dreXeL's Blog - Category: Random (A dreXeL’s Life)
Thoughts, Musings, Ramblings, Etc...
The End of an Era
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.
Support 2esae
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
“Layers of History” strikes again
I know I’m always going on about how awesome layers are and how much I love Brooklyn because of this…layers of paint on walls, graffiti done and redone and redone again, etc. An old poster on top of a new one. But this particular layer I just saw a few minutes ago made me throw up in my mouth a little.
Some of my favorite graffiti in all of New York just happens to be on the outside of the building I live in…it starts at the Roebling Tea Room and goes around Metropolitan to the Roebling side. Many different artists contributed to making that corner completely amazing and famous. It’s now been covered up with beige on one side and mauve on the other. The manager at the restaurant on the corner of Hope and Roebling seems to think that they’ll make more money if they remove the graffiti from their building. But what they don’t seem to realize is that their joint is empty because it has lousy food and worse decor. Now they don’t even have a cool exterior.
This building is FAMOUS for its graffiti. In fact it was a main reason I wanted to live in that building. I just can’t believe it. And I had to vent. So uh…thanks for listening. And here are a couple pics of art that you will never see there again…
In Honour of Carlucci
I just wanted to make sure and send proper condolences to the parents, friends and family of Carlucci Bencivenga, aka Elf One MPC. He was a famous and wonderful artist from the Bronx, his work has inspired more people that we’ll probably ever know, but thousands upon thousands that we DO actually know. He passed away on September 3, 2007. R.I.P.
Elf’s work…
Elf in action!!!
Portrait in honor of Carlucci, at Howl festival yesterday…
Carlucci’s parents. I spoke with them yesterday at the Howl festival. <3
We’ll miss you, Elf.
Banksy-1, Vandals-0
Change is good.
(Thanks to Jake and Streetsy.com for the image.)
XO Erica
Brooklyn Art Project Feature
I’m really excited because I was just emailed by the person who hosts the Brooklyn Art Project blog. He said, “Erica, this is a beautiful piece, I just featured it up on brooklynartproject.com blog. 🙂 http://brooklynartproject.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/07/beautiful-prete.html
Thanks for sharing this, it’s great having you as a member.
/// Anthony”
Oooh how I love unsolicited kudos. :))
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Tags: brooklynartproject, painting, pretense
Going Home
Well, it’s finally happening. I’m moving back east to NYC.
I couldn’t be more excited. One of my friends asked me today if I was nervous. I thought about it, because it seems I should be…or maybe just that I would expect myself to be. And I looked at her, even surprising myself with my own answer, and said “No actually. Not one little bit.” This is the right move for me, it’s natural for me to be on the east coast. I’ve wanted to for a long time. I have lots of friends and family waiting for me, a place to stay while I find an apartment. There seems to be no counter-intention anywhere…internally or externally…in doing this. And I know it will all turn out ok.
I have a new agent, too. My friend, Brandon, is going to be handling my west coast art shows. At least until he moves to NY next year. Then we intend to take over the world as the awesome creative duo that we are.
So that’s the news. I hope you feel briefed. I will keep you posted as this all progresses.
XO Erica
PS: I TOTALLY did not take that photo up there. I just posted it there for effect because it’s freaking RAD. I did, however, take the ones below…
LES at night…
Waiting for the train…
NY Subway…
Coffee and Tattoos…only in the East Village. 🙂
technorati tags:ny, nyc, les, subway, tattooparlor, manhattan, myfuturehappiness
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Holy Hell the new “ModBook” Mac Tablet!!!
Well, it looks like all our bitching, moaning and petitioning is finally starting to pay off! I just received a press release in my email last night from Axiotron about the first and only Mac Tablet, now available from Macsales.com. It’s brand new, of course extremely pricey, but it’s made, it uses Wacom technology and runs on OS X. And it looks like this…
Pretty, huh?
technorati tags:modbook, mac, mactablet, macsales, axiotron
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The Razzies
Got invited by my friend, Fred, to go to the Razzie Awards last night. So that’s what I did. That was definitely entertaining, despite the fact that they just diss EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD. But I suppose that’s a nice balance from the way everything at the awards tonight will be spoken of with total love and admiration, as though it/he/she/ is the most fantastic creation in the history of ever.
The Razzies intro looked something like this…
And before that was a great and quite large Magritte exhibition, full of his paintings as well as those of other artists who, overtly or covertly, admire or emulate Magritte.
Then an amazing dinner at Figaro Cafe on Vermont. It truly feels like France. And since I was with actually eating there WITH someone French it was like I fit into a french scenario…for once. Noone sneered at me about my lack of French speaking skills or my awful pronunciation. And oh the food was great. And of course, creme brulee at the end. And Orlando Bloom was there for a minute, too. Just a good day overall, wouldn’t you say?
technorati tags:razzies, razzieawards, figaro, figarocafe, orlandobloom, lacma, magritte, fredthom
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Stylegoddess Update
A LOT is going on. I have a new art show coming up in LA that I’ll give you the deets on as soon as I know them.
My new site is live. It’s more of an experiment than anything, but it seems to be going well. Lots of people are stopping by and checking it out.
I was just offered to take over my friend’s apt and job for two weeks while he goes to Japan and Korea. If I get the job, which isn’t a for sure thing, but IF i do it means I get to live in San Francisco for two weeks, get paid well, see all my SF friends and just live and work in a completely different environment for a bit. I want to do it bad.
I have plans to go to London in the next few weeks and then Vancouver after that, then back east for Xmas. So things are exciting and fun lately.
And on a more personal level…I just got my lip pierced!
I should have some more paintings and illustrations for you to look at soon. Meanwhile you can look at my ugly mug. PEACE! XO
technorati tags:piercing, bodymods, style, fashion
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Flock RULES
Ok well it took me freaking AGES, but I fiiiiiinally downloaded and started using the Flock browser. I’d wanted to try it for a long time, and started actually feeling guilty about it every time I’d see Will Pate at conferences and talked to him about it. So now it’s done. And I am seriously stoked about it. It’s so much fun to post to a blog or to play around on my social networking sites when I have my flickr pics open. It all goes much quicker and I don’t have to go to like 9 different places for everything. I can see all my new articles, all my flickr pics, all my FRIEND’S flickr pics, upload pics and post blogs all in a click. It’s really the coolest thing ever. You should try it for yourself. DO IT!
technorati tags:flock, willpate, technology, blogging, socialnetworking, flickr, flockstar, browser
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A Success!
Thanks to all of you who showed up to my opening. I had such a good time. You all were awesome. People came from hours away just to see my artwork. I was amazed. And I even got roses delivered to the venue directly from a friend in London. So yeah, Tuesday was my day. And my work will remain up at Borders South Coast Plaza for the next 3 months. So if you couldn’t make it that day for one reason or another, fret not. You have plenty of time to stop by. And when you do, let me know your thoughts. <3
Technorati Tags: art, borders, costamesa, illustration, show