another semester

so i officially started school yesterday. it's going to be a very time intensive semester i predict. but i'm ready to do the work and put the time in. here's my very first oil painting, ever... in the history of the world.

not tooooo bad. it's pretty good if you just look at it really quick. and don't pay much attention to the detail.

cool SF graffiti to come.

I'll be getting some of my OWN work up here soon...

So this past week I took a long needed vacation with Sydney. The two of us went to Hawaii. We stayed on the island of Oahu at her parents place. Which is bad ass. And let me just list a couple of perks that come with Hawaii, at no additional charge or fee.

1. It’s always about 85 outside.


2. EVERYTHING and everyone is relaxed. From the people, to the radio, to the freeway. (which can get annoying if you’re used to, oh I don’t know, normal freeway speeds)


3. Food is more delicious


4. Everything is slightly cheaper, due to a lower tax


5. And most importantly, you can sleep till 1pm our time (CA), at its only 11 am there. Which is amazing

And so while we were exploring the island (in the ugliest dam rental car ever) I couldn’t help but notice some of the local writers and painters. But I think what stood out to us more was the efforts made to paint over and cover up graffiti. It’s was like a where’s Waldo’s graffiti, but all you saw was mute paint swatches. Every freeway, center divider, over pass, sides of buildings where just covered with blobs of gray paint. And I think I after seeing that I was able to slip into a different perspective. It was almost like a feeling of guilt to see a beautiful place brought down like that. But how could it not? It’s an island. There’s going to be graffiti and they’re going to run out of space. It’s not like San Francisco, where we have this big city, with a ton of graffiti artist, but there not confined to the city. They’ve got north or south. Endless freeways and overpasses. If there were massive walls holding in the city and all the people (in addition to a lot of other crazy shit) we’d see a lot more graffiti, just everywhere.

But either way, I saw some cool work and here are a couple of photos. I'm sure it's not the best the island has to offer, but good stuff either way. I'm a particular fan of Clit.

at last

well well well. who do we have here?

as i was driving through the city i managed to catch a shot of two of favorite bay area writers. pork and phaze. phaze has really developed in style over the last couple of years. i remember the first phaze throwie i saw was off of 92 in San Mateo about two years back. i know he still hits that spot every now and then cause he'll paint over his own piece. it's like he's updating.

and pork is just awesome. i've mostly seen little tags here and there around SF, and one or two etchings. but i've also seen him getting some ups with some larger graffiti like this one. i think what i admire most about pork is the name. hah. but in all seriousness, i love finding writers with cleaver ass names that make you go "dam, that's a good name. why didn't i think of that?!?"

then i also got a shot of this one right off the Vermont street exit. aparently... some one is not to cool with Sick and his buddies. crossed out... that's cold man...

chile

i just remembered that i took this picture back in '07. me and Sydney went down to Chile to visit the various land marks and homes of her (and now mine) favorite poet, Pablo Neruda. we flew into Santiago and spent a day or two there before we jumped on a bus and toured around Chile's coastal towns. but while walking around beautiful Santiago i couldn't help but take pictures of all the awesome graffiti. i have a ton of pictures but for now i'll just post this one.

this wall of stickers and wheat paste caught my eye. the thing i appreciate most about stickers and wheat paste is...you can't mess it up! you make that shit at home! there's no excuse. or as my cousin likes to say "there aint no wack shit!"

this is going to take take a while...

so i had some things to take car of in the city today and i was driving through harrison and 17/16th ish. i ALWAYS find some cool stuff around there. and i realized a couple of things.

thing #1. it's really hard to take a photo on your phone and drive at the same time.
thing #2. this project will be totally bitchn' cause san francisco graffiti is something that will never be depleted.  

thing #3. there's a s-ton of classic graffiti in san francisco that has survived being demo'd, pinted over, torn down and so on. so i'm going to make an extra effort to take some photos of that.

the first thing i was able to snap a shot of today was this top to bottom box truck fill. i know in the past i've seen that type of tree thing used, but i can't remember if it was this same person. either way. i like.

i know some of these a little tough to see. lousy zoom... and not having it... but here's some heaven hits. sweet spots.

and here's something from downtown san mateo. i was walking back to my car and i had to take a picture of this tag. what a sweet spot. this door was clean, with bad ass lighting and just asking to be hit.

 and i have some good news. im charging my camera finally! i can keep it in my car and take actual photos. with zo0om and about 10 more mp.

the new thing

so, here's the thing, i want to blog more, but i have very little to say. or i guess i have a lot to say, but other than my own work i have nothing that's worth reading or writing about. but i have an idea. i've always wanted to somehow document the kick ass street/guerilla art that i see around the city and in my travels. so that's what i'm going to do. there's just so many artists/painter/writers that really inspire  and impress the hell out of me with their styles and ideas. and i also like to fantasize and live vicariously through someone else's graffiti life style...

AND SO

to kick start this new thing of mine. i bring you "chan". usually, no matter where you are in the city there's sure to be a chan throwie somewhere. he's got this distinct style of these tall letters. this photo was taken almost a year ago, but i continue to see him all over the place. keep an eye out next time your in the city. no doubt you'll see him popping up somewhere. street signs, roof tops. most of the time i'll see his stuff along side "phaze" of something, but a little throwie like this can be appreciated all on it's own.