Posted: July 21st, 2010 | Author: Con | Filed under: Art, Atlanta, Friends, Graffiti, Shows, Trains | No Comments »
When someone says trains, art is not the first thing that comes to mind. One may think: large loud dirty machines that hold me up as I try to get past this crossing to the other side of the road. To the average person, a litany of fleeting thoughts probably comes to mind when they see or think of trains. Something as gaudy and grimy as the railroad cannot possibly have any artistic value what so ever.
Art, in its purest sense, began to appear on trains as far back post bellum America. For years, decades even after this period, the art of and on trains remained a clandestine activity. It was allusive and mysterious. In the late 1960s, the thought of art and trains, together, took the proverbial giant evolutionary leap forward with the introduction of the spray paint can.
Out of this phenomenon grew an entirely new culture known today as writing graffiti. In a more broad sense, writing graffiti is an iatrical part of the development and history of the Hip Hop culture which is now as much a part of American culture as baseball or apple pie.
The Steel Wheels Show captures that very narrow sliver of space where art and trains exist together. Steel Wheels Show is a well-planned event that has succeeded at securing a cult following over the last 3 years.
The upcoming third installment will bring fresh new art to quench the thirst of the loyal follower and art enthusiast who has never seen this spectacular intriguing event. Artist range from the old to the new who employ a wide variety of mediums.
Mad Clout
Posted: July 13th, 2010 | Author: Con | Filed under: Art, France, Friends, Graffiti, Projects, Shows, Travel | No Comments »
I really liked this last minute collaboration with Erell on the side of one of these French automated self-cleaning public bathrooms.
Posted: July 12th, 2010 | Author: Con | Filed under: Art, France, Friends, Graffiti, Projects, Shows, Travel | 1 Comment »
To start the last leg of the festival in Bordeaux, we had three separate gallery shows open on the same night.
Mark Jenkins and Erell teamed up for a dope show at Eponyme Gallery.
Masagon had a cool solo show at Ilka Bree Gallery with a bunch of his hand sewn clothes and hats/helmets he made for a class of French kids back in Royan.
I was with Evan Roth, Benjamin Gaulon, Paul Notzold, Chris Surgue and Theo Watson at Cortex Athletico. Since my spray paint 3D experiment never panned out, Chris and Evan came up with a solution to use the 3D glasses I had with their GML, as well as capturing me catching paint and marker tags on 3D grid paper. You could watch the animations or check out the original tags all in 3D.
Check out more of Evan’s photos here.
Posted: July 7th, 2010 | Author: Con | Filed under: Art, France, Friends, Graffiti, Projects, Shows, Travel | No Comments »
This morning Ruskig and I taught a class of non-english speaking “les enfants” how to paint graffiti. He focused on painting individual eyes with the 11-year-olds. Me and the 7-year-olds rocked an old school production. I let them go hog wild, so I’m pretty sure they had a lot of fun. Except for the one girl who sprayed herself in the face. But she was ok and got back to painting.
I’m sure I will be permanently banned from that town.
