March 2010: Senkoe in Mexico City

Many artists choose sides and stick with graffiti or street art exclusively, but Senkoe has the best of both worlds. Today, he tells us how he mixes styles and techniques to push his work further. He writes:

"Most of my work is in the metropolitan area of Mexico City. It's distributed in various parts of the city and there's some in other states of my country. When I started painting in my neighborhood there was nobody doing it. I'm used to working alone; it's how I feel more comfortable."
"My style has evolved gradually, as I found more inspiration in nature and its forms. Apart from that everything is built from drawings. Everything has been flowing slowly. I started using aerosol techniques that were my favorites, but I also use brushes to achieve certain effects. The first tags and graffiti were more orthodox pumps and wildstyle, but what influenced me most was the enlightenment. I became interested again, but I think have yet to really reach the style I want."
"I especially like the walls situated in contexts of wide avenues and textured or smooth surfaces in which one can give greater effect, but I also feel very attracted to aged and cracked walls that show traces of the passage of time.
"There have been many crazy things that happen in the street. The most common are insults to threats of coup, but Mexico is full of very intolerant people. On one occasion, a man approached and told me things he drew were a thing of the devil. He had had a hallucination due to illness and he had seen things like I was painting, jajaja!"
"Now I'm drawing and doing some artwork. I like painting on the street and my works are for the street. In my opinion, it's the best gallery there, so everything's about decorating the outside."

Gracias, Senkoe! Visit his Flickr for more fabulous photos.

March 2010: Tec in Buenos Aires

During my teen years, I visited a friend regularly at Hartford's children's hospital. She was sick for many months and spent many a day staring at a bland grey wall. What I never understood was why a hospital for children could be so dull and lifeless. Fortunately, Tec agrees. In addition to his street pieces around Buenos Aires, he's also decorated a local children's hospital. Today, he explains how he got his start and what's in store for the future. He writes:

"I started painting on the street in back in '88 by promoting my rock band, Ocote. We sounded like AC/DC, but with a touch of humor. We just made tags using some colors. At the time, we only had blue, black, white, and red. We had an English green, too, but I didn't like it. In '92, I took a trip to Barcelona and bam! I took a train from the airport and had the greatest visual experience of my life."

"The walls on both sides of the road were full of graffiti, colors, abstract shapes, and spray. I realized that they were names and signatures of people. When I returned to Buenos Aires, I went to Macario, a friend in the neighborhood, and showed him the photos. Since then, we've never stopped."

"When I'm painting, I love to work with friends. I love working where it's ugly and the context is mixed with painting."

"I developed my style thanks to the confidence and support of my mother who told me my drawings were nice and hanged them on the walls. Through the power of design, I made my own iconic style; I love figurative images."

"Right now, I'm in preproduction of a road movie. This is a documentary about painting Route 9 that runs from Rosary
Córdoba, my hometown."

Gracias, Tec! Follow his film's progress through still shots on his Flickr.

March 2010: Diego Miedo in Naples

The city of Napoli boasts a rich history of creative culture. From architecture to oil paintings, Naples is a metropolis steeped in the arts. Native resident Diego Miedo loves his hometown and does his best to carry on its artistic tradition with murals. He writes:

"I've been drawing since I was born ...... I started doing it on the street about ten years ago. I was born and live in Naples. It is also the best place to draw: good climate, cheap, beautiful girls and it's also a great source of inspiration."

"I try to work with more people who can respect all the people from the city. Above all, I try not to do it for fashion."
"I love studying, reading, traveling, talking to people and observing their movements, working with children, reading old comic books, seeing very old cartoons and smoking joints."
"Street art is good anywhere; you need to be at peace with yourself and with others."
"At the moment, my projects are still trying to awaken the minds of Neapolitans with my drawings and cartoons."

Grazie, Diego! View more of his projects at his Flickr.

Friday ProFile: Dalata

Born and bred in Belo Horizonte, Brazilian artist Dalata proudly paints the streets of his home in Minas Gerais. “I prefer to be in my city, and I know where I can and cannot paint,” he explains. “I’ve been influenced by the things that live near me but the Internet is a great feast for those who make art. Much of my inspiration comes from talking about research on web forums.”

As a child, Dalata drew constantly. “I remember some engravings of a surrealist artist named Arcimboldo,” he recalls. “One way or another, they stuck in my memory and indirectly influenced my work.” Back in 1997 a friend introduced him to graffiti. “At first, most of my fears were about aesthetics, quality of work, and style.” Through meticulous research and fearless experimentation, Dalata developed his own signature style.
In addition to his own efforts, he credits his friends with supporting his projects. “I had a crew at the beginning of my journey and they helped me come up with my name,” he adds. “Now, I don’t really like crews. I just paint with my friends.”
Brazil’s streets are no joke, but Dalata finds them welcoming. “I paint in very derelict places and I come across many drug users living in the streets,” he says. “I rarely have problems, though, because they respect graffiti a lot. Here in Brazil, the law is fairly tolerant of graffiti. When I paint, I always pick places where I can make up an alibi and paint without permission. One of my favorite projects was a wall painting, which was unauthorized. It wasn’t in a parking lot but in downtown BH. I arrived with a safety ladder and began to paint. When somebody asked me what I was doing, I said I was the guy there to do the work. The rest is history!”
Dalata plans on leaving his mark for years to come. “In my work, I want to show a bit of the world I believe exists,” he insists. “Street art is the greatest manifestation of freedom and expression. My art is a way to draw attention to the positive things I want to convey.”
Thanks, Dalata! View more of his collection at his Flickr. I'm off to enjoy warm weather, the company of good friends, and food in my front yard. Whatever you do this weekend, I hope you enjoy it!

March 2010: Triángulo Dorado in Buenos Aires

Whenever I'm tossing around a new idea, I always share it with friends. My crew always contributes a new angle and helps push each concept further. Triángulo Dorado's got the same idea; this Argentine crew of three works and plays together to create new pieces. They write:

"We started doing street art in 2004 on the walls that were abandoned on the sides of railroad tracks. We did not need permission and it works really great for practicing and basic training."
"We were born and live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Most of our work is in the city or the surrounding area. In 2009, we were presented with the opportunity to travel to Villazon, Bolivia, where we painted a large mural commemorating the centenary of the city."
"The Triángulo Dorado group formed in 2007 and consists of Santiago Panichelli (Nemer), Francisco Ferreyra (Lema) and Pedro Panichelli (Pedrone). The three have worked together ever since."
"The group draws inspiration from urban art, graffiti and mural painting as well as classic expressionist movements, symbolism and the various art forms ranging from antiquity to the latest trends. The final product is the result of different forms and styles that each member brings to each mural. We are known for making work together and achieving an unique image."
"We love painting in any big place where many people can see it. A building would be great. Now we are working on some murals that we've planned for some time as well as paintings and drawings for two neighbor exhibitions."

Thanks, guys! Look at more of their photos on their Flickr.

February 2010: Aris in Toscana

Street art may seem anonymous from afar, but it's actually an interactive process. Artists collaborate with others, roll with crews, and run into a colorful cast of characters when they paint high traffic locations. Aris loves the social aspect of street art, so today he's sharing his experience with the rest of us. He writes:

"I started writing on trains in 1993. Toscana is my area. I came from a small city. At the beginning, I worked there and I've also traveled in Italy and in other nations."
"I've worked with different crews. Now that I' m living abroad, I' m painting alone a lot more, but I never forget my crew."
"I'm a lucky man, so nothing bad has happened so far. People always say something to you; sometimes it's nice, sometimes it's not so nice."
"There's something new to make, new color, new letter, new place, and so I discovered new possibilities to paint and to write. From the beginning, I never liked spray, so I did a lot of experimentation."
"When I pick a place to work, I have to see if the landscape says something to me that I must answer. Anonymous places are particularly fascinating. Discovering a place is amazing; in that moment, you understand you have to change that place."

Thanks, Aris! For more photos, check out his Flickr.

August 2010: Living Walls Conference in Atlanta

The internet is a fabulous tool, but sometimes facetime speaks louder than pixels. In order to really collaborate and share ideas, people have to interact in the real world. Thank goodness for Living Walls, a conference scheduled for August 13-25 in Atlanta, Georgia. The lineup includes speakers, presentations, walls full of art, and three days of really good times. Here are the goods:

"We are piecing together a conference on street art and urbanism entitled: Living Walls, The City Speaks. The
idea is to put the work of a very small subset of the population (street artists, graffiti writers, etc), people who actually interact with space, under the same roof with people who spend their time in a discourse about public space. Our intentions are simply to broadcast to the attendees a wide spectrum of ideas about public space. We hope
that everyone leaves the event looking at the city, its walls, and how we interact with space differently."
"The conference will be split into a few components: a gallery show, a poster show, and a lecture series. For both the gallery and poster show we plan to bring in the works of an international selection of artists. These artists typically make use of the street as an outlet to showcase their work. For the gallery show each artist will be asked to submit some form of documentation of their other works and individual process, along with their submission of artwork. We ask for this type of documentation in order to illustrate via pictures, video, sketches, written form, etc the scale and context in which the artist typically works in public space. The lecture series will not be composed solely of academics. We are seeking out anyone who makes use of space in an interesting way. The last component is documentation of the entire event. The entire show will be heavily documented in the hopes of one day publishing the work."
"We have been seeking artists that re-appropriate the public realm, attempting to take charge of their media space. Thus far, we will be featuring artists such as Miso, know-hope, and Gaia. It will also features lectures by Jordan Seiler (public ad campaign), Jeff Ferrell, as well as several other local critics of public space."
"The event will take place the weekend of August 13 at the Eyedrum in Atlanta. Ironically, this event takes place in the same city, and is scheduled shortly after the largest annual conference on urbanism to happen nationally, the CNU18. We only point this out because such a conference is a testament to the values of development of space, and not the common use of space. Unlike CNU, whose audience is primarily composed of developers and academics who can afford the $200/day entry, Living Walls is addressed to the public, is completely free of charge, is open to participation, and is much more thought provoking. In the truest sense, Living Walls is a grassroots colloquium."

Amazing, guys! For more information, visit livingwallsconference.com.