GRAFFITI LA

I did a presentation of some graff history for Rio Hondo college on September 14th, and this little article in the school paper came out on it…
http://www.elpaisanonewspaper.com/entertainment/photographer-of-graffiti-art-schools-students-1.2597172#.Tnzugc0U6Ko

If you’ve looked at the Gallery recently, you’ll notice a recently posted shot of 3A crew at Motor. Thanks to “Lil Spanky” for connecting me wit Talo (who will be providing some history), and for telling me about KTE, P2I and 3A who I’m sorry I’ve kind of slept on. I plan on correcting that soon with a correction and props post of their work and history. May take a minute, because I want to go through my archives at least to some degree to see what else I have. I can say up front that I have a bunch of things that are by TALO KTE P2I 3A, and which I ID-ed in my archive as Italo UTI (also a dope writer, not taking anything away from him!). I’m glad to correct that. Just to start, since I misidentified this shot from my CD-Rom as by Italo, I’m correcting it here as by Talo and Deil P2I at Venice Pavilion, September 1995. Stay tuned! (Tech note: the image is cropped on the right because the scanned slide was ajar; I’ll redo it for the bigger post.)

To all the writers in L.A., you will want to see this show! I have been printing up photos for the show, many or most of which have been previously unseen, and since we all know how quickly things changed at the tunnel, I know there will be pieces and productions shown that will be a trip to see!

Many L.A. writers have talked about periods over the years when graffiti activity was more active or less active. There were long periods, for example, when I didn’t bother going by Belmont Tunnel because it was such a graveyard because of heat from the locals, and then suddenly things got cracking again. It will be interesting to go through my files at some point and really break down the difference between years (although it’s a given that I haven’t always been in town, or that it would be impossible to shoot anywhere near a majority of what is painted during any particular month). For example, I have only around 240 images shot during 2000, compared with around 900 shots for 2003. That’s a huge difference.

I have well over a hundred shots from September 1991, so while not everything is worth showing, much is, and so we’ll be working our way through that month over the next bit of time. As always, scroll to the bottom of the Gallery section to see the latest posts.

Enjoy!

Shirlae Cheng-Lifshin and I have a little blog entry on the MOCA site. Check it out.

I’ll be doing a little power point presentation at the Pasadena Museum of California Art tonight at 7pm if you haven’t been to a slide show of mine before. Sorry, I don’t have a guest list. Free with admission ($7 adults, $5 seniors and students).

A few more from 8-91 in the Gallery Section!

I believe I’m finished reposting the older archival shots that were originally on my Myspace page, and have continued a few more shots from late 1992 and early 1993 (Besk, Charlie, Jick , Myte, Veo Hazen, Sacred, Xpress(?)), but I’ll probably get back to a slightly earlier era with the next batch. Stay tuned!

When talking with Dream SMD in late April, he was curious who my favorite writers were. I told him it depended on the period of time we were talking about, and that I never really thought about a personal Top Ten list. I said of course he would be on the list, but also mentioned a number of others, some of which, Swank, for example he was not familiar with. On the other hand, his list was clear: himself, Green, Slick, Risk and Charlie. “That’s it!” he said.

Huntington Beach, May 1992

Sure sorry to hear about the loss of Dream SMD last week. He was a major inspiration to L.A. writers. Glad I had a chance to talk with him, more than at any time in the past, about who he thought was important to L.A. graff. Also finally met his crew mate, the other half of SMD, Green, twenty years after taking the first shots of his pieces. Glad I knew it was a rare chance to get a pic (4-23-11) of the three legends, Green, Slick and Dream together at the Tempt wall. Needless to say, he will be missed.