Kraten was born in 1974 in San Francisco, California. He moved out of the city to Huntington Beach in Southern California while he was young. As a teenager, he revered local pro-skateboarder artist Mark Gonzales. Kraten is interested in street graffiti and skateboarding. He worked full-time jobs while establishing himself as an artist, taking jobs in factories and working a stint as a courier. He gained recognition in the 2000s, and subsequently set up a factory-like studio in a Costa Mesa loft on the East side. Kraten's early work was in the form of conceptual painting. One of his best known paintings is Workers Compensation 2003, which depicts a table found in the trash. It was entirely fingerpainted.

Kraten works in multiple art mediums, from refrigerator doors and discarded windows to dismantled doghouses and old street signs. He works with his hands and never uses brushes, which gives a rich and textured quality to his work. Kraten has no art school experience and consequently his work has a very gritty look. Kraten grew up in Huntington Beach, California and always enjoyed drawing. He would carry around small 100-page sketchbooks which he drew in often. In 1999, while Kraten was working at a thrift store, he started experimenting with painting on found objects. Kraten started displaying work in the thrift store and sold a fair amount of it. Soon after, Kraten began submitting his work to galleries and museums in Southern California. Kraten's work has been shown in museums such as the Laguna Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and galleries such as Gallery 23; Gallery C; Seven Degrees; and Subject Matter. Kraten shows about 4 times a year and posts new work on his website often. Kraten has filled over 58 100-page sketchbooks and created over 350 paintings. He currently paints full time.