April 2010: Crimson Cisa in The Hague

Crimson Cisa is constantly busy; I'm glad he found time to answer some questions for Illicit. When he's not getting up in the streets, he's probably in the library researching for his undergraduate thesis. Applause, you rebellious academic! Today, he takes a break and shares his plans with us. He writes:

"My headquarters is located in The Hague, Holland, but I travel a lot. I’m a regular visitor to Berlin, Germany and Lvov, Ukraine. Since I am mostly into stickers right now, I put up my stuff anywhere I go. Holland is a pretty small country, so it is easy to visit a lot of different cities and spread your work quickly."
"My first memory of drawing something on a wall is the time I used a key to scratch a bird and a lake or something in the hallway of my preschool. My mother was called in to come get me, but I can’t really remember getting in trouble. After that, I think I was 11 or 12 when I started doing stupid tags and what I believed were throw ups."
"To be honest, I enjoy working by myself. I just like to zone out, listen to some music and do my thing. Most of the things I make are pretty personal to me and I don’t like being rushed or distracted. I do really enjoy sketching with friends. My regular partner in crime is Smoke (http://www.flickr.com/photos/smoke1esaga/). He’s not very active, but we do try to motivate each other :) When the both of us are not too busy, we have a day every week when we just hang out, draw stuff and try to come up with new ideas."
"One time, Smoke and I got busted. This happened in the most ignorant of ways. We were done putting our stuff up, walked away and went to a store a couple of blocks further. We’re checking stuff out and everything is cool until two cops show up and ask us for ID. I tried playing dumb and was denying everything, but that didn’t really work. We had to go outside and the cops took us to the police station. They told us that they saw us while we were busy and waited until we entered the store so we couldn’t run. After keeping us in little waiting cells at the station for about an hour, they gave us a fine and let us go. This was probably one of the most idiotic things that ever happened to me. Why did they drive us all the way to the police station? Why didn’t they just give us the fine and let us go? Why didn’t they just bust us right away? Why were they keeping us at the police station for over an hour? Getting busted by the police and getting a fine obviously sucks balls, but the whole experience of being treated like some big time criminal just made it so much worse."
"Right now, I’m working on a couple of new sticker designs. One of these I named ‘The Cult Leader’. I think people will enjoy that one a lot (at least I really hope so). I’m also putting some finishing touches on a new canvas. I painted it together with my girlfriend (talk about bonding experiences hahaha). The canvas is called ‘Ik ben een vliegtuig’, which is Dutch for ‘I am an aeroplane’. It has to do with being a bit crazy and having a ‘crowded’ mind. The last couple of weeks were really stressful for me and I felt really restless. A great way of relieving stress is spreading your arms and yelling; ‘I AM AN AEROPLANE!’, while running through a library."

Thanks, man! For more sticker photos, check out his Flickr.

November 2009: Teoz in Rome

Stickers are a prime form of street art because you can spread them like a virus. Send them through the mail or slap them around the city: either way, you can get wherever you go. Italian artist Teoz has mastered the art of the sticker and poster. Today, he shares a bit of his background and where he's going from here. He writes:

“I started doing street art around 2 years ago thanks to my friend. I was about 18/19 years old. I live and study in Rome. I paste most of my posters here, but every time I travel, I always carry with me some posters. It’s the first thing to pack!”
”For now, I work alone, but I welcome collaborations with other people. I think it is a way to grow and expand their knowledge. I usually paint here at home, but I hope to soon have my studio for create big posters!”
”I do not have a well-defined style and am constantly searching. I like to experiment with new methods, new techniques, and new tools. I think pasting in itself is an experience full of excitement and adrenaline!”
Presently, I am devoting little time to this passion because of university commitments (I study graphic design), but when the summer comes, expect more!”
Grazie, Teoz! For more stickers and posters, check out his Flickr.

September 2009: The Stickheads in Milan

The Stickheads may not have a lot to say, but they sure do a lot. This Italian crew teams up with other local artists for the Stick My World project. (I sent some stickers in this year; it's a great time!) Here's a look at their work, who they are, and what they do:

"At the beginning of the 21st century, the crew was proudly founded by: Run 128 and Naws."
"In 2002, Curt and S103 joined the crew."
"In addition to the original crew members, Story 134 and Undo work with us."
"We're all about stickering, postering, and writing."
Thanks, guys! Stay up on all the Stickheads news by visiting their website.

Friday ProFile: Bytedust

Dennis Douven, a.k.a. Bytedust, always searches for the next creative frontier. As a party photographer, he found inspiration in his own photos and created his first sticker designs. While he studied and received a degree in biomolecular sciences, health issues prevented him from working full-time. This sick leave left him more time to mess around with graphic design. He recalls, "Approaching interpretation of street art gradually evolved into Bytedust."

Bytedust took his career in a new direction, but he never left his scientific roots behind. His "Hazmat" series features variations on the Red Cross. Sometimes he's pictured playing the piano. In the next frame, he realizes his key-tinkling days are over as he desperately waits for a Band-Aid. His most recognizable characters are arguably his smokey clouds. In "The Hot Little Factory," steaming clouds with unhappy frowns spew from smokestacks. With red crosses over their little smokey hearts, these masses of gas mourn for their environment.
When he first created the clouds, Bytedust denied having any activist tendencies. "In 2005, the global warming issue wasn't as prevalent as it is now. It was not my intention to get a point across with these images. Most of my illustrations have a background story or message, and environmental problems definitely deserve attention. Today, people need to be criticized about their environmental behaviors. My images reflect these bad behaviors."
Through his initial forays into street art, Bytedust expanded his repetoire into the third dimension. Today, he also designs lines of 3D toys and plush characters. "I likedconverting my two-dimensional characters into 3D figures," he insists. The added dimension created a huge learning curve for Bytedust, but he accepted the challenge. "I'm not a very good hand drawer or painter, so I have to be creative with different techniques," he admitted. "I mainly use the stencil technique to get the details on the toys done."
Currently, Bytedust has a myriad of projects to keep him occupied. In addition to the toys, posters, and stickers, he's also working on a book for sick children in hospitals. "This story will be very close to my own experiences as a child," he adds. "I hope to have it out by November, but It's quite a huge project. Every day, I realize that releasing a book is more complex than I thought. Fortunately, I've got good help around me."
Thanks, Bytedust! For photos of stuffed critters, artwork, and more, check his website. That's all for now! Hopefully, the stars will align so I can make it to the mural slam this weekend.

September 2009: "Hope and Resurrection" in Rome

Omino71 and his crew rock my socks. From their Stick My World events (where you can find some Illicit Exhibitions stickers) to their awesome blog interviews, those Italians know what's up. Their latest project let them collaborate with artists in different mediums to create a quasi-social experiment. Omino writes:

"What is the power of an image? How does it effect/move/transform a place or a person? And what happens when people of different backgrounds come together to push an image out into the world? The photography project 'Hope and Resurrection' was brought about through the collaboration of American photographer and art historian Jessica Stewart and Roman street artists Mr. Klevra and Omino71. A singular image of the Madonna and Child, something so icon yet often overlooked in our modern times, carries forward the sentence 'Only After Disaster Can We Resurrect.'Plastered across Rome as stickers and posters, whether placed on electrical boxes and decaying walls or hung from clotheslines, this undeniable image was diffused through the city. How would people react? Would they break from their daily urban routine to stop, slow down, and observe the power of this image? Would people be able to recognize the artistry of the pieces instead of dismissing them as vandalism? How would each artist bring their style to this collaborative effort? By juxtaposing their collaborative pieces with their own individual works, Omino71 and Mr. Klevra allow the pubic to judge this for themselves."

"The images exhibited have developed over the span over several months. First, we captured the small-scale stickers that dotted Rome, with the iconic image of a child reaching out to touch the artwork as a focal point, and then moved toward an installation of posters on the public clotheslines of the Roman neighborhood Garbatella. Jessica shot the majority of the photography in a one-day whirlwind of activity across the city the evening after a pasting session by Mr. Klevra and Omino71. She set out to tell the story not only of each individual location, with its specific characteristics and contexts, but to also capture details which force the viewer to 'observe' the pieces in a specific way, thus recalling the details one finds in art historical texts. The idea being to take the imagery put into the world by these artists and not simply report it, but also transform it into a powerful message of hope as seen through the eyes of the photographer."
"Jessica Stewart is a Rome-based photographer and art historian. She relocated to Italy in 2005 to be surrounded by the Renaissance and Baroque art for which she is passionate. Her love of photography was developed during coursework at Boston University and honed through her blog—RomePhotoBlog, where she regularly posts images exploring contemporary living in Rome. Her keen sense of observation, honed through years of studying the compositions of the Old Masters, is also informed by her time living as a foreigner in Italy. Through lighting and angles she seeks to find the beauty in everyday urban life and to breath new life into already iconic spaces."
"Omino71 is an anonymous Italian artist… or maybe he’s just a poscapen fan. He works with poscapens, mosaics, acrylic paintings, photography, spraycans, posters, stickers, stencils, and flyers. He plays with Rubik's cubes, postpunk, arcade games, scooters, skateboards, comics, sneakers, b-movies, and pop art."
"The pseudonym Mr. Klevra is derived from the Hebrew translation for rabid dog, is fitting considering that a bull terrier, with its oblong shaped head, is one ofthe recurring figures in his detailed artistic repertoire, which takes inspiration from both fantasy and street art. From the time he first remembers drawing, all self-taught, his style has ranged from futuristic illustrations to strict Byzantine iconography. Any surface will become a canvas in his hands, populated with strange figures, full of grace and yet with meticulous detail."

Thanks, guys! Check out their respective websites to see more of the project.

May 2009: Figurehead Experiment in Willimantic

A few weeks ago, I posted on Klub 19's Figurehead Night in Lodz, Poland. This event coincidentally occurred on the night of Figurehead's Sticker Expo in Willimantic, Conn. Thanks to the wonders of MySpace, the two independent parties were able to connect and share photos after the fact. Here's what happened at the Sticker Expo:

“Hey, sorry if it's too late, but here is some stuff on the Figurehead Sticker Expo. For a few months before our sticker expo, we had an open call for stickers and any other kind of ‘street art’. Work poured in from all over. We had stickers from as far away as South America and Italy.”
“We had five local indie bands playing the whole night. As you can see from the photos, we had two big tables full of free stickers. We also set up some tables with copies of The Figurehead for people to draw on. Later on, we taped up all the drawings people made. We also left a big stack of blank USPS labels on this table.”
“It’s cool that Klub 19 set up a Figurehead theme night because we had no idea! Since learning of what they did in Lodz, Poland, we will attempt to set up several simultaneous Figurehead themed parties all over the world sometime next year. If anyone would like to help us meet our goals, they can contact us though our MySpace page.”
“Thanks! Again, sorry for the delay; we have been way too busy lately!”
It's great to hear you're so busy, guys! It's never too late for a follow-up. Thanks so much! I wish I could've made it to the expo, but I'm definitely in favor of a world-wide Figurehead fandango. I was also thrilled to find a photo of my stickers! I don't do much sticking myself, but I love passing them out to friends. Glad to see they found a good home! I also noticed that some people were remixing them and making their own. Fabulous! If you made your own Illicit Exhibitions sticker, I would be honored if you'd send me a photo. Great idea, guys!

Also, can we talk about this for a second? THANK YOU to Mike and the whole crew over at the Kronikle. You're fabulous!

June 2009: KDK12 in Brighton

Whenever I think of Brighton, I think of a mix tape my cousin made me. When I was a dorky 13 year-old kid, my older cousin was kind enough to share his musical taste with me. At the time, I was listening to a lot of BBC radio streamed live through my 56k modem. During a family gathering, he presented me with a mixtape (that's right, a real cassette tape, folks.) Filled with all sorts of goodies, the tape contained Fatboy Slim's "You're Not From Brighton." This track prompted my subsequent interest in Anglo culture and the country's art scene. Thanks, Gavin!

Today, we'll hear from a street artist who really is from Brighton. While he doesn't like to talk about himself, KDK12 took a second to share photos and thoughts with us. He writes:

"Hi, Meg! Not a huge fan of the bio on my site. Here are some other words about me."

"Currently, I'm located in Brighton, but I have bases in Manchester and London."
"After a year's study, I'm currently trying to go cold turkey from Deal or No Deal whilst simultaneously striving to create THE perfect cup of tea."
"Now that the oppressive and stifling reign of education is over, expect stickers, posters and pasteups to be smashed around Brighton and beyond soon. Keep your eyes peeled!"
"Much love to y'all. Thanks again!--KDK12"

Thanks, KDK12! For more info, be sure to check his site for updates.

P.S. I must wish my friend Pam a happy birthday today. A while ago, she was sweet enough to pick me up a book about street art. Thanks for thinking of me, m'dear!

Friday ProFile: InFame

New York has a long history of street art and graffiti (comparatively, anyway). Europe’s been churning out stencil artists since Blek le Rat stepped on the scene. But in some places, street art is still fresh and new. InFame is one of Ecuador’s street art pioneers. Braving new territory with wheatpaste, spray cans, and stickers, he is one of a growing number of artists taking their work to the streets.

“At school, some friends told me about stenciling and graffiti,” he recalls. “I began to investigate. My first template was Jimi Hendrix.” He is one of the few artists in Quito who uses stencils regularly. Most of the time, InFame works alone but he teams up with other stencil artists from time to time.
For the past 17 years, he’s covered the streets of Quito with his work. “Street art gives me more excitement in my life. Before I became an artists, my life was very monotonous. I wanted to do something that would make people remember me, so I became a pioneer of street art in my country.”
While graffiti artists and street artists coexist in other places, InFame believes there’s a divide in Ecuador. “It's a bit different in Quito,” he says. “There are many writers but there’s a divide between graffiti and street art. People who do street art have a more contemporary designs while graffiti artists opt for a more classic style.”
Regardless of their style, writers face considerable danger on the street. “There’s a lot of intolerance and abuse perpetuated by the police,” he adds. “The first time I painted a stencil, the cops found me. However, they saw the stencil and didn’t think I was doing ‘graffiti’, so they left me alone.”
In the future, InFame hopes to take his work worldwide. “I’d love to show people a different side of Ecuador,” he explains. “I just want to go out and paint in the street.” He believes that Ecuador’s street art scene is still young and there’s plenty of room to go. “The medium hasn’t been exploited for commercial reasons,” he insists. “I prefer to paint for the people.”

Gracias, InFame! For more info, check out his Flickr page or his website. That’s all for now; I’m off to NYC to see what’s there for me. If you’re around and want to hang out, drop me a line! I’ll be happy to see you.

May 2009: Stick My World!

While you're sending a sticker pack to The Figurehead Experiment's end of the month Sticker Expo, throw an extra pack in for Stick My World! Street artist and founder Omino 71 explains the previous Stick My World! events and hopes you'll participate this year. He writes:

“Omino 71 launched the first STICK MY WORLD in late 2007. The project transformed an old Vespa Px in our installation of ‘sticker-art’. The old scooter was to be part of a traveling exhibition. It contained contributions from emerging artists and designers from all over the world. We made use of the disruptive, communicative, informative, and creative social network, Web 2.0.” 

“The project was developed on Flickr, spreading the message ‘Your art + my scooter = our artwork on the road.’ In just two months, we received around 200 works from all types of artists: sticker artists, street artists, contemporary painters, illustrators, designers, marketing guerrillas, photographers, poets, each with a different contribution. Urban Folklore wrote, ‘The miscellany of "colored things” has become a meeting point for several different subcultures.’” 
“Publications like Stuck Up Magazine, My Paper, and Frizzi Frizzi (our own magazine) advertised the project, along with several blogs all over the planet, from the U.S. and Russia to the Philippines. The echo highlighted the potential of this type of event, which not only involved street artists but also individual communities. Any person who had an interest in becoming internationally visible could participate.”   

“Finally, this first project laid the foundation for the establishment of a 200-strong international artists network.” 

“STICK MY SURFBOARD followed in July 2008. It was an experiment filled with fashion shows, photography exhibits, and sneaker customization all packed onto the beach at Ostia. With this new surfboard theme, the number of participants doubled. The whole event was coordinated in about three weeks and had little promotion other than word of mouth through sticker artists.” 

“The success of both events led to Stick My Car in October 2008. Thousands gathered in Serata to customize the protagonist of the evening: an old Panda 750, an icon of the ‘poor street’ of the eighties. The car was entirely covered with stickers and still circulates the streets of the capital.” 
“The STICK MY CAR event was organized in just over two months by a self-funded team. For Omino 71, the opportunity has been invaluable. Artists NoBrain, Satoboy, Gianzo, and Cut & Paste contributed to the overall management of the event and still managed to sticker simultaneously. Over the years, the movement has grown to include a MySpace page, a website, and a Flickr page.” 
Grazie, Omino! While the medium of choice is a surprise, e-mail him to get the mailing details and where you need to be on the big night if you're in Italy. Now I have to run or I will be late for work. Again. Whoops!

Friday ProFile: Earworm

First things first: you may notice a shiny new toolbar on the blog today. The “Choose Your Weapon” section acknowledges the fact that English is definitely NOT the only language. While the bar may be small, I’m hoping it will grow once I learn how to modify it. For now, you can read Illicit posts in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, and German. Super! Now on to the post.  

I went to high school in a small town and the scene was pretty boring. Each discipline was confined to its own isolated corridor: math in the blue hallway, English in the green, and health hidden away by the guidance office. The art wing was so far away from my other classes that I never saw it. In my four years of high school, my schedule was too crowded for art classes. I regret never taking one; I feel like I missed meeting a lot of cool people. 
I wonder if a kid like Earmworm went to my school. This Dutch teen from Nijmegen is still in high school, but he’s already making a name for himself. He says, “I always made big drawings with many details in them. I’d fill two pieces of A3 paper totally filled with all sorts of little drawings. One day, I made a little drawing. It was a worm coming out of an ear. I thought, ‘Earworm. That’s a pretty cool name. I’m using it.’” While he dabbled in street art before, he’s been posting his wiggly critters for a year now. Nijmegen, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Antwerp, and Cologne all bear the mark of Earworm. 
Street style inspired Earworm to create his own character. “I love the stickers, graffiti, and other art in the streets,” he explains. “I thought it was a nice idea to leave your mark on every place you’ve been. That was my intention: leaving my mark. It motivates me; every day you will see something new on the streets by all different kinds of artists. I think that’s just great!” Like fellow Dutch street artists Space3, Earworm hopes to invade everything with his work. 
Through his stickers, Earworm hopes to make his presence known and grab the viewer’s attention. “I want to make people happy and get them to relax for a second,” he says. Some of his friends also make stickers, but Earworm tends to work alone.  While he has yet to graduate from high school, he’s already planning ahead. “The first thing I want to do is put my stickers up everywhere,” he insists. “In the near future, I want to do some bigger things.”  What’s he working on now? “Lately, I’ve been working on big worm paste-ups,” he adds. “You’ll see.” 
Take a look at Earworm’s photos and drop him a line on MySpace. Thanks! 

April 2009: Berlin

I met my friend Rio two years ago in Barcelona. At the time, I was traveling alone and he was with his friend Paul. We were all assigned the same hostel room, so we ended up spending some time together. That night, we shared delicious vegetarian food and wandered Las Ramblas for hours. In the morning, I left early for the Barcelona Marathon and they returned to Germany. 

As I planned my trip to London this year, I dropped Rio a line to coordinate a visit. The result couldn't have been more perfect. His parents fed and housed me even though they'd never met me. Rio introduced me to his friends and gave me an extensive tour of Berlin. Obviously, this tour contained a lot of street art.
The amount of graffiti and street art in Berlin is almost oppressive. Since the cost of living is fairly inexpensive compared to other European cities, countless artists call Berlin home. It seems like everyone is putting their works up in the streets. 

From big names like Os Gemeos to local artists like Bürek, the scene ranges from pieces and throwups to wheatpastes, stickers, and stencils.

To thank him for his hospitality, I brought Rio an assortment of stickers from home, we stuck a few up as we roamed the city. Stickers by The Figurehead Experiment, The Cronk Burger, Ektin, Biafra, and Buy It now all have a home in Berlin.I hope Rio sends more photos when he uses the rest of the stickers. He's an absolutely amazing photographer; check out his stuff here. Although I don't know when I'll see him again, I certainly hope our paths will cross. Who knew a chance encounter could lead to such a good time?