GRAFFITI LA

I rolled around with some folks from LXTV.com and here it is below. It was set up by Brian Stemmler and the on-camera host with me was Shira Lazar. I spent three or four hours showing them some sites, the easy-to-get-to places like Downtown, Highland Park and Melrose. I gave as many props out as I could, but it was edited down to TWO MINUTES AND FOURTY EIGHT SECONDS!… so a lot was left out, but they did their best under the limits and at least you can see some good work. Check it out.

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Pomona’s Art Colony was a busy place this last Saturday night. A number of galleries had openings and at least three bands were playing either on the sidewalk, in the alley, or in stores. It was an interesting mix of kids in their teens, and adults into the AARP age. Someone that graffsters should become aware of is Alexander Couwenberg, a gallery artist who has an awesome design sense and uses materials inspired by surf and car culture. He only had one painting down at 256 Main, but worth making the effort to see if in that area. Jersey Joe and Rime had a show at the tattoo shop on 2nd St. and it was nice to hang a bit with them.

Other good moments were running into Pryer, Roten, Thanks and Vert at a wall in the Art District. That was after doing probably the last shoot of the Arroyo Meeting of Styles productions. A free monthly paper reported that two thirds of the murals were buffed on behalf of councilwoman Gloria Molina, but I’d say that at least seventy five percent of the work is still up. Unfortunately, the DCV, CBS and K4P productions were buffed along with half of the Mear piece. Why in the world would city authorities was taxpayer money to cover over murals in an obscure location?

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Saturday, November 3rd, was the opening for the Rails and Relics show devoted to freight train graff. The upstairs room consisted primarily of model trains painted by early and present freight writers. There were many O.G.s and active guys in the crowd I was glad to see including Rick One K2S, Teler, Deal, Shiver, Fear, Plek, Aloy, Pryer, Cale, Just, Ares, Jero, and more I’m sure I’m forgetting. A special treat was to see Krises AWR, an important L.A. contributor and one of Saber’s teachers, out and about. I’m glad he recognized me from long ago to say hello, because I’m not great at remembering faces from time gone by. Deal had interesting things to say about some early L.A. history involving TDD (Too Damn Def) crew. I may try to get an interview with some of them including Def (not the same as the highly and rightfully respected Defer K2S).

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I was falling a bit behind on getting around to shoot new work. I keep notes on spots people tell me about, and I try to get around to the active yards regularly. So first stop was “shit alley” (not to be confused with “the shit yard” in the Valley) off of 8th, a Visions Crew spot, to catch some new pieces, then down to a spot on Washington that Augs, Rime and Bonk got. Then down to the Slauson wall where some good stuff is still up, but other stuff gone over by the Toy Squad. Then down to Florence to catch some very nice pieces by Lokus, Klean, Evak and Tank (I believe). Back on the freeway and over to Commerce yard which seems pretty quiet right now, or at least there’s not much new from a couple of weeks ago; I’m wondering if it’s gotten a bit hot there. Then up to the Whittier and Olympic alleys (seems the north half of the Gerhart alley is now shut down). Monday I’ll hope to get to some other areas of town.

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A panel was held yesterday at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, organized by Bonnie Poon, moderated by Patrick Polk, with Judy Baca and me. Toons of USC crew was scheduled to be there but got tied up with work up north. For those of you that don’t know about Judy and her organization, SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center), well, you should. She is a very important person supporting and organizing public murals. She has involved graff artists many times and unfortunately has been one of the victim of MURAL BOMBING TOYS. The theme of the panel was expression in public space and who controls it. Also the threat to public murals because of city mismanagement in collaboration with BOMBER TOYS was discussed.

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I dropped by the Graffiti Party at Crash Mansion yesterday and it was nice to see many vets painting and hanging. Too many to remember, but they included Shiver, Rime, Besk, Size, Siner, Ewok, Dream, Make, Werc, 125, Prell, Jero, and Drew just off the top of my head. Some good painting of course, but not easy to get shots of considering the crowd. The vibe seemed good, which is nice considering the beef that can be too much of the scene sometimes.

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It’s been a while since I checked in to see if there were any new reviews, and found this by Sidik Fofana recently posted on All Hip Hop.com (all one word of course). Nice, of course, to see positive press, but it’s always funny to see the little things reviewers get wrong, in this case like saying that the book shows photos from “… all over East Los Angeles” instead of just Los Angeles. Go to the link below, or see the review in Press.

http://allhiphop.com/blogs/reviewsbooks/archive/2007/10/01/18673954.aspx

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I should have mentioned it a week ago, but I am out of town for a bit, so I may not be able to respond to new posts right away.

In the meantime I’m in the mid-West and have frequent opportunities for train benching. A lot of nothing, then some tags and throw-ups, and then the occasional piece that makes it all worth watching for. Nobody I recognize from L.A. this trip so far, but there’s still time…

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Crewest had a pre “river painting” get together. I was glad to finally get books to some of the interviewees I’d missed up to this point, including Nuke, Fear, Sherm, and Man. Nice to get something in a new black book from Sonek, and Steam UTI who I met for the first time.

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Got by the new office for Roger Gastman’s Swindle Magazine. Thanks to Roger for the books I left with including the “Saber: Mad Society” book which I was glad to contribute photos to. Saber used to call me “Huntington Steve” because that’s where he remembers first meeting. His book looks interesting like a distinctive story, unlike many generic “street art” books coming out these days.

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