12ozProphet

The next 9th of September, from 7.30 pm, the Dibujar Mata Violente ('Drawing Violently Kills') collective exposition will be shown in the RAS Gallery (Barcelona), which will include works from the French illustrators Bom-K, Dran and Sowat, from the DMV crew (Da Mental Vaporz).

You can come see it up until the 2nd of October.

Event supported by Montana Colors and organized by Suben y Suben.

DRAN in the XPresart festival (Girona):

Bom.k‘s first sketch book HB Black Trace (Edition Populaire):

DMV (Da Mental Vaporz) in the SupreMassy festival last April, in collaboration with Montana Colors Francia:

Bom-K

Sowat

Dran

So another writer has been sentenced to a prison sentence in Pittsburgh and been hit with an insane fine and probation. He follows the example set by MF ONE in the same town, BUCKET in Los Angeles, OVIE and UTAH in New York, and countless others through out the US. There are things we can all learn from these guys and I have been spreading the news. Here are some tips to keep out of reach of the police and more importantly the DAs:
1. Do not keep any images of illegal graffiti in your home, on your computer, or in your email inbox.
2. Do not keep any sketches of the name you are painting in your home.
3. leave cell phones home when you are out painting. No need for your location to be triangulated after the fact and used against you.
4. do not post anything illegal online.
5. start saving for lawyers now.
6. don’t write just one name. Write at least 10 to keep everyone guessing.
7. If you can’t do the above and the itch is too great to bomb go to a country or city that doesn’t care and/or loves graffiti. Try Sao Paulo, Budapest, Bulgaria, Copenhagen, Paris, Rome, or some other spot.
8. Don’t leave cans behind when you bomb. Cops fingerprint them these days.

Here’s a link to the recent article:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10251/1085764-53.stm

A conversation with WANE TC5 / COD SPOTLIGHTING THE PAST…

Born in London WANE and his family moved to the Edenwald
section of the Bronx when he was 6 years old. He was introduced
to graffiti living only one block from the elevated #2 train and 7
stops from the end of the #2 line yard. Instantly the color and
energy of the artwork that was scrawled all over the city at the time
drew him in. He didn’t know exactly what it was or who was doing
it, but he knew he wanted to be a part of it. Being so close to where
these ingenious artworks were created if there was a train that
caught his attention he’d wait on platform until it passed by again
so he could really soak it all in. After studying this visual language
that was all around he began to understand the bright colors,
shapes with letters and how to read it. Soon after he began to
recognize the names and start figuring how it was done he and his
older brother started writing. While most kids were in to sports,
WANE found himself looking to hip-hop, punk, freestyle and
graffiti. At this time they had a neighborhood crew and club house
(the Players) and all these things were part of it, everyone wanted
to have a tag or write but it was when they saw it on the trains
they realized it was serious.

Once he was old enough to ride the subway he started document
by taking pictures. At that time kids would take their pads and
pens after school and stand on the platforms, scribbling out what
they saw on the trains trying to emulate styles. WANE breaks it
down like this 'Back then you had to do it traditionally, if you
didn’t do a train you didn’t get respect.' In the beginning he says
it was scary, you’d hear the stories of police beating up writers,
rival crews robbing you for your spray paint and people getting
electrocuted on the third rail. It seemed like you had to be super
tough to do it. When you started writing you had to build heart,
get down with the crews and once accepted by a crew you would
learn to steal can’s, tag, do throw up letters and wild-styles.
Getting chased and hiding in the dark waiting for the cops to leave
was all part of writing. As a writer/artist in NYC all these things
had to be accomplished as well getting your name up hundreds
and hundreds of times, but to get fame and be remembered
'you had to be good, really good.' Looking back WANE says it
took years to understand what it took to do it right, '...when I
look back at the writers that were older than me, I would never
forget them, because when they did it, they all did it without
having someone to show them. They pioneered this new art
form and created an entire renaissance doing so. That’s one
of the main reasons principles you have to remember.
Every ‘ism,’ every arrow and letter form.'

Since his first live experience of painting a subway he was
hooked, 'that was it, it never ended, I always wanted to paint.'
The city in the 80s was still showing remnants of the 1970s
writers and you didn’t go over it as there was a heavy level of
respect. In the early nineties WANE made the transition from
trains to walls, and since then he has never stopped painting.
He has travelled the world, most recently to Brazil, documenting
it along the way. 'Nowadays people know you have to document
your work, they know the brands (of paint), what types of caps for
what cans, it took years to understand.' All of this was learned
during these formative years so the following generations could
survive the art using and building their knowledge. Now with the
dominance of the internet, you can see pretty much everything that’s
going on. Back then you had to be out there to see it.

WANE had some pretty cool things to say about Rooftop Legends,
'I think RTL is a great space for writers and street artists because
in NYC with the Police and all the new development in the city over
the past ten years there are very few legal places to paint.
It’s phenomenal that EV (Jesse Pais - RTL’s curator & NDHS Dean)
who’s a writer and a part of the culture, saw the space and took the
time and energy to make it happen.' He insists that although so many
of these artists are doing their own thing it is essential they have these
spaces to keep painting. He also adds that it’s events like this that
continue to push the appreciation of the art-form within the
community. For years, he says, the politicians were telling everybody
that graffiti wasn’t art. They only focused on the idea of people going
over each other and the negative aspects as being the core of what the
graffiti movement was. It is the bringing together of artists from all
over the world, inspiring each other, and just wanting to paint and
express themselves that makes graffiti what it is. WANE insists that
'Rooftop Legends is a place that gives graffiti art that outlet and helps
preserve it, come see for yourself! Peace & Blessing, Wane One aka
the risk taker.'
More from here:
http://rooftoplegends2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/conversation-with-wane-tc5-cod.html

Seems like my last few blog entries have centered around books. I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, so hopefully it’s still news to a few people out there. The good people at Prada remembered to send us over a copy of this seven hundred and eight page gem… Featuring an in-depth look at the culture and style that defines the brand, while beautifully documenting the Prada from the inside, as well as from without. From campaigns to spaces, apparel to people, its an incredibly intimate view of the brands past 30 years, which in turn, lays out a visual roadmap towards their future.

Anyhow, our brother, Finok... the King of Green... managed to slip into a few pages along with good friend Barry McGee (who also had an amazing exhibition and book project with them several years ago).

Prada Book.

This Song is off Nights mixtape
'Keep The Lights Off vol.2'.  You can listen to and download that mixtape here :

http://thatcrack.com/mixtapes/night-keep-the-lights-off-vol-2/

Hope you had a good weekend. Mine was cool - saw some movies (Scott Pilgrim, The Vinyl Frontier (more on that below), and The Kids Are All Right), ate a lot of food, and biked around the empty city.

Friday started off with some time-warp, wrinkle-in-time shit:

Saw this dude at the Apple store with a 'Clobber' shirt on - like whoa. Clobber was a big rave clothing line from Los Angeles circa 1991. Nice one guy! Don’t make me break out my SJobeck or ConArt gear! Meet me at the smartbar!

Went past Ryan McGinness’ studio for a visit on Saturday - this is him run through my favorite iPhone app of the weekend, Percolator. It turns your photos into these circle abstractions. Don’t base your next design project on it no matter how seductive it gets. We all know 500 people out there already are.

On Sunday headed out to Queens for a few spots on the CreativeTime Key To The City project by artist Paul Ramírez Jonas; it was the last weekend before it ended. Long story short, you could go a kiosk in Times Square, get a Medeco-supplied key presented to you, then go to various places around the city and get access to locked doors that would open with the key, places not normally open to the public.

Started by going out to the Louis Armstrong House in Corona, Queens, where the ‘Key To The City’ granted you access to Satchmo’s downstairs bathroom, unchanged since his wife Lucille passed away in 1983. No, you could not use it. There’s a tour, you should check it out if you’re a fan. There were some art pieces up on the walls, some collages Armstrong used to make out of photos and newspaper clippings, usually of some stuff he liked or was into - sports, other entertainers, politics. I had no idea he was into anything visual like that but it turns out he’d do these things on his recording tape boxes, etc. There’s a book there about it, The Wonderful World and Art of Louis Armstrong.

I didn’t get any flicks, but the coolest thing for me was seeing some envelopes from some fans that were on display - All that was written on them was 'Mr. Louis Armstrong, USA' and the postal service still got them to him - THAT is balling out, people.

Next, headed south over to the next Key To The City spot, Tortillarea Nixtamal restaurant, a Mexican spot in Queens that has some excellent food going on, and a small factory for making corn tortillas in their basement. They told us that they supply the fresh corn tortillas for many restaurants all over the city. Using the key let you wander downstairs into the kitchen, where you got a tour of the tortilla area and got to make a tortilla to eat. Upstairs while I was waiting to take the tour, I had some excellent enchiladas and a cane-sugar Coca Cola.

Gringo making a tortilla. I kinda do this at home occasionally, so I knew what was up with the masa, hermano!

Me and The Sucklord heading uptown, fitting in a little interview for my podcast

On Sunday I met up with fellow Star Wars enthusiast and toy maker Morgan ‘Sucklord’ Phillips, and we headed up to a screening of The Vinyl Frontier, a movie about vinyl toys that we’re both in. There was a Q&A afterward with us, sculptor Mike ‘Nemo’ Mendez, and Daniel Zana, the filmmaker who put it all together. Check it out if you have any interest in the mild world of toymaking - Daniel put together quite an informative film.

Daniel Zana, filmmaker

I finished up the weekend doing some Photoshop. Back on that same ‘ol, hallelujah…