GRAFFITI LA

Hey Gang, just letting you know there’s a few new photos in the gallery here and some others at myspace.com/stevegrody

Enjoy!

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Ok, first, my apology for posting archive photos less frequently than I thought I would. I’ll try to bring things up to speed, but in the meantime, I’d be curious if there are any particular requests as to what people would like to see. Let me know.

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And check out the new little batch from my archive in the GALLERY!

Late September: MSK production in the Arts District with Rime, Revok, Aroe (UK) Saber and Ewok,; fresh Augs Bonks TLG Pharoe in Lincoln Park, new Oz yard pieces, Highland Park with Fear and Pale; Augs Bonk in Silver Lake,
October: Saber and Rime doing a presentation at Pasadena Art Center College of Design.
10-2: Outsiders in Echo Park: an Echo Park alley with Make, Neo, Panic and Size, Silver Lake 18th placas on the sidewalk from a long time ago, bits at Sears Yard (nice Ewso), New Kopye and others at the THC yard,; Zes and Augs in Hollywood; UGLAR book event, Asylm on Alvarado (sorry I waited too long to get a shot and now there’s a fence up). Sonek has a new South Central permission wall running with some good stuff by many including Sonek, Kyte, Selek, Drop, THCs, K2Ss.
A nice wall in East L.A. with Fear, Thanx, Vyal, Omega, and a bunch more I’ll remember when I look at the shots again.
Piecebook signing (NY veterans) at Crewest. Kofie and Mear at Regent Theater Gallery.
10-11: 01 Gallery for Mear’s show.
Ran into Mandoe at 4th/Mott where he was doing a nice commissioned business wall which for some reason (Molina?) was buffed shortly after. Raised in Mexico until 12, then here. The angel cap is his symbol for being an evolving person/artist through art and giving back to the city, being a part of the city (pouring paint/himself into the city). He worries that Latino kids that don’t relate to their heritage are internally homeless.
Some great new walls in Alhambra that Plek is getting going with a great WAI CBS production starting things off.
Also some Ewso pieces, Scud and Ider in the El Serreno alley. Got a call from L.A. veteran Angst this morning; he’s been in Argentina for a year working on his art.
Nice Augs and Tastes Like Gold in South Central (does anyone really call it South L.A. now?).

November: 33 1/3 Lost (Eye curator) opening. Visions Crew in South Central near USC and more in East L.A. Block 28 show in the historic Bank District downtown, with Disney being smart enough to let various artists reinterpret Mickey Mouse, including Chaz, Mear, Slick, Rime, Ewok, Crayola and Steven Daily.
Zes in Hollywood and Downtown. Revok, Frame and an out of towner downtown. Nice little WAI/UTI production in the Arts District with Thanx, Rvee, Kapow, and from a couple of guys from Utah that I’ll get the names for in the next few days.

Nice opening on Melrose at SURU for the Axis show. Ruets and a friend at Soto yard, Risk and Krush south downtown.

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I’m briefly out of town, so it slipped my attention that this up-date was only posted on my myspace.com/stevegrody page. Here it in case you haven’t been by that site, WHICH HAS A DIFFERENT SET OF PHOTO POSTS FROM MY ARCHIVES.

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Sightings since the last post…

What I thought was a rare Braile at a glance turned out to be a Dreye (both having a nicely raw style), with Bonks in the River nearby. Augs and Trav (from out of town) at T7L Western yard. Man and a great Sacred at the garage in Hollywood; some new things at K2S yard downtown.

7-26: Opening at 01 in the Barker Block, with Rime, Zes, Midst, Wise, Augs, Risk, Asylm, Aussies/New Zealanders Askew, Saves, Ryze and Sirm (most of them have my book, some as a Mom’s or girlfriend’s gift).

Caught a Zes in Wilshire district, then went over to Pharmika Gallery and meet OG Heaven, who’s getting his interesting abstract work into galleries. Then to the Schmoo at the wall in Highland Park: Askew, Rime, Saves, Ryze, Sirm, Revok, Augor, Trav, Aloy, Zeser, Pysa, Ces, Med, Frame, Aroe, Risk, and Saber who regals me with tales of this crazy kid that was dogging the crew all day with his insanity. Next day, Rime, Risk, and the Down-unders were at a wall Frame thought he had permission for, but the scene was closed down before everyone could finish because of a watchdog complaint and relatively understanding cops were called in. In consolation, Rime brought the Down-unders to a permission wall in Hollywood where they could paint in peace.
Caught a legal production on Beverly with Cache, Neo, Mandoe, Eye; then to Highland Park to see a strong legal by Werc, Codak, Eye, Jeva; Revok, Roid, and an Aussie in the Arroyo; cool re-done character wall by Eye, Cache, Neo. Rime and friends at T7L yard.
Aug: Got out to the Valley where Shandu very generously met me to let me flick a major K2S series of pieces. Saber Revok Aero Ewok and Rime redoing a Downtown wall. Just a block south, Eyons, Phib, Roten and Evak were going up on a regular spot.

And finally, just today (early September) I got down to a spot in Paramount, directions courtesy of Eyons and Thanx, to flick Eyons, Plek, Thanks, Rvee, Atlas, Grease, Gozer and some I don’t remember off the top of my head.

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Just a note to mention six new archive photos to check out in the gallery. Next posts will be in early October.

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I just posted seven shots from March 1991 for you history hounds.

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So, to catch up on recent sightings, starting with late May when I ran into Asylm in El Serreno at a wall done by “Killa Styles,” a group composed of Vyal, Werc, Marka27, Odesy and Problak. Caught some nice power pole tags by Revok and Zes in West Hollywood, and it creeps me out just to even THINK about climbing up that high.

Getting back into town in mid June, there was a good wall jam in Highland Park with Panic, Fear, Pale, Size, Megs, Acme, Drue, Crise, Dahm, and Eye (sorry if I missed anyone). Then over to Melrose for the cool Dalai Lama piece by Mear, and the “Rival” homage by Axis. RIP to Rival: I understand his funeral had OGs coming out of the woodwork to show respects. Also on Melrose were SkyPage, and a nice wall by Anger, Axis (very cool black and white early cinema-style character), Sram and Dytch. Right around the corner from that alley production was a great Tastes Like Gold piece bomb.

Over at the Graff Lab was new stuff by Vox and Gabe88 hitting up K2STN, and a Skegs on the east wall. Glad I got the Revok in the Artist District before it was dissed by some worthless toy.

I’m grateful to have gotten a shout about some painting in or near the River by Main St. by Bonks and Augs, and a Skegs nearby. (I was at an art related activity in the area and noticed a rare Braile up, and I’ll hope to shoot that before it’s gone.) Thanks to C for the notice about the purple and gold “Go Lakers!” by Ruets and Asylm on the 110N. Down the Commerce tracks: sometimes there’s a ton of stuff, and sometimes not. This time the only things worth shooting were a nice Fear, and a DGONE who’s a new DCV name to me.

Just west out of Downtown was a Nekst/Augor rooftop and the same duo at Wilshire Center. Any graff heads that made it to the MBW show in Hollywood probably thought it worth the trip just for the Revok, Retna, Saber and Rime pieces going up the stairs.

In late June I was turned onto a new yard in Vernon that I believe Kopye got running. Kopye is BAMC and K2S and is strongly contributing to the new generation, particularly with his character work. Nice to see someone trying to put something personal out there and not worrying if it looks too Emo to anyone. A bunch of guys were going up when I was there, including Ones, who has a nice angular style. Down near the Soto yard Ruets, Rime and Ewso did a fresh wall. Ruets and Rime also re-did a wall they have running in Highland Park, with Rime doing a “one letter burner.”

Got down to Garden Grove to flick the Revok/Witness wall, and it was worth the drive. Since last year I’ve been wanting to get a shot of the Zes/Retna roof on Santa Fe (their previous outing being in my book), but hadn’t found a way as I had last time, but as I was driving up Santa Fe and passing the building, I noticed a tall ladder propped up to the roof, so I pulled over and climbed up to catch a quick couple of shot before running out of film. Apparently, someone was going to be working on the air conditioning… how convenient!

Then, just last week, Augor and Revok improved a Batman billboard on Fairfax, and just down the street Dreye was on a roof, and though I generally think it sucks to hit any building with architectural style, it’s a good piece. An interesting note was a fine Mear piece on a CBS wall along with Anger, something we haven’t seen for years.

And bringing it up to the present, 7-12, I caught the TLG/Augs billboard on Pico (thanks R, for the location), and a nice K4P/MAK wall in South Central. I went by Slauson, but it was not too inspiring this time out. I still have a bunch of “to shoot” listings to get to, but at least I’m getting crossed off of the always renewing list.

I’ll be posting more archive photos within the week.

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Sorry for the lack of new post and photo gallery posts, but I’ve been in and out of town. In another week, I should be able to bring things up to date, including a recap of an interesting talk I had with a New York writer about how NY writers have to a large degree dropped the ball. Yeah, I’ll be titling that post “Talking Smack.”

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This should have been posted on 6-14, but I spaced. Even as a late post, I want to put it here just to make sure proper props have been shown…

Last Saturday, June 14th, Globe Clothing Store in Pomona had a book signing for Graffiti L.A. (THANKS HUGO). We had a great roster of signers signing some books, but mostly blackbooks and posters. Writers and fans were stoked to get sick tags by Rick One, Slick, Toons, Revok, Besk, Panic, Retna, Zes, Pysa, Augs, Aloy, and surprise show-ups Pale, Yikes, Beto, Owen, Astek. I met Soom, who founded the ’90s crew PET/pet positive every time (I always wondered what that meant!). So BIG HONKIN’ UPS TO ALL THAT SIGNED STUFF FOR HOURS! By the way, anybody in the know, knows that’s Slick’s character on the cover, but go to DISSIZIT.COM so you can get a T-shirt with the “L.A. Hands” on it and wear it proudly! If you want to see some flicks of the signing, go to dissizit.com and see the blog…

It was nice that some folks actually wanted my tag in their book, but I’m not deluded and know the hundreds of kids in the line were mainly there to get the above mentioned vets in their blackbooks. For that matter, I’m sure there was no shortage of people getting my tag that wondered who the old guy was!

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This should have been posted on 6-14, but I spaced. Even as a late post, I want to put it here just to make sure proper props have been shown…

Last Saturday, June 14th, Globe Clothing Store in Pomona had a book signing for Graffiti L.A. (THANKS HUGO). We had a great roster of signers signing some books, but mostly blackbooks and posters. Writers and fans were stoked to get sick tags by Rick One, Slick, Toons, Revok, Besk, Panic, Retna, Zes, Pysa, Augs, Aloy, and surprise show-ups Pale, Yikes, Beto, Owen, Astek. I met Soom, who founded the ’90s crew PET/pet positive every time (I always wondered what that meant!). So BIG HONKIN’ UPS TO ALL THAT SIGNED STUFF FOR HOURS! By the way, anybody in the know, knows that’s Slick’s character on the cover, but go to DISSIZIT.COM so you can get a T-shirt with the “L.A. Hands” on it and wear it proudly! If you want to see some flicks of the signing, go to dissizit.com and see the blog…

It was nice that some folks actually wanted my tag in their book, but I’m not deluded and know the hundreds of kids in the line were mainly there to get the above mentioned vets in their blackbooks.

Link or Bookmark to: