wall from 2011, skim coated and framed out to leave some of the painting...

So down the street to the Chaos of the Rc Cola compound, we went to our spot, which was not big enough for three, so preys and I it was, while kems flexeded it up on the other side of the compound.
With no real ladders and or means of doing much off the ground the original plan was scrapped in favor of doing a really nice piece with breathing room so as not to get lost on a wall ram-jammed with pieces and characters and colors…

got some 97 cent cans from home depot as i had limited paint and got to work on the sketch.

This year brought a lot of politics into the mix, and it sounded as if there were some tensions between organizers and local heads who had claimed spots that were the if youre from here you know if youre not from here you might not care. Words were said feelings were hurt, jaws were tapped, bruises and scrapes got cleaned up later.

See more action shots and such over at molotow: http://www.molotow.com/magazine/blog/blog/2011/12/07/rath-x-art-basel-miami-2011/#more-3502

sketchbook pro, heavylox drawing. Unfortunately i couldn't do justice to what was an Incredible nose

sketchbook pro, heavylox drawing

sketchbook pro, heavylox drawing

As part of the restructuring it has fallen on the shoulders of HR people to ‘let us down easy’. Even in loosing a job youre not in love with kinda sucks. Im reminded of being the only loser to skip school on a skip day and then being bored to death cause no one else was around to enjoy the ditch day with. Whats worse is to have HR people try and sell you a bag of crap, only to find yourself in a position requiring you to thank them afterward. You’re firing me, How is that a ‘really good deal’? I’m all for making the best out of a bad situation but nothing is made better by pretending the a tragedy is really a blessing in disguise. I guess we can’t just call a spade a spade and move on.

Dear Spam bots, Please spam me with job opportunities and or other ways to get rich or die trying.

thank you, Sincerely
Heavylox

4 states of the comb over

Progess shot Rath Greenpoint

Like a good RUG

Rath Vector Pre-vis

addressing the potential jury

The  potential jury pool for the day was assembled in an auditorium style room, where we all had to fill out some further information forms. As we were being instructed the issue of parking came up, caused a 25 minute digression concerning the fairness and clarity of parking instructions for the day. Seriously grown-ups should really be able to find parking and get to an appointment on time, barring any disaster. I bet if you needed to be at the court at 9am to receive  money, they’d be there with bells on and have found parking the night before. To be fair there were a few retirees and people who genuinely were pay-check to pay-checking it, but they were not the people complaining. Why is it always the more privileged and well off people who have time to mount some sort of complain-campaign, for no one else benefit save their own. TO be sure there were no outcries voicing concern for those less fortunate that might actually benefit form clearer parking instructions or less burdensome parking rules that make you not only take a day from a paying job but then force you to pay for parking, and pay for more time then you may need, just so as not to get a parking ticket that would then set you back even more. NO these voices were completely selfish, ‘woo unto me for i have suffered, i had to pay 5 dollars to park my 65k dollar car’. Seriously shut the fuck up. What is your democracy worth to you? If its not worth a day and 5 dollars, be sure those that complain were NOT losing a days wage, even my employer will pay you for your day of service.

Tokyos mayor, in a bit of whats been seen as a gaff and a super un-classy, atypical and inconsiderate thing to say has been quoted as saying something along the lines of ‘ japans tsunami might be divine punishment for the Japanese’s selfish ways’. Good job buddy, you might be a the kind of douce useful in america. We could sure stand to have some honest and self reflective light shown on us right about now. We are selfish and ruthless and holier-then-thou as a rule as well as in general practice. And its super annoying and disheartening to see in action. The American dream promotes upward viewing only and with the possibility of upward mobility it also promotes using those below you as stepping stones to continue on upward. There is no us in the USAs collective thoughts, there is me and an immediate we, which include family members. The national dream so eloquently stated by Dr King has dissolved into, personal quests of success without remorse or concern for those trampled underfoot. The means to my end is justified in the my Ends being grater then yours

Out side the court house is a statue of MLK, each time I passed it, I looked at it a bit little longer and was upset a little more. The statue, a bronze or a bronze want to be, is almost character-ish. The body seems short and the head seems too heavy and balloon like. The statue seems to be a representation of the way our memory works, which seems to highlight and memorialize the least actionable qualities of which it represents. Martin Luther King was a flawed man like all men, he was human, but the message he preached was done so with absolute sincerity and commitment. And yet this statue is not majestic. It is not humbling to stand in front of. It is not a powerful symbol to remind one of an important dream for america. And there it is a fitting reminder to the sham that is our American dream; a land of opportunity and fairness under the law.

candidate.

The days jury pool was selected, and we were ushered into a court room to begin jury selection. We were introduced to the defendant, his lawyer, the prosecution and the Judge. –Holy crap, if you ever get arrested and can afford a real lawyer please do. This poor defendant, had a fresh from the bar exam public defender and he seemed to have as little a clue as to what was going on as I did. and I haven’t been in a court room since being a minor. TO be fair im sure their are plenty of better than good PDs, however I couldn’t help but wonder how this lawyer, who couldn’t even make it three sentences into questioning the jury pool with out be admonished by the judge, ‘council you cant say that’, ‘council, stop, you cant say that, i understand what your saying but you cant say it that way’, would negatively affect his clients chances at a fairly waged trial between what should be equally matched lawyers. This poor PD who wasn’t even used to saying, ‘yes, your honor’ ( he called the judge, maam more than once), wouldn’t even back track to rephrase is question, he just accepted her ruling and moved on. So clearly this poor guy, guilty or innocent couldn’t afford legal council, while he was set to compete in the court with the state backed DAs, highly trained and well equipped team of lawyers. How can that produce fair results. I acknowledge the fact that had the defendant had the money to pay for council in the first place the chances of him being arrested or accused of his crime would greatly decrease for he’d already have the money, he probably was seeking in allegedly committing the crime to which he was being charged in the first place. However we should not discount the number of criminal endeavors undertaken by the well off, prompted by boredom or greed, or all other manner of ill conceived notions leading to mis-action. Fairness is not what i think of when i consider our legal system. It may be the best there is and get as close to ‘fair’ as it gets, but qualifying your shit as the best only when held up to and compared with other holy inadequate systems is a joke.

Those of us not chosen to trial service were dismissed, sent back to the auditorium to await our certificates of service. Even though we were instructed to not speak to one another about the case to each other it was apparent that many of the group were able to form quick bonds of chatty cathy-isms and were fast friends. I was the first to enter the auditorium and choose a seat in the back closest to the exit; safety first. This has been a pattern for me for over 20 years, I dont sit with my back facing an entrance/exit and when at all possible i like to be as close to the exit as I can be. This may seem odd and it might very well be and indication of undo paranoia in me, however if those options are not available it will not dissuade me from an establishment or room. Its just a matter of choice and practicality, and an area where the idea of last in first out actually makes some sense. At any rate seated near me were a group of woman verging on hysterics over the invasive and public nature of the jury selection process. They were all upset at having to ‘potentially’ disclose bits of information, ” i mean who knows what kind of criminals are in this room with us, they could here our names and the towns we live in and rob us!”, one said. To which all clamored in agreement. Mind you none of them had had anything revealed about them save had their name read aloud, in a string a 72 other names, which amounted to gibberish after the 5th name was read, who can remember all that. More to the point, what criminals show up for jury duty? what criminals even show up in the database the state uses to find prospective juries? God knows the amount of complaints id get to hear if the selection process was a one on one endeavor, you’d need a week to even do all of those interviews alone. We’ve become a nation of hysterical hand ringers, with enough motivation to complain loudly when personally wronged while being lazy enough not to do much about the actual causes of these issues. Individually we get guns, locks and security systems and largely ignore, education, healthcare and poverty levels.

—–

Art Basel, Miami, the largest arts centered festival in the US, Blocks and blocks of very organized to impromptu street art/style writing. And even more interior gallery spaces celebrating contemporary artists. Sounds like a lot of fun, and for the most part you couldn’t ask for a better time. It does however remind me of why (the lacking of talent aside) i have always shied away from the convergence of creativity and capitol, as it seems to create this odd space of tension and unease. Last year The Upsetters ad the pleasure of working in a relatively quite area, with some really focused but also enjoyable other people to share time and space with. This year due to companies sponsoring the event, i should add sponsoring in fairly important supportive capacities, the Upsetters were in the same location but said location had been bastardized in the name of product placement and advertising. In the center of what was once a quite 3 quarters closed lot Amp energy drink decided they should set up a both with a dj, slated to play 8 hours a day. Clearly there was some expectation the live painting and carnival set up by trusto-corp, were intended to draw in a crowd, who would be overwhelmed by the awesome DJ, and then drink loads of free Amp and then dance the day away in a hot black top parking lot with no shade or water. This did not happen. INstead each day the DJ would set up play about an hour of decent old schoolish hip hop and then transition in to tecnho-club crap; whilst nary a sole seemed to care about the music or the free amp; of which there were cases lying around for days then remained untouched and un-pilfered which for an event filled with petty criminals really says something about the desirability of the product. Personally it seems like it would have been more cost effective for Amp to private label a bunch of cheap waters and give them out, that way they’d have Amp logo in hands and in photos, and also be considerate of the climate and the people they hope to buy their shit. Water should cost less then their awful drink does, while they could also have some energy drink available, it seems like a no brainer that you can only drink so much energy drink before youre done ( for me the limit is zero), but in the sun all day long water seems like the thing to drink, call me crazy.

In the weeks preceding art basel I had been going through a lot of stress, and got to Miami in a really awful state of mind and being, and as i knew it i tried to contain it, but i think i managed to be a flaming asshole to pretty much everyone at unexpected and unneeded times. My frame of mind just exacerbated the stresses of the sparycation road trip. So before you call the whambulence, i say all of that to say that despite my salty attitude and outlook, both Kems and Preys managed to pull out awesome pieces and really made shit happen, while putting up with my non-sense, if only to just make it home alive so they can plan the next trip sans grumpylox.

In the times where i wasn’t on some stress related war path in Miami i managed to meet and talk to a bunch of, to me at least, pretty important, and talented writers/ artists, which was awesome. I’ll admit i was kinda disappointed that none of them came off as hollywood assholes, im not sure what the world is coming to, hundreds of artists all rolling on the humble for the most part getting in where they fit in and keeping it moving. I think this is Art Basels saving grace, and its a really big one. Complete Chaos, but community controlled and regulated; like a grateful dead concert minus the overwhelming sense of apathy.

I had a few outlines and ideas with me but i was pretty locked in on doing an outline based on simple shape juxtaposition, that culminated after some illustrator drawings. I also knew i wanted to paint some characters. I generally dont paint characters as they have never seemed to me to really work out compositionally when randomly placed next to typography. I often find myself viewing walls with characters as separate endeavors. ANd they can be awesome ones but somehow they never manage to fully related to the word they are accompanying. I could be argued they are hype men drawing the viewer in. You come to see what the noise is about and stay for the letters. Its always been about the letters to me. But i decided to make an exception and nike the fuck out of it. So characters there would be.

you'll learn one way or the other, Bible or the Gun

You’ll learn on way or the other; Bible or the Gun. This is how it seems the world is leaning. The polarized contradiction of doing exactly what you criticize your enemy to be doing whilst justifying your actions and simultaneously condemning the same actions by other actors.  Do as i say and not as i do.

rath BOG art basel 2010

BIG Thanks to: Primary Flight,  Molotow, Bombing  Science some much needed support.

Ipad User; digital sketch,by heavylox

One of the best things about drawing on the train is over time you get to see familiar faces and get to know people in a removed sort of fashion. You get to see people in all there facets, in random order, only suing your memory to sort out where they are today.  So as it happens i had a second encounter with a fellow commuter, which was very redemptive.
i was sitting in a double seat with a woman and an elderly gentleman. The lady, well call her Fran, asked me if i was drawing. I said yes and showe her the ipad screen. She was excited about it and remarked to the elderly fellow, well call him Grumpy Gramps, that i was drawing and very talented. To which Grumpy Gramps, replied very dryly that he to draws, and as such he seemed less than impressed.
Fran: oh you draw on the computer too?
Grumpy Gramps: no i used pen and paper.
oh Gramps your really pulling the old timer on me here huh. These youg folks and their disrespect for tradition, I USE PAPER, and draw the way it should be done.
Fran: oh, well im sure youre very talented too. Im sitting with two talented artists.
How nice of Fran to placate Gramps by also allowing him to be talented. I think that warmed gramps up a bit, And he finally forced him self to actually look at what i was doing. I think to his surprise i wasnt drawing a stick figure or some sort of crude pornographic image.
Gramps: you gonna draw the belly (in a voice with NO tact in regards to train passenger  proximity )
Oh now youre all interested huh, you Grump. He was actually quite nice and probably would have been interesting to talk to had we had more of a ride ahead of us.  Through out all of this i started to feel more and more as though i had seen Fran before. Finally as i was getting of the train it hit me, Fran had already appeared on Reason & RasClot before, filed under Bad manners. Yes Fran was Ms So you didn’t go to finishing school?, And here she was the antithesis of all she had shown herself to be previously. Now well see which Fran we met next; the Devil or the Angel.

vanilla scarf, drawn on the Ipad

Crisp weather Lunch Rest: illustration by heavylox

knatty color: illustration by heavylox.

long day Color: illustration by heavylox

opps, thought i was using water color crayons, turned out oil crayons got mixed in...: illustration by heavylox

device Central, man and his machines

Knatty dread in a midtown

Ipod movie watcher: by heavylox

There I am, jabbing at the page with my pen, like a pig in shit, not a care in the world. When I’m happened upon by some german tourists. A family, mother father and two teenage girls; How sweet. Since they are not from here they were walking in an unorganized pack, there family tethers invisible, but there, would snap and reunite as they each snaked through the other pedestrians. As they had a set safety boundary they would spread out until tethers stressed to there limits would as if elastic pull them back into a huddle where they could remark amongst themselves about they they had seen on their little micro forays through the crowd. Well the limit was reach and they all came colliding back together surrounding me. Frau 1 noticed me drawing, and the the family motion came to a screeching halt. As they had been clamoring to get to specific place and had almost past it in their hurry. But now they were here. I heard other german from Frau 2; she pointed and then looked at dad. HE said something about new york street Kunst. a 5 minute debated ensued, amongst the family. I was not asked to participate, i as it turns out was the subject, and thus needed to focus on subjecting and not confuse the issue with any real facts or person-ness. These people were so close to me they could have been a devoted wait staff, in fact there were a few times when other people walking by, due to the, ‘whats thats crowd doing’ curiosity factor other people paused to see what was what. Is it considered decent etiquette in german to crowd a stranger and talk about him as if he weren’t there? What is the size of generally regarded personal space in germany? If reaching into my pocket from a seated position we touch, and your standing uup, all signs point to a violation in personal space. Remove the possibility of the incident happening on a train or other means of transpiration, take away, the idea of a popular restaurant or coffee bar, youre clearly crowding the plate. Back up off me SON! This is New York City, you dont me like that. I could be that guy that all your friends back home warned you about. That, let me make the trip a memorable one with a smile, No no, all of you should be in the picture. Yes i know how to use this. Stand a little closer, a little closer. And, im doing a runner with your camera FOOLS! Another tourist jacked. Luckily for them, they didnt have any cameras out, and running back inot the office with stolen tourist gear seems a lil foolish, oh and im also not that guy. SO i sat there, and enjoyed the show. They didn’t break the fourth wall nor did they respond to my attempt at it, so be it. Shortly their time was up and, with german efficiency each exhibit regardless of interest was allowed 5 minutes and then to keep the schedule, it was on to the next one for them.