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Bay Area artists Eddie Colla and D Young V have been very active on the street and showing their art independently and in collaboration in galleries in San Francisco, Oakland and other cities. They are known for their jarring wheat paste and painted images that are on the street today and gone tomorrow. They teamed up for an over the top street art installation titled Memento Mori at Art Works Downtown in San Rafael in Marin County.

Memento Mori, a Latin term for ‘remember death’, is an artistic symbol for remembering the inevitability of death, and is a continuing theme throughout Eddie Colla’s and D Young V’s work. The artists’ installations depict the end of the world juxtapose the rising up of a new world from ashes, and a future reduced to the tasks of survival and memory.

Each artist takes a different approach to remembrance. D Young V’s art has bold black and white graphics accented with made up topography and geometric patterns in blue and red color palettes.  His art is all meticulously drawn and painted. Eddie Colla takes a different approach with gritty predominately black and white images of people with powerful expressions frequently wearing masks and other protective garb.

The show opened Friday, August 30, 2013 and runs through Friday, October 11, 2013 in the Art Works Downtown main gallery located at 1337 Fourth Street, San Rafael, CA, 94901. An opening reception will be held this Friday , September 13, 2013 from 5-8 p.m with a closing reception on October 11, 2013, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

They will give a talk on September 21 in the gallery about the controversies surrounding street art.

Art Works Downtown is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For details please visit artworksdowntown.org

D Young V x Eddie Colla | MEMENTO MORI from Taylor Morgan on Vimeo.

There has been a noticeable uptick in bicyclists throughout the country as cities encourage residents to get out of their cars and use other methods of transportation to move around the cities. Bike lanes have been added, routes promoted and laws passed for the safety of all. Unfortunately there is a lot of congestion on the road as pedestrians; bicyclists and drivers all converge on the same space resulting in injuries and death. Each year, the US sees more than 600 bicyclist fatalities, and more than 50,000 bicyclists report injuries.
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A must have for any graffiti writers

How many time you spent in foreign streets to find a graffiti shop?
With this application you can find graffiti supplies anywhere!

App Features

✓ Search shops near you (your current location)
✓ Search shops by location
✓ Filter shops by locations (continent > country > city > shop)
✓ Find shops directly on the map
✓ Get shops directions
✓ Each shop has many info: name, address, email, phone, opening hours, brands, …
✓ Help other writers in choosing the best shop by making a ‘♥ Like’ on your favorite shops
✓ Shops data gets updated silently (need restart of the app to be applied)
✓ Many features are available also without internet connection
✓ Ad free

Add your store to the App

If you are the owner of a graff store and want to get visibility into the app you can add your store for free by clicking ‘Add Shop’ on the app website: graffitishops.info or sending an email to: contact@graffitishops.info

Get Connected

Check out the website graffitishops.info
Find graffitishops on Facebook
Find graffitishops on Twitter

Swooping down from the high places of Oakland under cover of darkness, the predatory Ghost Owl leaves in his wake a trail of brightly colored markings. The following is a study of one such incident.

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Origin
Wheatpaste is an easy to make and affordable liquid adhesive made from flour, sugar, & water. It has historically been used for papier-mâché, book binding, decoupage, and now more frequently is used to adhere paper advertisements for movies and events on city walls. To remove or dissolve wheatpaste you need only apply hot water until saturated then pull or scrape off the paper. (more…)

Estria Foundation Launches Kickstarter Campaign to support Art Battle and Festival

The Estria Foundation has launched a Kickstarter campaign to support the 6th Annual Estria Battle and Art Festival. The Estria Battle and Art Festival is a series of art events building community, promoting positive messages, and investing in the creative expression of young people.

“The Bay Area loves these events and more than 6,000 will come to the Battle and another 20,000 to the related events,” said Estria Miyashiro who founded the Battle and Festival in 2007. “We really believe this is a valuable celebration of community and urban art and that Kickstarter is a great way to ask people to invest and participate.”

Donors to the Kickstarter campaign can select limited edition rewards like art prints by Favianna Rodriguez, Vogue (TDK), Apexer, Chor Boogie, Vyal One and other printmakers and street artists. The rewards also include prints of archived Estria Battle canvases, street art postcard packs, and t-shirt and hoodie designs by Jesse Hernandez. Donors at the highest levels can even have Miyashiro create a mural for them.

The Kickstarter campaign runs until July 11th and aims to crowd-raise $25,000 to help pay for items like canvases, supplies, food, travel costs, and construction fees. Those who wish to participate or learn more can visit or visit estriabattle.com

The Battle and Festival Events

The Estria Battle brings 16 of the top urban artists to Oakland to battle in a live painting event rooted in positive community messages and social justice principles. The Battle is held at the Life is Living Festival in West Oakland on October 12th and is presented in partnership with Youth Speaks, Inc. To begin, a one-word theme is revealed. “Grow,” “Heal,” and “Live,” were used in previous years. After learning the word, artists have five hours to paint a positive, technically and creatively excellent large canvas while people of all ages enjoy.

The Battle includes:

• The Blackbook Jam, where youth are given 3 hours to create sketchbook pieces based on a positive theme.

• The Youth Group Art Jam invites teams from arts organizations to create positive works of art. Judges reward the top pieces.

• The Stencil Workshop, youth design their own t-shirts. Each shirt is a unique, personal souvenir of their participation in the Festival.

Events surrounding the Estria Battle include:

• The Estria Battle Art Gallery Exhibition (October 3rd – 31), showcases the work of nationally renowned artists who have made their name in public art.

• The Art in Public Slideshow (October 10), invites 10 artists to present 20 of their images for 20 seconds each and invites viewers to discuss work usually only seen on the street.

• In-School Workshops bring classroom instruction and demonstrations to a local school. Artists offer hands-on lessons and talk with students about art careers.

• The Sunday Paint Jam (October 13th) invites artists to paint the outside walls of an Oakland school. This is an important time for the artists to give back to the community

More information is available at estria.org and the Kickstarter campaign page:

Freespace is an experiment in temporary community rooted in creativity that is happening in a 14,000 sq ft building on Minna Street around 8th Street. Many of the core organizers of Freespace come from the Burning Man community and specifically the experimental collective IDEATE.

The temporary community can easily be spotted. There is a large painted black and white body floating on the side of the building and directly below art covers the remains of a building foundation on a empty parking lot next door. Further across the lot is another large mural with a garden at the base. In all there are 20 murals that were done in just 10 days. This is the result of [Artspace], one of five projects sponsored by [Freespace].

The purpose of [Artspace] is to get more art on the streets of San Francisco by connecting land owners with artists. This can be a time consuming process for both the landlords and the artists. The city of San Francisco provides a free program called Street Smart to connect building owners with artist but there are a limited number of artists who work with Street Smarts due to their approval process. The landlords may want art on their building but do not know where to begin or the legal issues involved and may want to use artist not already registered with Street Smarts. The artists would rather concentrate on their art than spent time looking and negotiating wallspace to showcase their work. Artspace has the real estate expertise to guide the landlords and artist through the process so everyone can enjoy the end results with the least amount of hassle. Artspace was started by Eoin McMillan of the StartupHouse.

Long story short, having art murals painted on StartupHouse was one of the best things we did last year – it drew in the local community and received praise not just for the artwork itself, but also for the transformation that was occurring by taking otherwise disused land and wall space, and turning it into art.

Their website [Artspace] makes it easy for the landlords, artists and other interested parties to specify their needs and qualifications.

Artists involved in Freespace Art

See other pieces they have done and check out their online presence.

1131 Mission St, mural A – Zio Ziegler
1131 Mission St, mural B – Ian Ross

Parking Bays:
1) Griffin One
2) Ernest Doty
3) Max Ehrman
4) Suer
5) Amanda Lynn
6) Robert Harris
7) (back wall)Apex
8) Anonymous
9) Hugh Leeman
10) Allison Heuman
11) Attica
12) Darren Villegas
13) Carly Ivan Garcia
14) Gats
15) El Chavi
16) (pillar)Hugh Leeman
Minna St – Max Ehrman

Learn About [Freespace]

Visit their site, go there and get involved. [freespace]There is a calendar of events for the month of June that focuses on five objectives of the organization where you can learn more and get involved in activities that make San Francisco a dynamic vibrant place to live and work. Take part in the garden, learning shelter, community engagement, artspace and bike share/Yellow Bike Projects.

I am not into imposing regulations. There are many approaches to encouraging Street Art while discouraging random tagging, but it takes a positive mind set by communities to make it happen. Punishment, heavy fines even jail sentences have not been a productive attitude.

Jim Prigoff is a photographer and author who has been documenting murals, graffiti, and street art in the Bay Area and beyond for the past forty years. We took a meta moment to document the documentor.

What first inspired you about street art?
I became interested in documenting murals at the end of the 60’s, early 70’s. I found the public expression through artistic renderings was often political in addressing issues not discussed in the traditional media channels. That was a time of ferment in addressing social concerns. It was a treasure hunt to locate the art, it addressed my photographic interests and it added visual substance to my political views.

What was the first image you took
As I traveled the five boroughs of NYC, I could not help but be confronted by the numerous “tags” that were to be seen everywhere. They were in my face, so to speak. I began to photograph the ones that seemed to repeat themselves over and over as well as the environment in which I found the tagging. Few had good calligraphy.

How have styles changed or stayed the same over the breadth of your career?
Styles have certainly changed over the years, yet it is remarkable how sophisticated the art had become in the late 70’s and 80’s. It was prophetic that a 16 year old Mode 2 character would appear on the cover of Spraycan Art in 1987 and that in 2013 his characters are still on the cutting edge of the art form.

What was your favorite city to shoot in?
I am not into favorites, nor winners and losers despite the fact that the youth culture is definitely into “battles’ and “competition”. Today there is so much excellent art being done in cities all over the world. My major documentation led me to key cities throughout Europe and England as well as continuing documentation in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, LA and San Diego.

Have you noticed a difference between east and west coast artists.  If so how?
There is definitely a difference in East and West Coast style. Rather than my pointing out the difference, it would be best for those interested to read Graffiti NYC by Eric Felisbret and Graffiti LA by Steve Grody. Steve, in particular, does an excellent job in defining style. Likewise there are dozens of books out of Germany and a new one from Frank Malt on 100 UK Graffiti Writers.

If you could dictate policy towards street art what would be some programs/ regulations you would impose
I am not into imposing regulations. There are many approaches to encouraging Street Art  while discouraging random tagging, but it takes a positive mind set by communities to make it happen. Punishment, heavy fines even jail sentences have not been a productive attitude.

What continues to inspire you
Witnessing the development of an art form that over the last forty years has become the most vital art movement of its time, has been an exciting adventure. Back in 1987 my co-author Henry Chalfant and I urged our publisher, Thames and Hudson in London to get Spraycan Art out because we didn’t know what kind of a market there would be in a year . It was almost impossible then to have the vision to foresee
how all engrossing Graffiti/Street Art would be to millions of young people. I continue to be very interested to see the further developments as writers become older and more creative.

How would you propose to support artists and documentarians so that they can survive financially
Supporting artists and documentarians is probably not something that can be formalized. It happens. Youth that didn’t have a camera and in many cases didn’t travel more than a few blocks from home now have become worldwide travelers, video and magazine producers, gallery owners and photographic talents etc.

Do you draw a line between art and vandalism if so where is that line
The famous headline “IS IT ART OR VANDALISM” should have been buried back in the early eighties. It is OBVIOUSLY ART. Some good, some OK, and some poor. Sixth graders create art and so did Picasso, obviously not at the same artistic level. As to vandalism, that has to do with the eye of the beholder and their values. One might ask the same question of billboards which to my mind are the ugliest graffiti of all, yet are allowed to confront us wherever we may go.

For example, we have all read headlines such as “Graffiti writers destroy $500,000 worth of buildings”. I would maintain that they have destroyed nothing. The building still stands. What they have done is to ascetically altered the appearance of the building, for better or for worse.

What was it like in NY furring the early days, how is it different now
I can’t comment on the level of tagging in NYC today because do not get there as often as I did previously. When I go, I am looking for the major pieces from crews like TAT and artists like HOW/NOSM. But I remember once driving through the 5 boroughs over a weekend and returning to California planning to write an article entitled “Ten Millions Tags and Still Counting.” I suspect tagging has abetted considerably and of course, the train writing is a thing of the past.

Co-author – Spraycan Art
Co-author –Walls of Heritage – Walls of Pride – History of African American Murals
Co-author –  Painting the Towns – Murals of California.

Acclaimed an “Urban Legend” by the Estria Foundation in 2011.
His books are available on Amazon
To purchase his books Books at Amazon

Street art has gained world wide acceptance and popularity. However when it comes down to who, when, where and how the expression occurs,the determination is still made on a piece by piece, town by town basis as each community grapples with striking the right balance between the artists, the community at large and the elected officials who create laws.

Justin Donlon, the Director and Producer Las Calles Hablan documentary asked if we could share this 56 minute video with you that Justin along with Sylvia Vidal, Ian Sedano and Katrine Knauer recently produced about the street art scene in Barcelona. We hope you find it interesting and insightful.

Las Calles Hablan is a story about discovering a hidden world, an extraordinary subculture and the struggle between an artistic community painting for freedom of expression and an increasingly restrictive dogmatic government.

Much of it is through the eyes and voices of the local artists with their art. It explores the history and evolving dynamics of the local street art scene with its struggle to enter into a meaningful dialogue with the local government.

Las Calles Hablan from justininbcn on Vimeo.

Learn More

About Las Calles Hablan and their petition to rally online support to pressure their government to enter into a discussion with the street art community.
lascalleshablan

#003 Isaias Crow_ Werc Alvarez from urbanist on Vimeo.

Texas based artists Isaias Crow and Werc traveled to San Francisco’s Mission district to paint on the corner of 24th and Capp…I was honored to document their creation and sit down with them for a conversation regarding their approach to design.

We have shared information over the past few years about the Inside Out Project. The 2011 winner of the prestigious TED Prize, given annually to an extraordinary individual with a creative and bold vision to spark global change, JR was granted initial funding to make “a wish to change the world.”

Known for billboard-sized photographic portraits of everyday people in urban settings, French street artist JR has a simple call to action: “Tell me what you stand for, and together we’ll turn the world inside out.” To transform his idea into reality, he created the Inside Out Project, the world’s largest participatory art project and a remarkable testament to the power of the image and the role art can play in transforming lives. INSIDE OUT: THE PEOPLE’S ART PROJECT visits locations around the world, including: Haiti, Tunisia, North Dakota, and the West Bank.

The resulting Inside Out Project empowers people across the globe, often in perilous and politically unstable environments, to create their own photographic messages.

It first hit Street Art SF’s radar when we noticed a giant wheat pasted image of a man on the {de}appropriation wall on 23rd and Valencia. It was striking and like nothing we tend to see there so with some exploration we discovered it was part of the Inside Out Project. Since then we have spotted and shared the art from the Bay Area that has popped up related to this Global movement. Recently there were several posters up on Market St related to the Inside Out project. Now HBO made a documentary about the movement and we are excited to see it. INSIDE OUT: THE PEOPLE’S ART PROJECT, premiers MONDAY, MAY 20th (9:00-10:15 p.m. ET/PT). Check it out.

Below is the first image we spotted related to this project in San Francisco.

Critic and professor Matthew Strecher defines magic realism as “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.”

That is what Brian Goggins is graphically showing us with Defenestration, his, now 14 year old, art installation at 6th and Howard.

Brian explained to me that he is taking the rather contemporary concept of Land Art and applying it to an urban setting.

Instead of a wide open space in which the landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked, Brian Goggins wants you to look at this dilapidated old building, how it is inextricably linked to its environment and how it acts as a canvas for the absurd.

As absurd as fleeing furniture may seem, these pieces are a wonderful metaphor for showing us how we humans are in a precarious position with our environment, and in Brian’s case, he looks at that with optimism and quite obviously, humor.

I had the joy of watching the piece when it first went up, and have lived with it as it has aged, mimicking the building in its sad dilapidation. Despite a make over a few years ago, the ravages of time take over making this a perfect real-time, San Francisco view of Life After Humans.

Brian has two favorite times to view the piece. First as the light is hitting the wall of the 6th street façade in the early dawn. The second is in the Autumn as the sun sets on the Howard Street Façade.

In the middle of the night, you can truly enjoy its animated beauty as pigeons fly in and out of the refrigerator and you inevitably feel the link between the urban wild, architecture and art.

Brian said that the benefit of having a piece up in a space like this for such a long time gives you an opportunity to integrate a new understanding of it over time.

Something I have come to agree with completely as I have come to feel it is alive and maturing and says so much about the corner it lives on.