stuck

Today has been difficult. Didn’t get pants on before noon, and even then it was so I could do laundry. These things happen.

Found a copy of Graffiti L.A. and it’s really nice. Super detailed, lots of pictures, I definitely recommend checking it out. It’s got a lot of history if you aren’t into the just “picture book” feel of a lot of art books. After reading the stuff about lettering I am wondering if my general text fascination plays into my appreciation. Aside the fact that, y’know, spraycan art is fucking crazy. Thinking about the pieces some people make, after starting with throw-ups and simples and getting most of their practice on the walls, that is impressive. And not gonna lie, kind of intimidating. Particularly on days where I have trouble putting on pants.

sidenote: Crewest, the only totally street-art dedicated gallery in L.A. (and started by Man One), is celebrating it’s tenth anniversary! Shindig tomorrow.

Attention in all things

The importance of kerning!

From Language Log. See, text design matters.

So as you may or may not know, I am back in L.A. There is (comparatively) no graffiti, it’s weird. Ok so supposedly there’s a great tradition of murals, but that shit is hiding somewhere. Oh well, that much more of an adventure I guess. Although it is forreals outlawed here; but somehow I am less afraid of cops than I was of getting shanked and locked out in Bogotá.

I found a place to liiiive, now I just need to move in next week. School doesn’t start till July but I am sure I will sketch up some things before then. Actually I have sketched up some things, but I don’t feel like photographing them right now.

giving papaya

damn straight I got some stuff on the walls. Yes we had our phones stolen shortly after this, but what is life without some misadventures. (at least this is what I try to tell myself when I am not just thinking stupid stupid stupid). It’s ok, we went a bought new phones that were clearly stolen from other unfortunates, phone life cycle.

I don’t have that much more time in Bogotá; it is kind of weird to think about leaving permanently.

bagre

So I made another stencilll, this one is pretty big.

(The head is not that bad, I just can’t focus a camera some days)

Bagre, or catfish, is the slang for an ugly woman here, so I thought a woman with a catfish head would be funny…yeah. Maybe I will have her say insightful things like, “That much makeup makes you a catfish” or “No one should wear pants that tight.” She made her first appearance today on a university wall where a group had written “Mural being planned” or something, essentially trying to reserve the wall, so I wrote, “Obviously you can’t respect the walls, so why do you think you can reserve them?” snarky snark snark. I may have also said “I don’t want more mamerto murals.”  I am just hoping I didn’t commit some grave grammatical error giving away that a foreigner is butting it. But I know I can’t be the only one thinking it.

Miguel Mejía and American Guilt

I am not sure how, but I stumbled upon this guy’s stuff and I looove it. I am not quite sure why; me cae bien. It’s so Mexican but still uniquely stylized. Sometimes I wish I had some culture that could inform my work, but instead I will probably be one of those white people whose work is “influenced by the culture of ____” or “draws from _____” or worse, “touches on themes from around the world.” I mean yeah I want my own style, but I really appreciate work that sort of “has a setting” and then expands (modernizes?) it or contradicts it or even just lets it be part of the whole.

But then I’d feel odd for preying on something I’m not really a part of, or like I’m eroticizing the “other.” We talk about the people that I lead on tours and I get sort of interesting insights sometimes. A lot of the Americans are bored with the U.S. or they don’t want to be apart of it, but the Europeans are typically proud of where the come from but have that sort of “ooh the third world is a place for adventure and seeing a different world.” I am not sure about the Canadians, they seem sort of in between. I had one kid from Illinois this week though, he was cool. He came to Bogotá for his vacation because, “it was the cheapest flight.” I dig that really open nature.

But could one argue that employing cultural touchstones or style is really just adding dimension to the art? We are such a mixed up world these days, and couldn’t it be about the art not the artist? If I saw a whole gallery of Japanese-style woodblock prints but was later informed they were done by an Australian guy would it matter? Y’know I think it would depend, sometimes knowing about the artist or the process is what really makes the work interesting or causes you to devalue it. But in the case of Mejía, it just says where the art is coming from—it’s not this complex. (or is it? Does he feel labeled as Mexican and does he like it?)

Bah, this is getting out of hand, his blog is here.

(And before you tell me America has culture, all that comes to mind when I think of American-style art is old Coke ads, and I am not into that. Americans don’t have claim to a “native” art style because we were dirty imperialists, but my life has not included anything from my Scottish/Irish/Austrian past)

take it to the streets

tryn’ a get my act together and be the hooligan I always look like. If there is any city to start scribbling on it’s Bogotá, and I am leaving in a matter of months. Kinda put a fire under my ass I guess.

Yeah that’s some gooey wheatpaste goodness. I just used this recipe, seems to be fine. Dries clear so you can do a coat over your stuff.

I doodled this guy in my sketchbook one day and it seemed as cool as anything else to start with. I dig the  sort of grungy-cartoony skate aesthetic so I think that’s where I was trying to go. (If you are one of those rare individuals who reads my blog but does not know me, I have a slight lazy eye. It rarely acts up anymore, but when it does it is usually conveniently in photos.)

I am also making a big stencil of a woman with a catfish head, because the slang here for an ugly woman is catfish (bagre) so I thought that would be funny. Yeah. What are your thoughts on these activities?

Tattoo: tumi

Sooo here is a picture of the tattoo sketch one of my friends is going to get! I believe it’s going on her inner arm. It’s a tumi, an Incan sacrificial knife. Very Peruvian, she is Peruvian, perfect.

The first one I drew was too skinny, this one is appropriately stout. I also enjoy that he seems pretty benign despite being on top of a serious blade.

other things relevant to my life: introvert problems , sweet new mural

no plans and too much time

-Jean Baudrillard

no resolutions just personal evolutions

The Jokers, “troubled teenagers” in Brooklyn. New style icons? Sometimes I don’t think my past self would recognize me. I just want to be grungy/street classy. And apparently increasingly a boy.

I was reading about the New Romantics/Blitz Kids on Vice  and this lead to me devouring Wikipedia pages on synthpop and related things, and then of course to youtube. Here is a synthpop time-traveling adventure. I didn’t realize it was so big in Japan, perhaps not surprising though as they are generally technology inclined these days. I was saying Y.M.O. kind of sounded like video game music, and then reflected, no, video game music kind of sounds like Y.M.O.

I think that’s all I have for you right now. I drew someone else up a tattoo, but of course I have not scanned it. To do, to do. My “resolution” I guess this year is to sketch more, I mean, I’m going to art school in a matter of months damnit!

 

new face

So I let Manu convince me into letting a professional cut my hair (after, what, 4 years of doing it myself?) and it is quite a change. Some lack of communication, me not wearing my glasses and so not knowing what was happening, and whatnot later I ended up looking like a young Allen Ginsberg and Rachel Maddow had a child.

plus

you get this:

not so shaggy anymore. Which unsurprisingly makes me look more like an adult and not a skater boi. Not sure how I feel about it, but I think it’s growing on me.

Thurrrrsday I leave for the states. Strange. I think it is a necessary break, as much as family is ever a break. This year I definitely got everyone’s Christmas gifts in the grocery store, the perks of being in a foreign country. (However I am excited to return to LA and stuff myself with vegan tacos and thai food. and bubble tea. and lebkuchen. and eggnog…)