It's 4 am here in the studio and I'm wide awake listening to some 80's tracks and painting.. Being born in '76 I grew up hearing a lot of these songs that where just imbedded in my DNA. Either just from being glued to MTV/VH1 ( I think was channel 24 and 25 for us with TV's that had a rotary channel dial, imagine that) at home or it coulda' been the T.V. that hung from the ceiling at the Kings Mall laundry mat where we would do laundry on the weekends ( me and mom dukes). So whether I consciously enjoyed them or not, they where played over and over... now when they come on somewhere it's become nostalgic for me... Then I remembered there was some pretty inspirational videos back then also, so it got me digging around youtube. Check out these videos in the 80's that definitely got my mind thinking as a young kid wanting to create.... All this stuff reminds me of Garbage Pail Kids, He-Man, Transformers and all the cool shit I liked growing up.....
This one was incredible to me at the time, I was absolutely lost as to how this was possible.
this was great also, early computer animation...
Peter Gabriel without question had some of the most artistically created videos... very visual as a kid..
another great Peter Gabriel..
this one is very reminiscent of the later video from .... maybe same people?
I felt like taking some detail shots of this before it went to it's new owner. So I wanted to share some of the close ups for anyone into that sort of thing.
If you're into this lil guy, we got a small number of key chains available. Check the while they last.....
Blog entry May 4th, 2013. This kind of thing still blows my mind...
"To Whom it May Concern;
I am a 3rd grade teacher in Idaho. We are studying art and great artists. Each of my students pick an artist that interests them to do a research project on. The students find information about their chosen artist and then using the information that they gather, they "become" the artist in our Great Artist Museum. We then present this performance piece to my students' parents and guests. One of my students has chosen you as their great artist. I was wondering if he could contact you to ask you questions as we are having a hard time finding information on Ewok's life for the timeline piece of his project.
Thank you for your help.
Andrea Snow"
In my mind, I'm still just a punk ass who grew up listenin' to rap, terrorizing rush hour traffic on a skateboard after school with a bunch of other punks till it was time to go home... To think that drawing funny pictures and painting them on other people's property over and over until people paid me to do it, could some day impact the youth is still crazy to me. That either says a lot about my determination, or more about today's youth. ha!
My extended family on the west coast livin that life. Proud of you guys, especially Luigi. This video is based on something in the Bboy world that is usually frowned upon, because it breaks up the idea of what a crew is supposed to be.. But sometimes you have a bond with friends that aren;t in your crew, so in this situation 3 friends made up a crew based on each of their own crews... SKILLMETHODZ, BOOGIE BRATS and RENEGADES became SKILL BRATS RENEGADES and they entered the biggest battle in the United States and won and ended up going to Japan for the finals and winning that. Check the video, it's really inspiring for me. I hope you enjoy it. Not a lot of people realize I've been a real Bboy for more years of my life than I've been writing Graffiti, I kept the lifestyles separate as best as I could to not tip off any eager photo types to shoot pics of me while getting down and it worked for years. Unfortunately I had to hang up my shelltoes and move on, due to at the time what I felt was losing the passion for the dance as well as just getting hurt more and more as I got older, the recovery time taking longer and of course my crew SKILLMETHODZ basically all relocated to Hollywood to destroy the industry. So when I see these kinds of videos it definitely is bitter sweet, but I live through my crew now so it's all good.....
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So I did a pretty funny illustration for Valentine's day of Adventure Time Characters and switch out some identities, that sparked a commission offered from a collector of mine who's wife is a big New Kids fan, never in my life would I ever expect to do something like this so I jumped on the idea, not because of the money ( never hurts) but because NO ONE would ever expect to see it done by me. And those are the things I love to do... So above is the end result, I had to pic references from a certain period of their career, obviously they went thru a young kid phase and now they're doing a come back so they're on the older side in pictures. I was informed her favorite in the band was Donnie, so I made sure he was in the middle, a bit more stylized than the rest and he was holding one of these "Teeny Bopper" mags autographed to MAE.
Check the full piece in the section. Stay tuned for more wacky shit as I am working on about 8 other commission pieces currently. And feel free to drop me a line if you think youre interested in a piece. In regards to turn around time you would be much better off picking up something that is already painted in my opinion because I painted it purely for the love.... When someone says " I have $5,000... the entire time Im painting it and listenin' to music in my studio relaxing, its annoying to keep hearing that money in my head.... there's a fun side to doing a new piece with a new idea, but I prefer not to be thinking about dollars when Im in the creative place....
here's a couple other pics I had on the camera.... Check it out... more to come later
So the time has come, I've held onto this piece tightly as long as I could, turned down a good number of in person offers over the years, and even took it off my because of the repetitive email inquiries... But last week I was offered a price I couldn't refuse and it will now be going to a new home where I know it will be just as appreciated if not more. Farewell Sam, we had some good times... Best of luck wherever your path takes you. SAMURAI Mixed Media on Canvas 24 x 36 2004.
Also I wanted to give a shout out and thanks to everyone who ordered my BRAINLINGTON Tees. They're all gone.
March 19, Blog Entry. 2013. Video Blog # 78. The Oggetti Project. Miami Florida 2012.
With guests, SP.ONE and JICK Imok. And a walk on by Lenny Kravitz..
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So I got a nice package in the mail from the homey HAND SELECTA who put together is book about the origins of the hand style. My hat goes off to him for even considering to attempt taking this kind of task on. He aimed high and did a great job. If you can get your hands on it, pick it up you won't be let down. I only wish I had gotten in on it haha.... FLIP THE SCRIPT
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Today I wanted to dedicate an entry to something I think is pretty fuckin' awesome... An alternate universe of customized HORSELINGTONS by many many brilliant artists, unfortunately there's just too many to try to name so I wanted to at least post a bunch. But before that I want to thank everyone who saw this figure as a blank canvas and saw their own vision through my own as a platform. With my BRAINLINGTON figure coming up fast, I can only wonder if the same thing would happen again... Anyway, enjoy these pictures I've gathered.
From this..... to....
There's a lot more out there, but these are the ones I just grabbed quick off Google...
ALSO, I added a new section to the site this week, check it out. A place to showcase things on a smaller scale.. Click the button above.
Feb. 23rd, Blog Entry 2013. The Step By Step BRAINLINGTON 6 X 6 ft. on Wood.
I decided to take step by step images over the last few months of this process so I could put them up in order later. There a few images missing in the middle but I think this does the job. Have a look. Below is the final obviously.
In the end it is 6 ft. by 6ft. on Masonite and a nice wooden frame backing. The background is my signature acquired collage material and the foreground is Acrylic paint. BRAINLINGTON 6 foot tall. What's funner than that? The completion of this was perfect timing, as the week it was completed, contracts had been signed to have BRAINLINGTON made into a 12 inch tall Vinyl Figure to be released in limited numbers in June/ July with the company this is just the tip of the ice burg here, stay tuned for more info.
Oker was recently sentenced to two year in prison for graffiti in the U.K. The Pure Evil Gallery in London is hosting a benefit tomorrow to help his family (wife + 2 kids) take care of the mortgage and bills while he’s away. There’s lots of amazing original art and prints for sale.
Artist include: Cope 2, Wane COD, Ces One TMT, JA One XTC, VFR, Skuf, Reas, Craig Costello / KRINK, Noah TFP, Barry McGee / Twist, Amaze, SP.One, Ewok 5MH, Spot KMS, David Villorente / Chino BYI, Oker, Ben Eine, Skore TRC, Petro TFW, Akt One, Tox 13 DDS, Fakso, Egs CDC and more…
6:00pm, Thursday – February 21, 2013
The show runs until the 24th. You can check out some of the art up for auction online at:
Please check back for updates.
Pure Evil Gallery
108 Leonard Street
London, England
EC2A 4XS
Swing over to the newly renovated website. This year while they where in the studio working on this brand new album I was building with Keith and Josh on the visual side as to what the graphics would look like for each song. The basis of this project was the 7 sins. A song dedicated to each sin and a story being told throughout the album, a story I won't give away but basically I was hired to offer my warped view on things to bring something completely new and fresh to the project. Something that nobody would see coming! I think we hit it out the park, and I know for the guys this album means a lot to them personally so I have a feeling there's some true life references to them if you listen to the story line. I'm aware this kind of music might not be for my sites "demo", and if know me you'd know I'm an 80's baby who grew up on rap and skate rock, but I gotta tip my hat to these guys, they've given me back stage VIP treatment to a few shows and from the point of view of someone who's never seen them perform, and to be honest didn;t know much about their music at all, each show I went to I was floored by their performances and how die hard their fan base is. The kill it! I mean REALLY kill it. I had a blast at every show I went to.
Anyways, check out their new site, you'll see a bunch of the work I did on the album all over the front page, which is also fold out art in all the albums, Itunes package, as well as collectors 12 inch vinyl records they got on the site as a for the smart people who collect things today that will be worth a shit ton of money tomorrow. ( Don't say I didn't warn you, my blog is like insider stock tips for Wall St. but for art collectors) Feel free to grab one of the 12 inch records, I think the vinyl is red or something, but more importantly the graphics inside.
Feb. 15th Blog Update. 2013. V-day gift. ADVENTUREWOK TIME Illustration.
A fun Valentine's Day gift I did to resemble 2 people and their pets, rotating the main characters out, and replacing them with characteristics and pets to make it a complete inside joke and a funny twist on something recognizable. Plus the cartoon rocks...
Whipped it up in about an hour, with a little extra time spent masking off the foreground to throw some spray paint in the sky.
Feb. 12, 2013 Blog Entry. Dedicated to the genius of MOEBIUS. 8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012
Today I wanted to showcase an artists work I only discovered last year for the 1st time, but has since become a great inspiration to me, the late Jean Giraud aka MOEBIUS. The more images I dig up the more inspired and amazed I become, this man truly was one of the greats. What I enjoy about his work is not only the level of detail and craftsmanship, or the staging of his layouts, or the dreamlike colors he's uses... more importantly to me anyway was the mind behind the vehicle that put the ideas paper. These things to me are what make someone stand out from the rest... In some rare cases when looking at an artist's work you have an immediate window into the mind of who that person was/is and how his brain worked. A self portrait of sorts as to who that artist is, in cases where the artist is true to himself and not creating a product strictly to make money. In those cases for instance you usually wind up with art that is catering only to an audience that usually wants to buy ANOTHER artist's work they can't afford, and behind him is a few people creating a similar but lack luster lower price point of art, usually lacking greatly the integrity said first artist offers. In this case you know right away this man was one of a kind and had no limitations when creating his work whether it was commissioned or for himself. One of my biggest let downs now will be never having the chance to ask him questions or ever getting the chance to meet him. His work now goes for steep prices as well, so that narrows the option further of being able to own a piece of his, for me anyway.
One of my favorites.
One thing that I've noticed throughout the years of researching artists that stand out for me is that usually (not in all cases) the really unique artists that I look up wind up being left handed to my surprise. I don't exactly know why this is but in my opinion I find that these left handed artists to creating from a different part of the brain then right handed people. Generic right handed artists are usually the type, even in their successful stages to be reproductive types, be it masterful landscape painters from photos or refernece, or photographic portrait painters from life study or photographic references. The ones who generally bring something brand new from the deep corners of the mind seem to be leftys, I find anyway. There's plenty of research on this topic alone but I'm not here to delve into that now, but I will say when I look at MOEBIUS' art, his work reminds me of the way a lefty would create, but he's a righty! So I can only wonder if he was able to break through some kind of barriers and was able to create from the part of the brain some lefty's are easier tapping into. This also goes for another artist fave of mine . Another righty, who creates like a lefty so who knows..... These things also happen more from those who delve in psychedelics but again, another topic for another entry... ( post edit : ironic indeed )
Here's are some images I found around the web that I enjoyed. To this entry I tip my hat to this man, and his career. I don;t know much about his life, or what kind of person he was on a personal level but one can only be in awe at the distance he traveled as an artist of his early years up until his passing last year. If anyone out there reading this owns any of his work and wants to do a trade for a painting, feel free to reach out. I would love to own something of MOEBIUS to hang in the studio as a constant reminder of the bar he set, that I am constantly reminded of every time I see his work. Long live Jean Giraud aka MOEBIUS!
This is the brand new LARGE Leather back patch. Measures up at 10 inches, and can be applied directly to any surface with a 3M Adhesive backing that peels and sticks exactly like a decal would, except this takes 1.5 days to cure and is virtually indestructible. Made in AMERICA! Can go on your luggage, backpack, jacket, vest you name it. This style product originates from the motorcycle industry and is made of durable quality.
Above is showing the LARGE White Leather Patch as well as the regular smaller ones to show scale, these are 3.5 inches. I love these things!
And the adhesive backing. Get yours while they last!
This last week I was emailed this tattoo from a friend and long time art collector Tarik Moore. He asked me last week if I would mind him getting a tattoo of of one of my drawings. Of course I wouldn't right? This is one of the reasons I always respected The WU-TANG as a legacy, I've seen hundreds of WU TANG logos tattood on people all over the world. That's a very clear symbolic way of knowing you've really impacted people, so I'm always excited to get these emailed to me. I may do a blog in a bit of all the photos I've collected over the years, just to put them in one place. If you have a tattoo of my work please feel free to drop a pic in an email, ya never know, if it's a good photo it might get published in a book
If you've been watching or Bloglington lately you may have picked up on a buzz that there was going to be a return of THE GIMME PROJECT. This Friday kicks off the project I put down about 6 years ago, this time it has more focus, better quality and more surprises to come. Be proud to buy AMERICAN MADE products and don't miss this first release!
Jan, 22,2013 Blog entry. REST IN PEACE CASE 2 TFP
This was a video done by the 4BURNERS guys, I'm humbled to have Case2 give a little shout out in the middle. It's sad that this dude isn't here anymore, seems like this was just yesterday....
and here's my video from the same day, time flies...
EWOKONE straight letter coming off in a Chevy Commercial. Chevy runs deep #nh. shot by Annie Leibovitz. Commercial is floating around the web somewhere....
Alan Watts.
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haha.... FLIP THE SCRIPT
