Breaking Out of Here

Haven't been painting too many walls lately. Been spending time painting paper and getting ready for the Painted Desert project in the Navajo Nation being graciously hosted by Jetsonorama and Yote. And been spending many countless hours, days, weeks on a new secret project that I'll be excited to post about when it comes to fruition. Until then enjoy that dry Nevada heat and go jump in a river or sumthin.

Break that chain

Open Walls Prep

I'm off to Baltimore in a few days and I can't be more happy to take part in Open Walls! As usual I've been spending most nights prepping for the trip by painting on my collection of paper rolls and stacking that paper (unmetaphorically speaking that is). I'm up to 43 individual paintings that I'll be bringing and pasting. I've found putting up work is the best way to get to know a city and meet its people. And I finally get to paint a large wall! I'm really looking forward to the trip and being around two of my favorite artists, Gaia and Nanook.

Weeping Indian with Joyns

Got to paint with my bestest homie Joyns last week. Made a weeping indian for all the real weeping indians down on 4th st.

Works with IRGH from Berlin

Woke up to the sun rising and realized I had passed out on my roof. Made it to the ferry 2 hours late after the side wall of my fold up bike blasted through. Met up with Veng and Dan at Staten Island and IRGH and I piled our bikes and bodies into the back to begin our abandoned island adventures.

This would be the flag of our country.

The first wall of the day went so fast.

Amazing spot! A tree was growing on the 5th floor and busted right through the window.

Minneapolis, Day 10

Visiting Minneapolis is always a highlight for me. Most notably because it's when I get to hang out, paint, live, barbeque, and experience the duo known as Broken Crow. These guys make great work and they are even greater people. But you already know that.

Today we just finished this wall and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. It's a perfect mix of our work and it was so great to take part in their process of large scale holy fuck-sized stencils from the beginning. Here's a little bit from the process...

Shade and toilet paper, what else do ya' need.

Day 1. Find a wall. Check

Make a sketch

Mike's not just good at spraying paint through holes. He's a good model too.

Angel and Mike make for happy hand models

After a few dozen x-acto blades and a couple days we successfully transformed the attic into a hamster fortress.

Outline up, woot, woot!

In response to a lady asking me if she could park her car in the lot during happy hour.

If you live in Minneapolis check it out in person. It's right between the Modern Cafe and the 331 Club. Thanks to Drew for the wall, Mike Bishop for being a smooth talker, and John Oulman for the endless entertainment.

Mr. Deed Goes to Washington

Pictures by Rachel Eisley

NDA going the distance with poetic license.

When you spill paint on the floor make the most of it.

Shadows are important but not as much as light.

You gotta love 6 inch brushstrokes.

Helping Hand

I had the good fortune of working with my friend No Touching Ground from Seattle while he was in town. Veng of Robots Will Kill hooked up a wall in Bushwick and we got to it after the rain. I told Veng this new banger was gonna blow his dick off. Although hesitant to such a declaration, he admitted that yes, it's been blown (I apologize to his lady fanclunb). Horn tootin' aside I was really excited about this particular piece for a couple reasons.

First off, everybody knows that even if you are a guru of wheat paste like JR that paper is the most temporary of mediums. Especially when used on the street. So since No Touching Ground was proposing a large wheat paste I pitched the idea that we paint something on the wall under the wheat paste. That way, over time the piece would of course disintegrate, but also introduce a new mural.

We decided on a concept and NTG took photos of my hand for reference. He printed them and we got into an abandoned condo to lay them out in their entirety and paint in the details and color.

Some of my underlying inspirations... buZ with his keys, my bro with cee-lo, Sunset Justice with the bolt cutters, Read with the book...

NTG printed my notepad tattoo blank and I added a few "to do" things with spray. This part was my personal favorite and it gave me a chance to be self-referential, or self-referentially self referential since it is a note about what we did on a picture of a note about what we did.

With everything that is happening in the world today it seemed only right to make an addition to the notepad for Japan. It's good to practice what you preach, so I woke up and donated to Red Cross this morning. And to think, I've listened to so many NPR drives and not even the soothing voice of Alec Baldwin could get me to shell out a dime. Ha, take that Ira, Terry, Neil...

The last part I was excited about was the gates. Several of the gates have different words on them which might seem hopeful or maybe just utterly random. But really it was an attempt at using names of writers that describe my thoughts on Japan's situation. Optimist, Host, Cope, Give,  Heart.

Check out more of No Touching Ground
And please help out in any way that you can.
Red Cross

Airplaning

Directly under the LaGuardia flight path, water wings and snow clings to a rooftop in Brooklyn. And no painting is complete without building a Trembling Tower of Just-A-Lil-Bit-Higher.