Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Texas Ted


Back in the days when I first saw "Convoy" I knew I wanted to be an Outlaw Trucker. Luckly for you and my own insanity, I chose the artist's path and sorta became an outlaw at the same time doing graffiti. I admit there are times when Im driving down the interstate while I'm drinking my coffee and on my mobile phone, a glorfied cb if you ask me. Would I be scouting for some "Lot Lizzards"...is "Smokey" tailing me....do I need some "No Doze"???........ Damn it!!!  I wish I went to Doodson school for trucking and became and outlaw trucker like ol Martin Penwald and givin it to the man!





                                 



Keep on truck'n!

Turds






Mercantile

Monday, February 18, 2008

Number 3







Sol and Optics uncle from L.A.


Optic working on his "Rude" Piece

Sol's "Drah" Piece.


Bug Eye Bandit trying to bite my skills. Shhh I told him it's all in the shorts!


Me and some real Vikings!


Taste from Noraway.



Bug Eye still tring to bite!




The start of my fill in.




Ferd and I after I burned him again! Hahahaha , maybe next time sucker!

Bleh!

Book Club


Saturday, February 16, 2008

The big bang





This is the results of my finger. How I did it, if any one cares. I was sanding the frames with an electric sander. While I was sanding, the sand paper that was attached to the base came apart and I went full force into the side of a 2 x 4. After a few hours it blew up like a balloon. I was in so much pain That night I couldnt sleep. A few days after the show I went to the hospital (due to a worried wife) She thought i was going to get Gangreen. like I was in nam or something ..... for some reason when I think of **** warning gross factor*** Gangrene I think of nam. I dont know why maybe because of the movie "The Deer Hunter"..... hhmmmm


Friday, February 15, 2008

hssss-tory

THE HISTORY OF SPRAY PAINT
By Ian Sattler and Darrell and Ben Chapnick
Photos By Darrell and Ben Chapnick
Illustration By Anthony Smyrski




They’re everywhere. There are millions of them sold every year in hundreds of thousands of stores across the country. They are most likely in your house right now. “They” are aerosol spray paint cans. While you may not give them an awful lot of thought on a daily basis, they have been coloring Americans’ vision, literally, since well before you were born. But, like many innovations that we take for granted, spray paint has an interesting history and a greater effect on our culture than you may realize

The beginnings of spray paint can be traced back to the 1920s, and possibly earlier. The term “aerosol bomb” originated with the very first portable spray can, which was originally shaped like a 19th-century fuse bomb (like in the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons). Containing a foul-smelling oil, the ZACO can was extremely well engineered and made of heavy-gauge steel. The nozzle had a small knurled brass knob incorporated in it that was turned on or off simply by screwing it clockwise or counterclockwise. Specific industrial use of this same nozzle design can be dated to 1942, thanks to its inclusion in a government-issued photo of a woman demonstrating an aerosol insect spray. As with most technological advances at the time, World War II greatly influenced the development and introduction of the push-button spray can. Malaria and other insect-borne diseases were wreaking havoc on American troops, so a portable repellent had to be developed. Due to the use of these insecticides during WWII, the first real advances were made in the portable spray can.

The various technologies that emerged during wartime were quickly retooled and adapted for domestic use. In 1946, the Continental Can Company in New York created the first “push-button” portable spray can. They marketed it to any company that could apply it to their products: makers of pesticides, car wax, household deodorizers, and various other projects. The following year, Krylon adopted the push-button spray can as a delivery system for clear acrylic spray fixative (meant to protect artwork and print advertisements). By the end of the decade, Krylon had developed a totally new can design and was quickly becoming the leading innovator in the industry. However, there was still a key technical advancement missing from the formula.

Crown Holdings Inc. was already a major player in the aerosol business when, in 1952, they introduced the “Spra-tainer,” a lightweight, two-piece “no side seam, no top seam” aerosol can. Krylon adopted the can as the final piece of what would become the modern push-button spray nozzle we know today.




It is important to note that Krylon was not alone in their work during the late 1940s. Seymour Paints claims to be the first to use paint in a spray can in 1949. Although the Krylon inventions precede this claim, Seymour played an important role, in that they focused solely on using the aerosol can as an application for paint. Their work helped bring the idea of using cans as paint supplies to the masses, an instrumental step in making spray
paint the norm for everyday use.

Over the years, spray cans took the place of rollers and brushes in administering paint to nearly every surface but artists’ canvases. However, New York’s graffiti explosion in the ’70s changed everything, when subway cars became canvases in their own respect. In many ways, the art form evolved around the capabilities and limitations of the spray can. What was originally created as a convenient, mobile tool for household and commercial use has since enabled the creation of innumerable works of art. Looking back on the original spray paint cans, it becomes apparent that they not only influenced art, but were truly works of art themselves.

Mikey's Nightmare

Fame City Artist

This Photo was taken probably around 1988 after a recent bush and weed removal. Soon after this photo was taken the city had a graffiti clean up day and painted over this and others including a mural that I was paid to do...that's another story

I usually went out by my self on graffiti missions, this one took me longer than usual and was not completed. It was near Jamacha blvd and had to be extra careful since the parking lot to the restaurant was right above it. The house that was close to the wall had pesky dogs that kept barking. Once that happens I packed up and left. The paint I used was some krylon, crowco,national spray paint, the latter was cheap paint and faded really fast.


Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Blue jeans

I really miss these jeans of mine
gap brand nineteen sixty nines
looked good with pro-keds
or with shells
neat or painted
tags and doodles
stained from pasta noodles
even faded they fit me well
to bad they went to hell!

No green can.

Recently, I had an art show up in Costa Mesa along with Pose 2 and Chor Boogie at the Light gallery.

       I was hoping to document a step by step process but I was strapped for time and couldn't really do it properly. Originally I was painting seven piece for the show. It took me about two days to do these paintings from preparing the wood to finish. I had to do it sorta quick because of my schedule and.....Well, of course Murphy's law applied!  I  smashed my index finger to smithereens the first night while I was preparing the frames. I painted these piece's with my thumb and middle finger. The day of the show around 1:30 am I ran out of the color I needed the most and I had (or did have) the last of this light green in San Diego. No other art store, hip hop boutique had this color, brand available. My deadline was fast approaching and couldn't finish the last 4 panels. What I did instead was paint over the portraits and painted letters instead. Those turned out super wack so I scrapped that idea and decided to use the blanks for another show in August.


   Although I'm supposed to be concentrating on my first SOLO SHOW EVER!!!!! at distinction gallery in July.
 I did the Costa Mesa show out of an experiment, since I was offered a second solo show in August. I wondered if I could pull off  two back to back solo shows and the only way I can do another solo show is to use a faster drying medium like spray paint. I haven't used spray paint as a medium for portraits since 1999, so I'm bit nervous. I have painted a few here and there over the years but nothing great and nothing in a serious manner. I'm mad rusty at it and need to get the bad habits out and re-learn with the European brands of paint, since I normally used Krylon back then for portrait work. The show at distinction has and will take all my time in the up coming months since I'm using oils. I hope to lay my brushes down by the first week of June. After that I will have a month and a half to prepare the panels, build frames, paint and complete 15-25 paintings for the show at Suite 100 Gallery.in Seattle.



                                                  These are some of  the blanks.


Studio

 Cat Dondi Keeping an eye out for me. Weow!

Thats smarts!

Staining frames



I always look at my images back wards to see if it looks good.





Morning of the show.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Tony Silver



Tony Silver, the legendary director of the groundbreaking hip-hop documentary Style Wars passed away yesterday after many years battling a irreversible brain condition. Style Wars is considered by some to be the best hip-hop film ever made, and by everyone to be the first. It was shot at the very start of the 1980s, when graffiti was still hip-hop's dominant form, and the idea of graffiti as art was brand new. I recommend checking out the deluxe DVD edition of the film Tony put together a few years ago after many years where it was only available as an expensive educational-only VHS.
News come via Mare 139