I am dreXeL. I thought you knew… Art, eating paint, life in Brooklyn. Fear it.

People all over NYC know RESKEW, the graffiti writer. Famous, infamous, whatever. He’s definitely known and his tags and pieces can be seen all over the city, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. This piece below was done by Ski (top left), RESKEW (top right) and 2esae (bottom). You can check out more of Ski and 2esae’s art work from my art links. Sweet truck, huh?

Anyway, possibly less people know RESKEW as Miles Wickham, artist. He’s good people, a real talented artist and my friend. AND I’m co-curating his first solo show this Thursday in the East Village. So I thought I’d just give him mad props on my blog and let you all in on it.

Here’s the link to the event. Check it out, and of course, if you’re in the NYC area this Thursday stop by Sapphire Lounge! Meet the man, the myth, the legend…

Technorati Tags: art, art show, artist reception, sapphire lounge, miles wickham, resk, reskew, acc, graffiti, nyc, east village, art opening, artist, no toys

Posted under art, current events, featured artists

Here it is…

Come or like Ol’ Dirty said…

Technorati Tags: art, art show, art opening, hope lounge, brooklyn, nyc, going.com, artist reception, drexel, Jae9, Esen, kerst cobain, aaron ginsberg, zahra tangorra, WOWCH, disco liberation front

Posted under art, current events

Today is Johnny Cash’s birthday.  I love that man like crazy and it got me thinking about how he actually makes me proud to be an American.  Growing up I wasn’t very patriotic.  I wasn’t anti, I was just…ambivalent, I suppose.  But thinking about it, there are a few things that definitely make me proud to be American.  Here’s the short list:
1. The existence of NYC

2. Specifically, the existence of Brooklyn

3. Johnny Cash

4. Hip Hop

5. Pop art and culture

There are probably a few more things, but those are the first ones I thought of.  And I know I’m not alone in being so proud of Johnny Cash.  It’s practically un-American to not like him.  NOONE talks shit about Johnny Cash.  Or Elvis.  And that’s how it should be.

Happy birthday, man.  We miss ya. XOXO

Technorati Tags: johnny cash, pop culture, dead musicians, america

Posted under current events, stream of consciousness

(originally uploaded by jcn.)

This is actually the only pic I have of opening night at my show. It was taken by my friend, Jesse…the link to his gallery is above. Guess I was just too busy shmoozing to bother taking photos. Glad SOMEONE was on the ball that night. Thanks Jesse. You da bestest.

XO Erica

Technorati Tags: art, art show, art opening, sapphire lounge, nyc, east village, painting, collage, spray paint, mixed media

Posted under art, current events, main

I’ve been a fan of Johnny Cupcakes’ designs for years.  So I kind of keep track of the haps.  And I just had to write something about this today.

Sometimes it’s a fine line between “inspired by” and flat out STOLEN.  Not this time…  Check it.

In case you can’t see the image for some reason, the left side is a design by Johnny Cupcakes from 2005.  It’s a mouthful of teeth, with one gold cupcake tooth.  On the right is the new Billabong ad with the exact same teeth and the exact same gold tooth only sans cupcake.

While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it isn’t rocket science to know you’re not supposed to steal another designer’s designs.  As you can see, there wasn’t even an attempt to make it original.  Unbelievable.  Sometimes you have to look at other people’s artwork to get some inspiration for your own.  But oh my god, then go MAKE YOUR OWN.  If you can’t do that, you should be in real estate or something because you’re not an artist.  Anyway…just trying to speak up for what I believe and let you know what’s what.  Check out the AUTHENTIC Johnny Cupcakes designs here.

We love you, Johnny. XO

Technorati Tags: johnnycupcakes billabong design arttheft

Posted under current events, design, main

I’m not quite sure what has taken over me. Maybe it’s the festive nature of NYC during the holiday season, the lights, the shopping, the snow. All I know is this year I bought a ridiculous amount of christmas presents, I made homemade christmas candy. TWICE. And now this…homemade holiday cards. This MIGHT be the first of a small series, as I already have a request for a Solstice card. We’ll see. Until then I fully intend to get as cracked out as humanly possible on peppermint bark that I made. Cheers. XO

Technorati Tags: christmas, holidays, martha stewart, homemade cards, illustration, holiday cards, nyc

Posted under art, current events

Here’s one tiny example of what goes on in my city. Thanks to Rocketboom for covering it. And Verseguru for showing me the vid!

Posted under art, current events, video

The gallery I had my very first show in Brooklyn in, Gitana Rosa Gallery, is now closed. Vanessa Liberati, who ran the gallery will still be curating, but the physical space, so popular for so long, won’t be at 19 Hope Street anymore. That gallery is extremely special to me, as is its owner. I really feel like Vanessa got me started in the art scene in Brooklyn and I’ll always be grateful to her for that. I look forward to many more years working with Vanessa, and hereby say a bittersweet goodbye to my first gallery in NYC.

Here’s a shot of the closing show, just to show the pure awesome that went on at this gallery. Art, artists, musicians, Pernod. What could be better And there’s Devendra Banhart, front and center. What a star.

Posted under art, current events

The artist who did the above graffiti is called 2esae. I just met him a few days ago while shopping at Scrapyard for spray paint and skinny caps. Anyway, this dude has mad skills, really really awesome, as you can see. But that’s not the point of this post.

I just found out today that this artist, known by his mama (and sadly by the police) as Mike Baca, is going to jail on the 24th of this month for writing his name on a wall or something. Occasionally the police put a head on a pike to set an example or whatever and in this case they decided to use 2esae for that purpose. He’s got a trial after that for many many counts of vandalism (graffiti, not like breaking windows or anything…just painting). Apparently it’s possible that he could face 7 years for this.

No matter what you think of the rightness or wrongness of graffitiing public walls, think about this: This is a young artist and designer, 23 years old, who has amazing talent and his artwork has been published in major magazines like Esquire and NY Times, it’s been in films and videos, his clothing is in shops all over NY. He’s known all over the world for his art. And he might be in jail until he’s 30. Yes, a person is responsible for their own condition. Yes, graffiti is against the law. But remember back in the day when people would express themselves by gang wars? Who gets hurt by painting a name on a wall? Is it not more aesthetic than the dirty, crusty, ugly fucking wall that was there before he painted over it? Personally I think something needs to change regarding the laws of graffiti, because there are people committing serious crimes which are harmful to mankind, and this, frankly, is not one of those crimes.

Until that time, which may never come, we can do SOMETHING to show our support for Mike and for the graffiti community in general. Come to the fundraiser for Mike’s legal defense on October 22nd. He will be selling his awesome paintings and clothing he’s designed. There will also be a special guest performance by Large Professor and the debut screening of the newest Styles P video. L.A.S.E.R. Tag after-party.

Deets:

What: Solo Show and Fundraiser for Mike Baca
What Else: Special guest performance by Large Professor, L.A.S.E.R. Tag after-party
When: October 22nd, 2007 6pm - 9pm.
Where: Eyebeam
540 West 21st Street
New York, New York

Come show your support and buy stuff if you can.

Thanks to Graffiti Research Lab for letting me know about this so I can do what I can to help. You can make donations for Mike Baca’s legal defense fund by clicking on the Graffiti Research Lab link above.
XO, Erica

Posted under art, current events

This friday, 7pm - 11 pm at Gitana Rosa Gallery, 19 Hope Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211.

For all of you near enough to Brooklyn to come, please do.  This is the closing party for “Callejeros”, a live exhibition featuring street artists creating eco-social/political/urban art:

*sic*, cern, ellis g., ben angotti and leif mcilwaine, erica falke, katherine novick, narendra haynes, tom billings and robyn cleveland, zahra tangorra.

In association with GLOWLAB.

See art, meet people, drink Pernod.  Do it.

Love, Erica XO

Posted under art, current events, main