories, and people whose faces deserve to be seen on the sides of buildings.
Bigger Than Tha Block
A public mural series created to honor everyday people from the neighborhood at a monumental scale.
Expanding The Mission
Bigger Than Tha Block is about carrying the story, creativity, and resilience of the neighborhood into larger spaces — through public art, cultural storytelling, community-centered projects, and artwork that gives people something to see themselves in.
Everyday people. Real stories. Monumental scale.
Bigger Than Tha Block would celebrate elders, workers, artists, families, youth, musicians, small business owners, culture keepers, and community members whose faces and lives deserve to be seen.
The project begins with Tha Block, but the message is bigger than the block.
Bigger Than Tha Block will honor everyday people from the neighborhood at a monumental scale.
Capt. Jason Shanley
Subject
The first mural proposed for Bigger Than Tha Block would honor Capt. Jason Shanley, a Black San Diego Fire-Rescue captain and community-centered public servant.
The mural would celebrate Black leadership, public service, mentorship, community trust, and the importance of seeing people from the neighborhood represented in roles of courage, responsibility, and real impact.
Visual Concept
Capt. Shanley would be shown in firefighter uniform, holding a firefighter ax in one hand and a microphone in the other. The background would include the San Diego skyline, Southeast San Diego visual elements, and fire department imagery.
Proposed quote: “Freedom looks good on you.”
Dr. Elizabeth Stanton
Honoring Black Excellence, Healing, and Education
Another proposed mural for Bigger Than Tha Block would honor Dr. Elizabeth Stanton, a Black psychologist from Southeast San Diego whose work represents education, mental health, family support, leadership, and community service.
With five degrees, a private psychology practice, and years of work supporting families, individuals, and children, Dr. Stanton represents the kind of everyday excellence this mural series is meant to celebrate.
Why Her Story Matters
Dr. Stanton’s career reflects more than professional achievement. Her work with families, children, individuals, and state evaluations connects directly to the emotional health, stability, and future of the community.
As a former university vice president, professor, and longtime professor, her story shows young people from Southeast San Diego what education, discipline, service, and purpose can make possible.
Proposed Visual Concept
The proposed mural would feature Dr. Stanton in SAVO’s bold, realistic portrait style with warm gold and copper light surrounding her image. The background could include visual symbols of psychology, education, children, family, healing, and Southeast San Diego.
Possible elements include books, graduation imagery, a child’s handprint, family silhouettes, notebook pages, and subtle patterns representing the mind, growth, care, and community support.
Possible mural quote: “Representation heals.”
Murals that transform everyday spaces.
Public Art Portfolio
SAVO’s mural work has transformed schools, businesses, cultural spaces, and public-facing walls into places where art creates identity, warmth, community connection, and lasting visual impact.
Pretty Flowers
Cake · Mission Hills, San Diego · 2025
SAVO’s largest mural to date: a 15 x 36 foot hand-painted exterior mural featuring local flowers and a hummingbird at the center.
1st Warrior
Viejas Reservation · 2015
A commissioned full-wall interior mural inside a Native-owned shop, reflecting site-specific storytelling and cultural presence.
Educational Environment Mural Series
La Mesa, San Diego · 2015
A hand-painted indoor mural series for a school serving children with Down syndrome, designed to bring warmth, imagination, calm, and visual engagement into the school environment.
From individual creative hustle into a sustainable community-centered art practice.
Building Capacity
Grant funding would help SAVO expand public art projects with stronger materials, safer equipment, better documentation, larger-scale mural preparation, community engagement, and the ability to bring more finished work into schools, businesses, cultural spaces, and public-facing environments.
Studio Upgrade
Funding would help purchase supplies, canvases, paint, printing equipment, framing materials, and mural equipment to create stronger work and respond to larger opportunities.
Public Mural Series
Funding would support Bigger Than Tha Block, a mural series honoring everyday people from the neighborhood with real stories at a public scale.
Community Art Projects
Through Tha Block, SAVO wants to build creative projects that bring people together through visual art, Hip-Hop culture, music, storytelling, and local creativity.
Future Events
Future ideas include Tha Block Party and Talent and Tacos — a FREE accessible community events connecting art, music, food, vendors, live painting, and neighborhood creativity.
Selected career highlights.
Career Highlights
SAVO’s professional practice includes public murals, commissioned artwork, festival appearances, collector sales, live art experiences, cultural storytelling, and community-facing creative work across San Diego and beyond.
TwitchCon
San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Long Beach, Las Vegas · 2015–Present
Artist, exhibitor, live painter, creator, and recurring convention presence connecting visual art with gaming, streaming, and digital culture.
TwitchCon 2025
Artist Alley · San Diego Convention Center
Presented original artwork as part of Artist Alley, continuing SAVO’s long-term TwitchCon participation.
Kinfolk Juneteenth Festival
Waterfront Park, San Diego · 2026
Presented and sold original artwork, prints, posters, stickers, and SAVO888 merchandise at a public celebration of Black culture and community.
Feel It Records
San Diego · 2024–Present
SAVO’s original JDilla painting has been on display, connecting his Hip-Hop portrait work to a music-centered cultural space.
City Times — San Diego City College
Featured artist profile · October 22, 2025
Featured in an article highlighting SAVO’s creative journey and participation in TwitchCon 2025 Artist Alley.
Press: City Times — Local San Diego artist shares art journey to TwitchCon
Built from self-directed practice, public-facing work, and lived experience.
Acrylic, oil, spray paint, mixed media, ink, digital illustration, graphic design, mural painting, apparel graphics, prints, posters, sticker design, portraiture, public art concepts, commissioned artwork, business artwork, event design, logo/design work, live event vending, and collector engagement.
Culture, memory, identity, and transformation.
Portfolio Range
SAVO’s work moves across portraiture, Hip-Hop-inspired visual storytelling, public art, cultural icons, spiritual symbolism, commissioned pieces, and artwork rooted in identity, resilience, and transformation.
Portraits of Becoming
Portrait-based work exploring identity, transformation, cultural influence, resilience, and human potential.
Hip-Hop Portraits
A continuing series honoring Hip-Hop artists, producers, cultural icons, and the music that shaped SAVO’s creative identity.
Comedy Portraits
A collection celebrating comedians whose work shaped SAVO’s understanding of timing, truth, laughter, and survival.
Comic & Pop Culture Portraits
Work rooted in comics, animation, superheroes, film, and characters that shaped SAVO’s imagination.
Twitch & Gaming Portraits
Artwork connected to gaming, streaming culture, TwitchCon, creator communities, and digital entertainment.
Murals & Public Art
Hand-painted murals and public-facing projects focused on beautification, storytelling, cultural presence, and community pride.
Original artwork rooted in culture, memory, and transformation.
SAVO’s selected works include hand-painted portraits, Hip-Hop icons, comic and pop culture figures, gaming and creator culture pieces, commissions, murals, prints, posters, and story-driven visual work.
Hip-Hop Portraits
Portrait-based work honoring Hip-Hop artists, cultural icons, rhythm, memory, and the music that shaped SAVO’s creative identity.
Story-Driven Characters
Character-based artwork that uses bold color, expression, mood, and imagination to create figures with presence, attitude, and visual impact.
Comic & Pop Culture
Work rooted in comics, animation, film, heroes, antiheroes, and the characters that helped shape SAVO’s imagination as a young artist.
Every piece is a chapter, a memory, and a conversation.
For Collectors
SAVO’s work gives collectors more than an image — it gives them a piece of story, culture, memory, and emotional connection they can live with every day.
Every painting SAVO creates represents a chapter of his journey and a conversation with the people who connect with it. Whether someone collects an original, buys their first print, picks up a sticker at a festival, or commissions a personal piece for their family, the connection matters.
