The End Mural

Over the last couple of days, I painted a mural in the Mexico City boonies along the train track, finally achieving my lifelong goal of painting a mural by free hand spray painting. I used some stencils too though, and some black acrylic paint. I've been trying to move away from making things so graphic lately, but I was too cheap to buy multiple shades of a colour, so I reverted back to the comfort of the black outline. 

Dead Bird Under a Bridge

I thought I'd lost these!

I painted this one fine Sunday on a day off in Midway, BC under a bridge, over the Kettle river, right by my camp. I hadn't tried free hand spray painting probably since my mural in Barcelona in the Sitges abandoned water park. I was supposed to do this a lot over the course of the summer. I had a crate of spray paint in my car, but I failed miserably except for this one sketch. There's my dead bird, the mascot for winning and free love apparently. It was one of those times when I thought it was terrible and never wanted to look at it again, and then last minute on my way out of Midway at the end of the season I took a picture as an afterthought. I think it's pretty good for having no free hand skills. Getting good at this is on my to do list. I'm thinking about practicing with just dead birds until I get really good at them and figure out my style and some tricks. Also, I think I'm changing my street art name again. It's going to by Y-BOT. Just you wait. 

Happy Birthday to Me

It was my birthday a couple of days ago. Got to Williams Lake and on the stampede fair grounds joining GRAD '89, GRAD '07, and I think GRAD '99 was the best birthday present ever (along with a song the same person wrote me for my birthday last year), HAPPY B-DAY TOBY. Epic and so bad ass. Thank you! I am immortalized on the tin roof of the William's Lake Stampede grounds for an indeterminate number of years. It's hard to see in the photo but it's on the tin roof. Best of all, the Stampede is this weekend and it'll be in all the photos.

L.A.: The Streets

I put up some pieces in L.A. on a Friday night while I was there with the expertise of my local friends from the studio. It was pretty bad ass.

First we did the trial run for the piece that is now up in Vancouver. It's in the Arts District of downtown L.A. Apparently it's a really good spot but it's hard for me to tell since everything looks empty and barren around there. It was right in front of a bar where we went after and I got a pint of PBR for $2.50. Not bad. I never managed to get a day time photo. Tear. Better photos of it in Vancouver here.



This piece made me feel alive. We climbed a fucking building! So awesome!!! I won't give away trade secrets but it was not easy to get up there. It's on North Main Street close to the L.A. River a few blocks away from the studio. I like it. Close up pictures here from the same piece I put up in Vancouver.

Nit Picking

A new piece! Up right now on Main street at 7th.
This is something I think about a lot which weirdly comes from my evolutionary biology background. Social grooming. What happened?
Thanks to my little team and getaway car for helping.

Push the Button

Any good street art piece starts with some dog shit. I stepped in some which never happens. It was dark. Eight cups of wheat paste later...take that Vancouver! You really need it. (Under the overpass at Union and Main St.)

Barcelona by Storm

It was my last week in Barcelona so I was trying desperately to tick everything off my check list, which inevitably involved me getting into sticky situations which make me question if my subconscious is trying to make me miss my flight.

These are obviously nothing new, but it is the first time I officially put them in the street. It seemed fate was against me because the first night I went to paint them I got scared off by street cleaners and police cars leaving the wall with only the first layer and my registration pegs. I went back two days later and the pegs were still there, so almost a week later, I went by myself at 4am to finish the job. My life is now complete. It's in the industrial area of Barcelona, Poble Nou, near one of the major clubs, Razzmatazz. Some douche bag already ruined the first girl but really I don't blame him cuz she was only one layer for a week and asking for it.



This was a sad tale. These things looked fucking awesome on the street and when I went back a day later to take the photos they had already been brutally ripped down! Luckily my friend, Michelle, was there the night of and took some photos and made me a little montage of the two sides of the piece. The reminants can be found on a tiny street in El Born.



More to come...

¡Panic!

I'd been wanting to try free hand spray painting for a long time, so when I heard about this abandoned water park near Barcelona and came up with a really simple idea at the same time, I jumped on it. Free hand is hard. I would need a lot of practice to get any good at it. Paint brushes are looking pretty good about now. I was too embarrassed to take any close up pictures but in retrospect I regret it now.



Making Of Time Lapse:

¡Panic! from shouldercat on Vimeo.

This is a Test

I finally made a new more legit stencil series. It's been a while. I'm gonna try to put it up in the street next week but until then I got impatient.

Just for Decoration

I have a studio space now in my friends' apartment. For payment, I am to decorate the hell out of their apartment. I'd been there for 2 weeks without putting anything up so I started getting harassed and then forced to do the following:






Fun little anecdote: I originally made this stencil for 3 Acadian boys who wanted a naked girl for their giant over sized RV they bought in the middle of the planting season. Told them I needed an image for reference so they handed me a play boy magazine.

This was a horrible undertaking. I had to remake these stencils cuz they were falling apart. I hate revisiting something that's done, plus it's such an anal, rigorous process. My mother is making me send them to some gallery in England where she apparently has a connection so they needed a freshening up. Now I might as well try to sell some and make some euros. Also, I never got around to putting them on the street legit, so I gotta do that too.

... and now, time for some street art

Finally! Some street art! Even decided to give stencils a second chance. I did a warm up run here in Barcelona, Montreal styles (idea, cut out and spray all in the same night) with my trusty companion, Sparky. Turns out it's more important to look out for sketchy night wanderers than the police.

Expulsion

Finally! I have completed a screen print I'm actually happy with! My goal was effectiveness with simplicity, and I achieved it. This print is 5 layers, but two layers were used twice. There's a lot of black ink on black paper going on, and what might not be too apparent from the scan is that I used gloss. Gloss is the best thing ever invented. I made 60 copies cuz it's for this print exchange between Concordia and Emily Carr so that's stealing 44 of them away from me. I am a printing machine!




The subject matter is an idea I've had for like two years, conceived in Central America or Spain, I forget. I was waiting for the appropriate medium and composition to undertake it and I've previously done several spin offs of it. That's the story.

The Drawwwwing

This is my first ever digital print with a two layer screen print on top. I'm a little disappointed by the results cuz the colours were dulled by the printer. It also looks way better live than in this picture.



Here's the original paintings that I scanned. It's so much brighter than the print, not to mention fluorecent red is the best colour ever. I collaged it from its constituent parts.

Window Pain

This was my much anticipated holiday project that met a sad sad end. It fell down in my hallway where I had temporarily placed it and shattered in one corner. I was going to work on it more, I was thinking about adding in some fluorescent spray paint, but now I feel a little sad and discouraged.