In mid october i went up to toronto to visit Bacon, the undeclared but unanimously voted King of Toronto/ in the top 4 of canada all timers. Baco’ is my dude, good host, fun to hang with. The only bad thing i can say is in 4 days i watch more hockey then i had played or watch in total throughout my life, WHAT THE PUCK!
So i know it gets cold in toronto wind off the lakes or coming south from further north can make it pretty brutal. KNowing this i still wildly under packed and froze my ass off for 3 days, while it got just about down to freezing and sleeted and rained on us while I painted and the Canadians commented on how it wasn’t ”that bad eh?”. “yooou knoow honestly this weather is that bad ehy?”. Really? then why is the only dude with a return flight to worry about painting in the freezing rain? Sure enough as soon as i left the temperature picked up 15 degrees or so the following weekend they finished in warm beautiful weather- f-you guys!
All in all though i had a blast, Bacon, Kane, and Kwest are a hard lot to hang with and not have a good time regardless of weather.
Rath & Bacon Upsetter Crew Toronto 2011. Sorry lil jenky photo shop job to connect these...
On a side note if bacon ever gave up writing he could easily be on the PBA tour. I forgot how fun bowling is…
there is nothing like the lean times to bring you back down to earth. After living fat off the hog for the last three years, we were brought back in check with a down grade in spots and having the team kinda split up a bit- thanks to the earfs, moons and changing tides. OUr traditional spot had been reclaimed by the property owner and turned in what i was told was some sort of outdoor photo studio/ courtyard. The old space was now newly cleaned and given new skim coats of concrete along with rounding ALL of corners including where the walls met the ground; given a bit more of gracious transition and it might be skate able.
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.
Here is the Full wall with Enue, The spot i had in mind was being painted already so Enue got to rock behind a bush, and my laziness prevented me from getting good head on shots. Trying to quit smoking whilst not dropping almost every other ball im juggling at least once is tough. Add two heavy smokers trying to quit and paint at the same time its a miracle we didn,t cop out on some co-dependent multi enabler shit and end up behind 7-11 splitting a back Marlboro reds and drinking 40s! I have it on good authority nicotine is drug, so we 12 stepping our way out. See you on the other side! related post :http://heavylox.com/reasonAndRasclot/2011/08/triple-a-rated/
I dont think you have to be a fat American to have ever found your self indulging in some activity only to have a moment of clarity that leads you to realize you’d rather being doing almost anything else… Generally you feel this way while working or some other form of drudgery, its odd and somewhat jarring when that feeling hits you in the midst of ding what you generally wish you were doing instead of working…Extra medium.
And So it was, i Took the day off from work, Who doesnt love a lil hooky? I drove to CT, to meet the fellas and do a lil wall. I haven’t painted with Ges all year and barely any the year before, both being family men scheduling has been tough.
3a Sketch Ups
By my ‘I&iPhone Digital Computer Multi-tool Device’ it was noon-thirty before sketching started, Great Caesars ghost in the shell, we moving slower then Hell. We had a lot of Poopy diaper stories to catch up on, i guess, and i slowly found my desire to paint anything fading faster then Krylon grape in sun. It wasnt too hot, the last two walls i painted beat this day by 15-20 degrees, we had some breeze too. This was was closer to the crib by an hour then the last few places i painted, so it wasnt the trip time. I had food with me and had eaten before i left the house as well (fat america). Still something was off ALL day… I fully blame Kem5; hes generally the spark that brings action to the dark, and when hes kinda eh-eh about the day, it trickles down like Reaganomicss. 3a is all about Business before pleasure, one of the reasons I have so much respect for these guys is the work ethic they bring to everything they do- I try to just not embarrass them as we go. So I was ready to be at the wall at 9am, but Kem said theyd arrive at 10:30, sheeeit thats like half the day down the tube already, totally out of character. Extra medium in Effect! Generally as a team, even if Kems is half dead from re-arranging his socks and t-shirts, and playing the alphabet game with his wife while via facetime, there is one of us hyped enough to keep everyone else up too, that “i wasn’t gonna jump off that bridge but fuck, if im going to let you be the only one”, type spirit enough to carry the team. UPS/3a is like No gorilla left behind, but for some reason no one picked up that slack,good work JIMBOE!, and we all ( i say we all but i liked everyone else’s joints save mine, I say we to make ME feel better) struggled to get it in above the bar. Up until getting into my car to go home I was ready to blast my piece with a burner chrome simple and call it a day, which is never how I roll, ill fight the wall for days until I win or at least break even; i stand on two feet no in defeat; but today my inner sisyphus was ready to tap out early.
I know you can’t win them all, but it sucks when you don’t even feel like your’e shits competitive….dead last in a two man race is kinda wack!
Rath X Ges X 3A_2011 X Molotow
In the end, im not mad at the wall, but have no recollection of what pulled it together. But when painting you want the dope monkey on your back, the one thats like, ‘keep it cool player you’re in the process of rocking some shit. Take it easy and don’t fuck up this gimme’; never had that for this wall. I want shit to ‘pop off’ or at the very least ‘drop off’, hanging mid stride in limbo is unsatisfying. I strive to be ‘markedly better’ then last time or SOOO much worse people think i fucked around and caught a crack addiction in between walls. I Shot for gorilla status; ended up on some starving midget spider monkey shit. Ugh. I shoulda had a v8.
Midwest under Heat advisory, public funds to ensure the safety for the elderly and others needing home care are cut off due to budget shortages. New York broken heat records 3 days in a row. Saturday morning, 9:20Am, the in-dash temperature gauge reads 104 degrees, which to be fare is reading radiant heat from the asphalt below, but J-Christmas its not even noon. Lets GO, but slowly im old and almost died last week.
So we count the blessings, Hot day, headed in the same direction as a 100k plus beach goers, traffic is thick but moving. google maps prediction of the trip time was about right, factor in my lead foot, stopping for water, equals not stress; Bless. A fare amount of cloud cover, so less direct sun; Bless. This time i came with cooler got Ice and plenty of water.
All Week the weather forecasts were wrong, each day was supposed to be worse then the previous day. Monday-Friday forecasts fell short of the high temps being predicted. Sunday was slated to be a nice day, mid 85-ish, thats about 29.4C for those of you not in America, not bad, warmer then id like but still not bad. At 9:00 Am i left the house and headed towards Brooklyn, 1010 Winds said it was already 80 degrees. There was no way it would only climb 5 degrees through out the day. I got to the wall and the sun was blazing already, thanks to Kem5 the only tree in a 3 block radius was de-limbed as it was interfering with his painting (I think he just hates nature really), at any rate there went the only shade spot in area. By 10:30Am it was 89 degrees and climbing rapidly. I drank water, lots of water, ate food, wore my ‘working in the field’ hat plus sweat band. At noon-thirty or so it was 97 (35C-ish), lawd-a-mercy, HIM jus’ a burn we out! I didn’t even need a lighter to light a cigarette, you just needed to touch it to the hood of a car and poof, FIRE! So there we are suffering, trying to make the best of it, there was plenty of good people around to help keep spirits up. Around 430 i had lapsed in my water consumption, and began getting some real heavy head rushes, which i tired to fight through. Finally I hit head rush number 13, and I realized i wasn’t making it out gracefully. I was talking to Stae2 and Yes1 and all of a sudden i became aware that i was standing up, holding my ladder white knuckle style and my legs were gone; i was holding on trying to make it to the bell, whilst seeing the canvas looking like a pretty solid inevitability. I was one wobble away form the ground the yes1 stepped in and gave me and arm helped to to the ground and hit me with a half gallon of cold water. Fuck, i felt like a horse fiend doing the stumble nod, shit was NO good. I am not fan of not being in control of my body movements and activities. Thanks to Yes and Stae2 i was saved, if not for them id polly be face down on the brooklyn concrete right now sleeping it off, or worse… i could be used as a human picnic table by some of the many hispters in the area, and had my face drawn on like they like to do when people pass out, which would end up on youtube and then id have to cut some people. I digress… After the water and a few minutes of resting I was back on the life side of things and felt a lot better. the take away is, 97 degrees, 18 lbs of hair, body by Xbox, not enough water is a no win scenario, however surrounded by good people, makes all the difference in the world. Violins and roses!
Molotow Colors
Sketch:
sahara Beige
cadmium yellow
tele magenta
Piece:
Poison green
Evil Olive
Traffic red
Pastel Orange
Light orange Brown
almond
white
Toast Gloss Black (SOOOO GOOD)
light Kiwi (ran out of poison)
Background:
Dark Shadow Grey
Esher Dirty Red (among the favs)
Butterfly
Light Piglet Pink
grapefruit
The wall was supposed to be black, which much of it was, however my section was a city buff grey, which through off the game plan of having a black background, sometimes half the fun is working with what you got, which can also then turn into the main source of heartache, regrets and shattered dreams; Ive seen it happen. At any rate, after the heat almost KOed me i drew down on some of the plans to fill the vacuous grey background area. As Usual there was a good selection of people present to while away the day, shoot the shit with. Hotta Fya, humble I.
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.
