Ex Vandals

www.SchoolOfVisualArts.edu

2012-01-20T14:38:00.000-08:00

SAMO LIVES. Found in a school bathroom at SVA while I was attending a lecture by the artist William Lamson. (visit www.FineArtFotos.blogspot.com to see that post)

www.ArtCrimes.com

2012-01-16T11:49:00.000-08:00

http://www.theskinny.co.uk/art/features/300965-glaswegian_graffiti

2012-01-13T12:09:00.000-08:00

The following is an article now appearing in the current issue of the Scottish Magazine

call the SKINNY (www.TheSkinny.co.uk) Since I was away from the graf cultural for over 20 years

(raising a family, working 3 jobs, honing my photo skills etc) there is now some interest in my misspent youth. I did miss out on promoting myself for a couple of decades so maybe this is the time to bring the rest of the world up to speed... Enjoy!

Flint

Glaswegian Graffiti

Glasgow-based Secret Wars finalists Rogue One and Conzo tell us about their art, and we explore a potted history of the scene, right from its early days in Brooklyn

Feature by Andrew Davies-Cole.

Published 05 January 2012

This February sees two of the country’s top graffiti artists go head-to-head in the Secret Wars Glasgow final. Last summer, Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum hosted 40 Years of Graffiti – The Advent of Pressurism, citing a 1971 New York Times article as the definite point where the world was made aware wall-writing was making its mark on the city’s culture. Its headline – Taki 183 Spawns Pen Pals – referred to a teenager who scrawled his name and number across a grimy New York that in the seventies would become synonymous with corruption, street gangs and paranoia (courtesy of cult movies like Serpico, The Warriors and Taxi Driver).
Soon graffiti writers were emboldened by a new tool: the aerosol can. Along with a burgeoning culture of competition, it inspired the evolution of the celebratory ‘masterpiece’: feet-high letters with contrasting outlines creating an effect that ‘pulled out’ images from their surfaces. None of this went unnoticed by New York’s authorities, particularly when writers – or vandals, as they would have it – favoured subway cars as mobile canvases. Arrests and clean-up programs battled bands of writers who claimed the city for themselves.
Since the seventies, graffiti has grown into a colossal subculture – one which often plunges a foot directly into the mainstream. And it’s been a long time since it centred solely on lettering. This February two artists will face-off for the accolade of Glasgow’s Secret Wars champion in a final held at the LA Academy on the Southside. It’s one of many Secret Wars worldwide.
Glasgow finalist Rogue One first tagged almost twenty years ago. “The first thing that got me transfixed by graffiti was the bright colours and letterstyles, with the addition of stars and bubbles to fill up the background. The creativity.” Since becoming enthralled, he’s gone on to develop his own, often startling, photorealistic style. “Photorealistic has been done for years,” Rogue says. “It's getting more prolific and detailed nowadays because of the large interest in spraypainting by very artistic people, as opposed to just wild creative youths.”
Rogue was one such youth when a second generation was inspired by graffiti’s possibilities in the 1980s. Packaged together with an emerging hip-hop ethos, its mix of Stateside grit and glamour proved alluring across the globe. It wasn’t long before the art market demanded a taste. Jean-Michel Basquiat – a young man from Brooklyn of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent – became the poster boy for those hoping their illicit imaging might lead them to be noticed and accepted by the industry. The late seventies found Basquiat and his friend Al Diaz spray-painting Lower Manhattan with a definite, if often inscrutable, purpose: A PIN DROPS LIKE A PUNGENT ODOR or even 4 THE SO-CALLED AVANT-GARDE. Each expression was linked to the last by the signature SAMO©, a shortening of Same Old Shit.
Hitting the art hub of Soho was a shrewd move and within months of finally proclaiming SAMO© IS DEAD, Basquiat came under the wing of Andy Warhol. The two went on to collaborate on canvas, and Basquiat became central to 1980s Neo-Expressionism.
Although music videos like Blondie’s Rapture (featuring Basquiat) and films such as Wild Style presented graff-writing, B-boying, turntabling and emceeing as four branches from the same tree, the roots of New York’s modern graffiti had developed quite separately. “Some people are rather unhappy about how their artform got swallowed up into the hip-hop package,” says Peter Gerard, the Scotland-based director of film Just to Get a Rep (2004), a documentary on graffiti’s relationship with hip-hop. “It's important to know and appreciate the true history… but it wouldn't be what it is today if it hadn't had the forced collision with hip-hop.”
One man who knows just how far back modern graffiti goes is Brooklyn graf-writer Flint, who features in Gerard’s film. Now 54 years-old, Flint formerly tagged with Taki 183 and claims to have also influenced Basquiat. He first bombed buildings as early as the mid-sixties. “It wasn’t like the graffiti that came later,” Flint explains. “I’d write sayings, as if from fortune cookies or movie scripts, and sign ‘Flint’.” That name expressed a desire shared by millions before and after him. “I was very introverted and alienated,” he admits. “Being a little hard of hearing made my speech a little awkward. But I found escape at the movies – fantasies where the guy was a secret agent with a secret identity. I wanted to be cool like them.
"At first it was simple lettering,” Flint reveals. “I wasn’t writing for other graffiti-writers, because there weren’t any. People were trapped riding a train to work, so this was for them – things like: ‘Be all you can…’ Then I started writing for other writers: ‘For those who dare…’ ‘Bad, but not evil…’” In the seventies, his High School of Art and Design friend Al Diaz, who tagged Bomb 1, was a big fan. “He became friends with Basquiat, and he got Basquiat to start writing,” says Flint. “I’m still friends with Al and he’s said I was the influence – they both wanted to do something in that vein. I wasn’t political – I wanted to inspire people to have hope and live their dreams. That’s what I’m all about.”
Flint’s messages – featuring trademark ellipses – hit home in the most unlikely places. The D Train he frequented held a captive audience of Madison Avenue advertising suits, and Flint’s favoured 'Be all you can…' eventually appeared on recruiting ads for the army with an extra 'be' in place of ellipsis. “Everything goes in a circle, because I actually took a lot from them,” he admits. “I liked TV and radio taglines and slogans. Simon and Garfunkel’s song The Sound of Silence had the line: ‘The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls…’ It would be pretentious to say they wrote about me, but a lot of people think they did,” Flint insists. “The truth is, my guitar lessons on 60th Street were with Eddie Simon, Paul’s brother – so who knows?”
At the Secret Wars final, Rogue One will be up against the 23-year-old Conzo, who started out in his mid-teens. “For me, I simply like the nonsense message and making people laugh,” Conzo admits. “I don’t even call myself a graffiti artist anymore… these guys go out and paint trains every morning before breakfast and are quite likely banned from half the pubs and clubs in their city, so you have to have a bit of a nutter in you really. I prefer ‘illustrator’ now, as I went back to my roots which has always been illustration.”. As for Flint, some things never change. “A lot of us oldtimers can’t compare with the artwork now, but we still do our thing. We hit freight trains in Florida and London a few years ago – we’re still up to mischief.” Now an award-winning photographer, Flint has bright hopes for the medium he helped place centre-frame of the world’s attention. “We’re just going to take over the world. You see it in clothing, you see it in the way people talk. This isn’t sixties America anymore. Everybody loves graffiti – unless their house gets spray-painted…”

www.WoodwardGallery.net, www.ArtNet.com

2012-01-12T18:35:00.000-08:00

Click on this link to see the video of the opening

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN6wBPiSU8k

For www.12ozprophet.com review by Daniel Feral click below

http://www.12ozprophet.com/index.php/news/recap-rather_unique-woodward_gallery

I especially liked the line

It was a true honor to see Faust, the calligraphic hand-style master, as well as the seventies legend Flint, who graced the evening with his chill presence.

Well here you go, hope you enjoyed my photos... (Dot,Dot Dot.)

www.abc.go.com/shows/americas-funniest-home-videos, www.5ptz.com

2011-12-22T07:18:00.000-08:00

White guy writes his first rap.

Graffiti Song

2011-12-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

www.12ozProphet.com

www.ArtCrimes.com

www.TheWynwoodWalls.com

2011-12-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

America's most important art show, Art Basel, hit Miami on December 2. And taking center stage is Wynwood Walls -- the city's open-air "art park" that showcases the most cutting-edge street art in the country.

The Wynwood Walls has brought the world's greatest artists working in the graffiti and street art genre to Miami.

The Artist known as T-KID.

The Pop-Up Shop.

Jay Edlin's book GRAFFITI 365 on display.

Having fun at the book signing.

Geoff Hargadon aka CASH FOR YOUR WARHOL, DAZE, Martha Cooper, NOSM, RISK, FLINT..., TYKE/WITNES, CERN, Jay Edlin (TERROR 161) and T.KID 170.

Martha Cooper and one of her fans (Subjects).

Martha Cooper has learned a few things since hanging with us... Funny I started writing in the sixties and Martha started writing in her sixties...LOL

It seems this American Art Form has taken over the world...

Lets keep on truckin...

Art House Party. www.FountainHeadResidency.com

Ron English and company.

Over 50 galleries are now in the area.

On the outside walls can be found the work of Aiko from Japan, Os Gemeos and Nunca from Brazil, Stelios Faitakis from Greece, and Jim Drain, Shepard Fairey (OBEY), Ron English, Futura, Barry McGee, Ara Peterson, Clare Rojas, Kenny Scharf and the team of Swoon, David Ellis and Ben Wolf from the United States. Also on hand is PHASE 2, CoCo 144, How, NOSM and Ellis G.

read the YELP! reviews at http://www.yelp.com/biz/wynwood-walls-miami.

See all my images from Miami Florida 2011 at my gallery www.EventsByFlint.com

and visit www.Deitch.com
www.GoldmanProperites.com

At149st.com, www.SubwayOutlaw.com

2011-12-14T19:18:00.000-08:00

nMartha Cooper is a photojournalist specializing in Art and Anthropology. She is among the handful of photographers who methodically documented subway graffiti during the 1970's and 1980's. Her body of work is the most extensive and significant of it's kind. Cooper's hand on approach to documenting the culture set her apart from other photographers. The majority of photographers focused specifically on documenting the paintings isolating them from their environment. Cooper's approach was to photograph the paintings within their full context. She spent several years photographing elevated subway lines from empty lots and rooftops of buildings in the crime ridden South Bronx. She captured New York City's state of urban decay; Providing a fuller understanding of the artwork of the times.

born in the 1940s in Baltimore, Maryland where she picked up photography at the age of three. She graduated from high school at the age of 16, earned an art degree at age 19 from Grinnell College. She taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, journeyed by motorcycle from Bangkok to London and received an ethnology diploma from Oxford. She worked as a staff photographer for the New York Post during the 1970s.

She is perhaps best known for documenting the New York graffiti scene of the 1970s and '80s. Her most known personal work began while working at the New York Post. On her return home from the Post she began taking photos of children in her New York city neighborhood. One day she met a young kid named Edwin who helped expose her to some of the graffiti around her neighborhood. Edwin helped to explain to her that Graffiti is an art form and that each artist was actually writing his/her nickname. Edwin then proceeded to tell of the Graffiti King and asked if she would like to meet him. This is when Martha met Dondi, the first one who allowed her to accompany him; while Dondi was tagging she would take photos of his art. In the 1980s she put together a book of photos illustrating the Graffiti subculture called Subway Art. She has degrees in art and anthropology.

She was a photography intern at National Geographic Magazine in the 1960s, and worked as a staff photographer at the New York Post in the 1970s. Her photographs have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian and Natural History magazines as well as several dozen books and journals. She is the Director of Photography at City Lore, the New York Center for Urban Folk Culture. Cooper lives in Manhattan but is working on a photo project in Sowebo, a Southwest Baltimore neighborhood.

In the 1980s Martha worked briefly in Belize photographing the people and archaeological remains of the Mayan culture.

It was with great pleasure that I photographed along side Martha during Art Basel Week and especially in Wynwood Miami. We were there and it was like GRAFFITI WORLD! So much was happening and the paintings were all so beautiful, street art has really evolved.

Some of the 20 plus books that Martha has to her credit.

www.FiveMyles.org

2011-12-13T08:58:00.000-08:00

Old School Writer MICO has teamed with BAMA, LAVA 1 & 2, FLINT 707 and CLYDE to present exhibitions such as the one at FIVE MYLES GALLERY at
558 St Johns Place
Brooklyn, NY
11238.

the Street Art Legends Collective
Exhibition was curated by Frank Gerard Godlewski .

Lava, Flint..., Bama, LSD3om

Apollo 5 mans the desk.

Clyde nixed the chance of a group shot but the LEGENDS who were in the house were LSD 3om, BAMA, MICO, LAVA, FLINT 707, RIFF 170, CLYDE, KING 2, TERROR 161, APOLLO 5, WICKED GARY, OUI, WAP & FLINT... Old timers always come out to support each others, that love for ya!

Whenever BAMA is involved in art shows he provides music and here are some of the boys getting ready to jam.

The Legendary LAVA 1 & 2.

www.SingYourSongTheMovie.com, www.StGeorgeTheatre.com

2011-12-13T07:14:00.000-08:00

got a little taste of Harry Belafonte when I first photographed him at Jules Nasso's house in 2009.

Now at the St. George Theatre (www.StGeorgeTheatre.com) on opening night of the Staten island Film Festival (www.SINY.com) there he was and this time I got a feast!

Jules Nasso (the producer) and Gianna Russo (the actor who ws in the Godfather films)

Harry Belfonte with Luanne Sorrentino, who with her mother Mrs. Rosemary Cappozalo and her sister Doreen Cugno, began a not-for-profit organization in 2004 to save this historic theatre from being torn down. They saved this landmark and the magnificent St. George Theatre shines once again and serves Staten Island and all of New York.

The new film "SING YOUR SONG" by Susanne Rostock and produced by Jullius R. Nasso was great! Harry Belafonte was more than a handsome matinee idol and platinum-selling singer ( the first artist in history to sell more than 1 million LPs) he was an activist with a conscience that placed him at the forefront of the civil rights movement (he and his best friend Sidney Poitier were followed and threatened by the KKK in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964) This movie takes us from his impoverished beginnings in Harlem and Jamaica to his status as one of the world's most successful entertainers befriending the famous and infamous including Martin Luther King Jr., Marlon Brando,
Eleanor Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro and both RFK and JFK. A lot of kids don't know who Bobby Kennedy was- A lot of kids don't know what Martin Luther King did. In the 1960's the whole world was experiencing a new conscious... it's like we all just said 'We're not going to take it anymore!!'

Hard to believe it was such a different world back then after all we are just talking about a few decades back...thank the lord there were good men fighting the good fight. MLK said it isn't how long you lived- it's how well you lived... It was the sixties and I wanted to be part of it!

When scenes of Las Vegas from the 60's flashed on the screen my mind immediately went back to my youth and 1966 when my Mom and Dad packed up their 3 children for a cross country camping trip across America. Being a kid in that decade meant many things to me and I was constantly amazed and astounded by the events in the news. Tired of feeling helpless but only able to witness the riots, marches, assassinations, hippies and Rock n Roll on TV. Didn't even have a camera of my own yet. I thought it out and brought a weapon of my choosing, a magic marker!

It was the Sixties and I wanted to be part of it- Writings on walls should be inspirational and the voice of the young just like the music we were listening to. Most of what was up was JOHN LOVES MARY and FOR A GOOD TIME CALL... It was time for a change, this quiet boy was taking a code name which became my secret identity and I was able to make my mark on society. It seems my Forth Grade Social Studies class lesson on WW 2 and KILROY WAS HERE served me well. The rest is history! Sheese! ...KIDS!?! What will we do next...?