May 2010: Brooklyn

Congrats to the class of 2010! I'm impressed, guys; you succeeded in making me cry. Today's the first day of summer vacation and I don't really know what to do with myself. No exams to give, papers to edit, or grammar to explain? I admit that I feel a bit lost. Well, at least I actually have time to post my own photos now. Here's a collection of shots that I snapped last month in BK.

This piece was around the corner from the Brooklyn Brewery. Nearby, two visibly hammered guys were draped over railings trying to sober up. We saw them at 6 pm. If they were having a good day beforehand, I doubt they felt that way once the booze wore off.
A little ways away, we found this creepy wheat paste/stencil combo. We stopped at a vintage store and met two hilarious Italian children "standing guard" at the front door. They had their routine down (even demanding passwords for exiting the building).
Then we ran into a giant Pussy Ham.
Later on, Daffy and Bugs tried to outdo the other with this wheat paste series. I appreciate the patience of my company for letting me dart across streets and sidewalks to take these photos. I think I kept my obsession in check, but it's got to be annoying when I disappear for a minute and people can't find me.
Perhaps this shot is my favorite. My friend Mawena (in that gorgeous rainbow dress) poses in front of some Faile wheatpastes. After we took this picture, the lot of us went for drinks and snacks. I feel like this was one of those perfect day situations: delicious food, wonderful company, and ideal weather for roaming around. I'm thrilled to relocate to Brooklyn this August. Can't wait!

June 2010: Superpastel in Buenos Aires

Today's a big day around here: in addition to three World Cup games, the class of 2010 graduates tonight. Since I've spent two years at this school, I'm really going to miss some of these guys. Congratulations, everyone! Today, we travel to the southern hemisphere to hear from Superpastel and his mission to document Buenos Aires. He writes:

"I started painting 10 years ago in the city of Buenos Aires. I like painting in areas like Saavedra, Palermo and Villa Crespo."
"My style was generated by several parallel transformations. I'm finishing up my architecture degree at the University of Buenos Aires, where I was working over time to achieve a connection between graffiti, urban planning and architecture."
"I like working on group walls as well as individual paintings."
"Any spot is good if there's friends and sun. I love seeing other parts of Argentina as I paint."
"I'm working on documenting the street, not just in drawings or photos. I love Argentina's architecture from the '20s-'50s."

Gracias, Superpastel! For more photo documentation, take a look at his Flickr.

June 2010: Don Xid in Bogotá

Quick post today: gotta give exams and secretly watch New Zealand play Slovakia. Today, Don Xid checks in from Colombia to share thoughts on this past year. He writes:

"I started doing street art one year ago. I never really thought that it would work in the street, but I soon realized that it was a great place to share what I make. These environments are only found in the street. I paint in different neighborhoods of Bogotá, but I hope to bring my work to other parts of the world."
"Lately, I'e been painting with friends but sometimes I paint alone. For me, it doesn't matter."
"I like drawing a lot, and I always try to take my time. I look at the techniques that I'm using and stop to think about what I've done on paper. I can say that I have a definite style, but I'm still working on it."
"I love painting on abandoned areas or ruined land. I like environments filled with silence. I also like the center of my city because there is a variety of people and cultures. There's a lot of traffic and many graffiti artists paint down there, so it's a colorful part of town."
"I have met many wonderful and talented people through street art. Every day, I learn more and I am infinitely happy being able to know these people. They're like icons of the street!"

Gracias, Don Xid! For more photos, pop by his Flickr.

May 2010: El Mato in Santiago

It's summertime here in the northern hemisphere, but in the southern hemisphere they're feeling the chill. When it's time to go indoors, El Mato continues to work in his black book. Today, he shares past pieces and gets psyched about the season to come. He writes:

"I started in 2003 with my vandal friend. We sprayed without caps! With time, I incorporated all the elements I've been drawing in notebooks all my life."
"Usually, I paint in neighborhoods where I live or where I study in Santiago. They're secluded and independent. I like to paint in neighborhoods where there is not much access to art. I almost never paint uptown unless I'm getting paid."
"Most of the time, I paint alone. Sometimes, I paint with friends, but I prefer to paint with only one or two at the most. I don't like mass production. Mixing forms and painting styles is a nice way to produce a common work."
"Eventually, my style came out. I've drawn for as long I can remember. I find it easy to draw and to copy things from reality. I developed a fascination with artists who have their own style. I admire Hockney, Liberatore, and Manara."
"Many things have happened since I started doing street art: fighting, police. You never know when it will end. The best thing is when people who don't normally go to museums or read an art catalog see my work."

Gracias, Mato! For more characters, stop by his Flickr.

February 2010: New Orleans

I take way too many pictures, so sometimes things pile up in desktop file folders. Occasionally, I'll gloss over a trip altogether. While I talked about New Orleans, I didn't share nearly enough street art. Let's change that. Today, I'm keeping the text brief to make room for more pics.

June 2010: Thiago Hattnher in São Paulo

While my South African World Cup dreams never materialized this year, I'm dreaming big and I've got good feelings about 2014. If on the off-chance I do make it to Brazil, I'll have a whole lot of street art hunting to do in between the matches. Perhaps Thiago Hattnher will be kind enough to show me around. He's currently studying fine art in the classroom, but he still makes time to paint in the street. He writes:

"I first started doing street art when I was very young. My first contact with graffiti was when I was about ten years old. I was with a friend of my family called Juny KP who was a graffiti writer at the time. He used to take me to some graffiti events to see him painting and he began my contact with that culture."
"Although my first contact was when I was very young, of course I didn't start painting in the streets at that age. I remember when, in my first experiences with spray cans, I didn't have enough strength to press the cap for a long time. After a few years, when I was about 13 years old, I began painting in the streets with a group of friends."
"Nowadays, I'm 19 years old and I'm living in São Paulo studying fine arts. I'm not in the streets anymore very much anymore. I'm more focused on drawings and painting canvases. When I'm painting in the streets of São Paulo, I'm rarely by myself; I'm always with a few friends. For me, the best place to paint is in São José do Rio Preto, my hometown. Unfortunately, I don't go there too often to paint, but it is always good for me and for my production to be there. So far, apart from the usual encounters with the police, nothing really crazy has happened to me while painting in the streets."

"I developed my style studying a lot of artists and different works. I was also practicing, painting and experimenting a lot. Although I'm happy with my style now, I think my work is always changing and in development, and that is the way I think it has to be. You can't let things get automatic in your production."

Thanks, Thiago! For more photos of his ladies, check out his Flickr.

Friday ProFile: Seacreative

Back in the day, Italian artist Seacreative tagged up Milan like it was his job. “Sea was my tag when I was just a writer,” he says. “A name of three letters only that sounds and looks nice together. I’ve just kept on using them ever since.” Traveling across Italy and Europe, Seacreative isn’t afraid to pick favorites. “I’ve painted in Italy and Europe,” he says. “Valencia is the one I prefer, especially for people and atmosphere. In Valencia, people are allowed to paint everywhere, even in the city centre. I think that is great!”

Trips to the beach inspired Seacreative to start painting.“When I was a kid, we used to go to the seaside in a place full of graffiti,” he says. “In that place, there was a fantastic hall of fame and you know, all those vibrant colors and tags aroused my enthusiasm. At first, I started copying other writers lettering just like everyone but then I found my own way to graffiti. I preferred brushes and stencils instead of lettering.”
Over time, Seacreative moved from tags to characters. “In 2001, I found my way,” he explains. “I evolved my painting and gave more emphasis to my characters and the use of brushes. I prefer brushes because they help me express myself much better.”
While he may dabble in canvas works, Seacreative believes working outdoors is the best. “The streets are the best gallery you can find,” he insists. “You don’t have to be invited. No one makes you explain the works. There’s no selection, you know. Out there, you can make art for everyone and everyone can judge you. I think it’s a big challenge.”
Sometimes, stuff gets crazy in the street. “On a Sunday afternoon, my friends and I arrived in an abandoned factory,” he recalls. “We chose a wall and started painting. After 20 minutes, we heard some noises, but you know those kind of factories always have a lot of strange noises, so we didn’t care about it. We were painting when suddenly, a bunch of people surrounded us with guns and rifles, everything a soldier could handle. They were watching us just saying nothing. I tell you, we were scared to death! Later on, we found out they were air-soft players.”
On occasion, Seacreative works with friends. He enjoys painting with pals like Vine, Refreshink, and Borse. They work under the name Spruzzer and mix their individual styles into cohesive pieces. “Sometimes, we use sprays, some paint, and some 3D works. Other times, we pass from realistic to graphic. We have fun mixing everything together. Sometimes, we have four different ideas, but the result is always worth the effort.”

Thanks, Seacreative! For more photos, stop by his website. That's all for now. After a killer week of training, I'm looking forward to not moving all weekend. See you Monday!

May 2010: Baltimore Love Project

Jess, Lindsay, and Hui-Chen are already in Baltimore and more folks are moving this summer (yes, Crockett, that's you). Therefore, I'm already working on a trip down this fall. When I'm there, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for Michael Owen's Baltimore Love Project. He writes:

"Street art and I met in Baltimore, in 2003, while I was attending MICA. The first date was a two-story wall on the front of a community center. We courted through my senior year, as my thesis focused on murals throughout the city and have been in a committed relationship over those last 7 years, though I am married. I just finished a 6 month adventure down in Miami, but am now back in Baltimore. While in Miami, I did a 6 story mural on a hotel, among other things. Baltimore has been the focal city of my portfolio with about 40 murals, interior and exterior, throughout the area. There have been some great pieces, but for me, The Baltimore Love Project is the crowning jewel."
"My work can be hammered out pretty fast, so I usually work alone. That said, I did a quarter-mile project last year, one of the longest murals in the country. I had an assistant with me most of the time on that one, due to the sheer volume of paint that needed to be thrown up. I have also worked with kids in the community on a few projects. My artistic style is, in part, a product of my understanding of and connection with minimalism. I want my art to engage and relate with the most people as possible, especially the pieces on the street. I strip down the imagery to this point where you know what's going on, but the details are questionable. Over the last year, I have experimented with some of the more loose and gestural brushstrokes found more in my studio/gallery work, while maintaining a very straight-forward and graphic approach."
"I often like to paint in very public places, during busy times. I have my audience in mind throughout my concept and design stages, so I enjoy hearing what people think (usually). My studio work is my break from the chaos and a nice quiet balance to the more communal process of street art. Oh and being on a sunny wall is great too. "
"My 'experiences' are more humorous than crazy. For example:A shady car pulls up while I'm painting a mural. The man cracks the window and asks 'Do you paint murals?' As I look around at the quarter-mile project I am about to complete, I reply, 'Uh, yes'. 'My boss wants a mural,' he states in his thick Eastern European accent. A card is passed through the window opening and drives off. The card is shiny and gold in color, much classier than the car. Then again, it was for a Larry Flint Hustler Club. I just laughed.""I am currently knee deep in the Baltimore Love Project, a self initiated, city-wide project consisting of 20 identical, love-themed murals. I am also about to show with Dirty Pilot, put a mural up in Seattle this summer, working on a cloab in NYC later in the fall, and showing at various fairs during Art Basel Miami in the winter. I'm also futilely working on maintaining my tan, now that I'm back in Baltimore."

Thanks, Michael! I'm excited to see these murals in person sometime soon. To get involved with the project, visit his website.

May 2010: Phlegm in Sheffield

Phlegm doesn't limit himself to exclusively urban areas. Sometimes, a wooded area seems like a great place to paint, too. Today, he shows us some of his characters from the city and beyond. He writes:

"I did a few things in the street when I was in my late teens using rollers but I didn't use cans until 2005. I'm a cartoonist foremost; I write self published comics and zines. It was when I first started toying around with the comic work on walls that I really started to get busy."
"I'm from Sheffield in the UK. I tend to do most of my work here because I'm constantly broke due to my paint costs. I travel about sometimes when I get a chance but I'm more focused on doing lots of work at the moment, rather than getting involved more. I want a few nice quiet years of working really hard."
"Drawing and painting every day tends to develop my style. I switched to black and white last year so I have to paint more like I draw comics. I find if I keep the two close, then they both help improve the other.""I'm pretty tame to be fair. I painted a big boarded up window without asking once and the neighbor came out and gave me a tray of tea and biscuits. That's about as rock and roll as I get."
"I've been drawing a whole comic on walls for about a year and a half. Each wall I paint is a frame in a story. I'm about half way through painting it. It's been a way to keep involved in the work rather than getting stuck in a rut or getting absorbed into the art scenes. I want to look back at a huge body of work and ideas when I'm older. What I don't want is to look back at a string of dull work, a load of bad art shows and a custom shoe."

Thanks, Phlegm! For more outdoor comics, check out his website.

May 2010: Grems in London

While I'm sad that Mawena and Padric may be moving to London in the fall, I take comfort in knowing I'll see great street art if I visit. If I'm lucky, I might be able to catch up with Grems. Today, he shares a few past projects and hints at what's to come in the future. He writes:

"I started doing graffiti 13 years ago. Back then, I tagged as Cherie."

"I live in London and I travel all the time. I painted absolutely everywhere: in the street, among people, and in the galleries."

"I often work very very alone, but I know several groups like Supakitch TT crew, Jack Factory, Polka Rekm, and Captain Rouget & Bunk. It's hard to paint with other people."

"I learned most of my techniques by practicing graffiti. I did graffiti research for seven years! Then one day, I found my own style. I blend prehistoric painting, Indian art, Cubism, everything! I love painting in the south of France because there are many great walls there. I also like painting people in their living rooms."
"One time, I painted a wall with 3ttman, Remedies and Zbiok. I love this wall because it is a perfect blend of our different cultures: a mix between graffiti, new style, and contemporary painting."

Thanks, Grems! He's got a book and an album in the works, so check his website for future updates.