Bear Head
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I got this photo of Lesley Reppeteaux with a faux bear skin on her head from Daniel Vigil today. It was taken during the ski trip to Mammoth the other week. I just thought it was a funny picture. Doesnt look like she is some fucked up obscure Japanese toy that you have never heard of?

Paul Sun Photography
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Went to The Social Trust last week for the soft opening of their new studio. Paul Sun took some pics before hand, and emailed me this one. I am not vain or anything, i just think it was a dope photo. i mean, look at the veings in those hands! I look like a steelworker. You would have no idea that i am as soft as veal, would you? haha.

Lana Kim Totally Rules!
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I met Lana Kim a few years ago when she worked at SA studios organizing everything from photoshoots, to deliveries for Mr. Cartoon and Estevan Oriol.





It was the craziest thing. You would walk into Cartoons shop and you would see all these cholos with gang tattoos on face, neck and hands. It was like a hollywood movie. But the oddest thing of it all, was that Lana was in the middle of it all. Lana was the happiest, most smiley, cutiest Korean gal you can imagine. She looked like she would poop rainbows. It was a stark contrast to the Loc'ed out cholos that saturated the studio.


Lana did a photo series of artists pets, and snapped some flicks of my pooch, Sinatra. Unfortunately Sinatra is no longer with us but Lana's pictures help me remeber her. Here are some of the pictures that she took









Lana left SA studios to work at The Directors Bureau with the likes of Andy Mueller, Sophia Copola, Geoff McFettridge, Nash Edgerton, and Melodie McDaniel.

Today i got an email that a video she codirected for Stephen Malkmus is going to be screened as part of Res at the Egyptian Theatre. Go check it and support someone that deserves it.









RES invites you to our monthly series showcasing brand new music videos, short films and motion graphics.

Featuring the world premiere of Jack Chick's Titanic, a new mash-up from Rodney & Syd, plus new short films from Pleix, Tronic and Jonnie Ross and new music videos for Death Cab for Cutie, Colder, Stephen Malkmus, The Go! Team and much more. See great videos and shorts projected on the Egyptian's massive 57-foot screen.

Q&A w/ guest directors Ace Norton, Lana Kim, Rodney & Syd

Afterparty with DJ Kiino Villand
Tuesday, February 28, 8:00 p.m.

Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
$10 in advance or at the door

BUY TICKETS NOW:
http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=socal&query=detail&event=654159&interface=resfestla

INFO:
http://www.res.com/events
events@res.com

HERONPRESTON.COM
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About a month ago i was reading the Freshness Mag interviews and came across THIS interview with Heron Preson. I have heard Heron's name for a bit, but too often people are just a names without a personality. It was great being able to hear his own words, and hear what he was about.

Afterwards, i hit him up w an email to let him know i was feelin what he was doing and that i appreciated his take on things. We chatted briefly and he told me about his plans to do a feature on his site about mexian gang graffiti. Since i had posted some of the gang shit from my neighborhood, he asked if i was willing to share some of the flicks with him. I was happy to do so. He posted the other day, so check it out here

I Heart Art!!!!!!!!!!!
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I love getting art. If there was a flood, the only two things i would want to take with me is my computer and my artwork collection. Today my collection grew by one painting. A few months ago, i had the pleasure of meeting, and hanging out with Chaz from The London Police, and his good friend, artist, and travel companion, Galo. Both were the way people should be. easy to talk too, appreciative, and no ego whatsoever, and more talent than most. I was sold on these dudes already, but today i liked them more. I looked at a package that had came for me, and inside was this painting from Galo. I cant tell you how much something like that means, when someone goes out of their way to say thanks. Galo & Chaz, you geezers are alright!

I also got a package from Chaz, but i didnt bring it with me to the studio today, so i will have to take flicks of it next week and will share once i can upload the pics. It is equally dope.

KSpray Catalogue
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Got a package from the Asian division of K-Swiss. The catalogue of last years K-Spray tour came in. It is a nice looking book. about 5x5 inches, and full color on all 31 pages. Here are a few of the pages.

the cover image above is from my man Sixten. dope image. i really wish i had done a trade with him for one of the pieces he did. check his site at: Sixten









I have a few additional copies, so if you realized that your life is hollow because you dont have a kspray international stenciling handbook, then hit me up. Then go to therapy.

WU-HORSE REPRESENT!
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How dope is this? It isnt my design, but friends over at WORKHORSE IRONS sent me one. If you are in the tattooing community, you probably already know of the company, but if you dont, it is a top notch tattoo machine comany.



Workhrorse Irons is a company that makes and distributes tattoo machines by Seth Ciferri, SOBA, Aaron Cain, Brian Patton, and Schrobritter (Jason Schroder/Dennis Halbritter. I did the logo for Workhorse Irons a few years back, and have remained good friends with Soba and Seth Ciferri.

Art in Paris
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Two good friends and Workhorse Family members, Ephameron, and Pax, are going to be in an upcoming show in Paris. The show has an all female line up and is gong to be terrific. i havent even seen the art, and i can guarantee you that it is so good your eyes will bleed.

The line up for this thing is stellar. Fafi, Freaklub and Swoon in the same show? This show is going to be nuts! If anyone makes it there, send me some flicks. i gotta see what this show is like


if you wanna check the artwork of Ephameron and Pax, look at the links to the right under the "Workhorse Family and Friends"

Alphabet
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Coming this March at Workhorse is the Alphabet show. This show is an exhibition of hand drawn letters. If you think you have something that would fit, hit me up and we will see about getting you in the show. Below is the info on





Alphabet: An Exhibition of Hand-Drawn Lettering and Experimental Typography
Organized by Post Typography and Artscape
www.posttypography.com/alphabet
 
Workhorse Gallery,
4210 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90029
323-666-6163
March 11 through March 31, 2006
Opening Saturday March 11
7pm - 10pm
 
Featuring:
Marc Alcock  - Mike Apichella - Ken Barber – Tristan Benedict-Hall - Beppi - Kyle Bravo - Andrew Byrom  - Paul Clark - Elaine Lustig Cohen – Ryan Compton - Ryan Corey – Delvetica - E*Rock - Edward Fella - Danielle Foushée - Nancy Guiragossian - Sibylle Hagmann - Catherine Hahm - Drew
Heffron – “Lobes” Richard Helfrich - Hjärta Smärta - Daniel C. Howe - Apirat Infahsaeng - Christopher Jackson - Roman Jaster - Jonathan Keller - MiHyun Kim - Seth Labenz and Roy Rub - Jean Larcher - Andrew Liang - Julie Libersat - Lump Lipshitz - Ian Lynam - Reagan Marshall - Eduard Matamoros - Michael McErlean - Maya Esther Miller - Jason Monburg - Arjen Noordeman – Paul Nudd – Elisabeth Prescott - Luke Ramsey and A. Purdy - C. W. Roelle - Theo A. Rosenblum - Michael Stout (VisuaLingual) - Tore Terrasi - Underware - Eric Von Munz - Western Cell Division – Karen Willey - Andrew Jeffrey Wright - Tory Wright
 

MELBOURNE - Here i come (maybe)
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Alright, so for the past few years i have been wanting to go to Melbourne to visit. I have a few reasons for wanting to visit.

First is because it is Australia and it is beautiful from what I hear.

Second reason is because it is the stencil capital of the world (see post below). People in Australia have been very kind to me over the years, and i have met many of them through the Stencil Revolution website.

Well, i think after 4 years of flapping my gums about it, i am going to do it. I am looking to go in late May so that i can i can hit the Melbourne Stencil Festival also.

Is there any one out there that has insight into the Melbourne or Sydney gallery scene? I would love to cordinate a show to run parallel to my visit there so that i could help defray the travel cost. Are there any galleries that have a lean towards art like mine? Any interesting spots i should check out?

Also if there are any companies, clubs, or business that are looking for a little interior resurfacing with my art, hit me up and lets talk.

MELBOURNE stencil capital of the world!!
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Last year i had the privledge of meeting and spending some time with Carl Nyman, one of the authors of this book on the Stencil scene in Melbourne. For some reason, Melbourne has established itself as the stencil capital world of the world. go figure. Well if you have a 20 spot in your pocket and you are lookin for a good read, run out and buy the damn thing.

congrats Carl. Looks great!

Shadow Artist
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tonight my intern Paul Lee, and I were at the studio preparing canvas' for my upcoming show at Urbis Artium and this guy came up and was sort of hovering around Paul Lee and myself were painting the canvas. We got to talking to the guy and come to find out it was Shadow Artist. For those of you who dont know The Shadow Artist, he was the one that did the Rage Against the Machine cover for the Battle of Los Angeles album. He has been around for a while, and continues to do his thing. Well, he offered to do a piece, using me as the subject. I was thrilled to have a piece of art by him, so i said sure. Above are a few pictures of the piece that he did.

sorry for the shity pictures, all i had were my camera phone at the time

Skiing
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This past weekend, i went snowboarding for the first time. I busted my ass more than i thought i could, and i was sore as hell the next day. Aside from that, it was an amazing time. It was my friend Robbie Bolick's birthday, and his wife, Lesley Reppeteaux rented this huge ski lodge. There were tons of us that came. I think we had 14 people in there at one time. I did all the cooking, and we all stayed drunk, full, happy, and sore. Here is a pic of Lesley, Myself, and Kristen on the Ski life

Vulture Tree
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you know, one of the great things about many of my friends being artists is that i get great fucking art. I commissioned my very good friend Lesley Reppeteaux to paint this painting for my mom as a Christmas gift. (Mom, if you are reading this, Merry (late) Christmas!!!).

The painting is of a Vulture Tree. When i used to live back in Maryland with my mom, we had this old, dead tree down the road from us. After it would rain, vultures would gather on its dead branches and spread their wings in the morning in order to dry out their wings. I was telling Lesley about this and after i saw her excitement, started thinking that it would be a great subject for a painting. Here is the result.

Thanks Lesley, and Happy Christmas Mom.

Prison Wine!
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I just finished up a magazine spread on how to make Prison Wine. The magazine 'theme' is that it is a 'how to' manual of sorts. The magazine will be put out by Ice Cream Man and is being printed to give out at the SXSW festival in Austin. 5000 copies will be printed, and 90% will be distributed at the festival. Here is the 4 page, unedited spread

FINALLY!!!!!!
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after months offline, StencilRevolution.com is back online! I owe this website much and many of the people I know, the jobs I have received, and the opportunities I have come across can be directly traced to this website. The website is invaluable for anyone even remotely interested in the medium of Stenciling.

The Run UP
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a follow up to the Dithers 2 DVD post a few weeks ago. The offical title of the release is going to be "The Run UP", and should be dropping sometime in mid May.

STENCIL CHINA
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One of the worst things in the world is having great news and not being able to share it with anyone. For the past couple months, i had been in talks to bring a stencilng tour to China. Well, finally, i have conformation that it is going to happen! June 29th through July 7th me, and 5 other artists will bring stencilng to China. One week in Beijing, and one week in Shanghai. More details will follow in the upcoming months, but the line up so far is as follows:
Logan Hicks
Adam 5100
Akiro
Peat Wollaeger
Pisa 73
Fatoe

If anyone is in China, or has visted China, i would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, or advice on Beijing or Shanghai

Xero Project skateboard
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Jamie Kashetta from XeroProject has created a great limited edition board for retail. Check it out at XeroProject

ADAM 5100 from Oakland California




One of the few people that i would go to bat for is my friend Adam 5100 from Oakland. I have known Adam for a couple years now, and i have had the pleasure of watching his talent, and style grow exponentially. Here are a few of his pieces for folks to peep. Keep in mind these are stencil pieces. some are up to 18 layer stencils. Shit is bananas.

Today i was cleaning out my closet and came across this picture. In the summer between being a freshman and sophmore in college, i was biking. Back then i use to race bicycles and to take a 30 mile training ride wasnt reallly anything. Well one day me and a friend decided to bike from Baltimore city to College Park, Maryland. We didnt even get out of the city before this happened. When i was coming up on an intersection, a Baltimore City Police car edged up while waiting for a red light and blocked my path. Because i had to react quick, i cut my wheel. my bike went one way, and i went another. i put my hand out to catch my fall, and all 4 fingers were snapped out of their socket. I hit the pavement with my face, and slid for about 12 feet before hitting the curb with my head. Upon impact i broke 3 vertebrates in my neck, went into shock, and waited for the Shock Trauma unit to arrive. I dont remember anything really because i was in shock. One thing i do remember is that when i was in the Ambulance i told the EMT worker that i was 'tired' and was going to take a 'nap'. As soon as she heard me say that, she dug her nails into my thigh, and told me that i probably wouldnt wake up if i fell asleep. needless to say, i stayed awake. It took 8 hours of xrays and examinations to determine that i had shattered the C2 vertabrate. To repair it, i got the handy little device you see above. It consisted of a metal circle with 4 screws holding it to my head. It is called a Halo. Those 4 screws were put in by 4 doctors at the same time. They would say 3-2-1 'turn', and at the same time, they would twist the screws into my head. The metal actually dug into my skull to ensure it wouldnt move around on my head. The Halo had 4 bars that came down. two in front. two in back. then a wrap went around my body to make sure my head didnt move. And in 4 months i had healed and was able to walk again. I am tellin you, that summer changed my life. I wont say that my life flashed in front of my eyes, or anything like that, but i do know that after i got better, i became more motivated, more active, more involved in my own life. I was a pretty lazy guy before that. guess everything happens for a reason

Fuck Stencils

This is one color of the total piece. Took about 8 hours to cut this much


Here is a close up of the piece above


This is another close up


You know, i am pretty lucky over all. i do what i love, i have good people around me, and i go to bed each night with a full stomach and a roof over my head. But with that said - fuck stencils. I have this show coming up at Urbis Artium Gallery on March 16th, so i have been putting in the hours of a sweatshop worker. Cutting about 10 hours a day, then doing all my other work afterwards. It is the times like this that make or break me, and so far i havent been broken. If you want to see the final outcome of all this cutting, come to the show in March. It will make me feel as if someone actually reads this damn thing

Lost Angeles - Gang Land

here in LA the gang thing gets kind of nuts sometimes. Lately the gang graffiti war has been escalating. The odd thing is that my studio isnt too far from Silverlake. I mean, silverlake is like hipster paradise and even here gangs are thick. weird.

This house is about 2 blocks from my studio. Over the past 2 weeks there has been a crossing out of cross outs on this poor building. It has been crushed. Thing that sucks is what can you really say to a gang member tagging your house? They know where you live, so you cant be a smart ass to them cause they will just come back and fuck you up, and if you ask them and they say fuck you, what recourse do you have? you cant do anything other than calling the police, and it is not like they do shit.

I wish i could read the cholo script. Does anybody reading this blog understand it? The limited understanding i have of cholo script doesnt help me at all.

I am Official! I Exist! I am SOMEbody


Image Credit: Rickey Kim / MrKimSays.com


I can remember when I was in college and I had my first show at some local shitty bar. I had sent in my press release to the local paper, and I ran out on Wednesday when the paper hit the streets and flipped through it looking for my name. Sure enough, there it was. I was an 'official' artist, and the paper said so. It reminded me of Steve Martin in The Jerk. In The Jerk, Steve Martin got the new phone book and he flips through looking for his name. Once he finds his name, he begins to scream 'I exist, I am a somebody!!! Here it is"

I still get that same joy when I see my name or picture somewhere, whether or not it is in a newspaper, a website, or a magazine. I just don't look as goofy when I show my pleasure. Well, I hung out with my man Rickey Kim from Evil Monito today and he posted some pics and info on his blog. Once again, I am 'Official".

It is always a bit odd when you hang out with someone that has a Blog. You never know what is going to end up on a blog and what is not. or if anything is going to be on there. Lucky for me, I don't have a good side. I am all around ugly. ha ha. Well, check out Rickey's site, MrKimSays.com

Hooptown

About two years ago, i was called on by an advertising agency to do stencils for a Nike project.

The project, as it was explained to me, was going to be an animated story featuring Lebron James, and Vince Carter. The Music was going to be done by Swizz Beats, and it would air online, then they were going to explore taking it further. I cut about 200 stencils for the episode and they were animated. It was the first of what was supposed to be six episodes Unfortunatly it never got the greenlight to go farther than 2 episodes. It was unfortunate, because i thought i was original, and well executed, but it is impossible to figure out what these agencies are going to do.

Click Here to view the first episode they put out

Reply to emails



















Last year I was emailed by someone who will remain nameless for now. I was told this person was doing a book about sneakers. I was asked if I would be able to contribute to this book since i had previously worked with them for their sneaker based magazine. This person said I had 6-8 pages to do what you want with. I was honored and proceeded to spend a good 3 days creating the work for the book. I finished, uploaded, and sent of an email but never heard anything. I sent another email a week later, and another the week after that, and another a month later, and another 5 emails over the next 6 months.

Well, the book came out a few months ago, and i wasn't in it. It is frustrating when people ask you to do something, and you go out of your way to help them, and they end up fucking you over. Well, I didn't want to let the illustrations go to waste, so figured i would post them online. So, there you go!

Yorba Mythology / Arvay Adams



In Los Angeles it is hard to find loyal people. I have been fortunate enough to align myself with a few folks that understand the importance of loyalty. One of those is Arvay Adams. I had lived next door to Arvay for nearly 6 months before we even spoke a word to each other, but once we did we realized how much we had in common. First we were both from Baltimore. The second thing is that we both went to Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), which is a small arts college in the middle of Baltimore City. It was a bit weird that we didnt know each other in Baltimore, but we ended up living next door to each other 3000 miles away from our home town.

Lately Arvay has been working on a online comic. With plans to bring shop them around to publishers, this is a glimpse of what is to come. The comic is based on the Gods in Yorbua Mythology.

To check out the strip as they are posted, check out Attica Jailhouse