view larger  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_cd-ZOM47U

        

Saving New York......... One more wall at a time, with the help from some friends, always....

DIRECT LINK 

        

Check out a friends tshirt line that just went public today, I did a few graphics based playing off of some
American Viral Video subjects, but with a fun twist. Non Ewok5mh style for versatility.... 





 


Charlie bit me, with the Zombie twist....

You'll be seeing a lot more of these soon I'm sure,  Take a look at the site  http://www.okusanyc.com/

        

NAS rocks EWOK's designs via SCIFEN.

        

rip off artists, Etsy's.....2010



The Original... 2001

        

        

Direct link

        

Clay Patrick McBride

        

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07OngG4XYPk

        

Now that's  a line up!  Get familiar with the space  http://www.aestudioslic.com/

        

        

LEGAL BULLSHIT 101 for all the readers.....   So Asia has no issues with bootlegging anything fromAmerica because the Copyright laws and worldwide trademark laws do nothold anyone accountable when infringements happen in Hong Kong or mainland China and a plethora of other areas over there in Asia, anyone who's seen Airmax 97's on Ebay for $35 know what I'm talking about...So  on top of my website's address being "bought" up in every variation by some slickster.....

        

        

        

If you're in the D.C. / Virginia / Maryland area over the weekend , or just live out that way, please be sure to make it you're priority to swing through this benefit for a good cause. A lot of incredible art will be available for auction for REALLY good prices and 100% of the proceeds go towards Hospital costs for Mike.  Even if you won't be in the area please feel free to forward the info or re-blog the info....

 

        

So you got about 24 hours to BUY NOW, before the email blast goes out, you're only reading this because you're on my blog subscription.... Don't sleep, I'll be polite and say we have acquired WAY more subscriptions then we have product. Unfortunately there will be a lot of unhappy people tomorrow afternoon I feel...  


http://tyotoys.com/

        

So the release is driving up fast, March 15th the date, for my project with TYO Toys, a company out of Washington D.C.  This edition is limited to only 100 pieces signed and individually numbered in a signed box with stickers. You can't beat that!   Although they will be open to order on the 15th I have always offered a pre sale option my network of loyal collectors over the years. I believe this is something that keeps me close to the people that allow me to continue to create and do these types of fun ass projects.   So be sure to secure your early numbered piece. As things unfold and you get on board later, you run a risk of obtaining a higher number obviously.  So don't sleep... go to http://tyotoys.com/

More updates soon....

        

        

Emily Blunt.  Who I saw in Wolfman last night opposite Benicio.  G-r-r-r-o-o-o-w-w-w-l-l-l-l.....

        

        

        

Of course you can right click these images to see larger if you want to read the text....

I gotta say thanks again to Eric DEAL CIA for lookin' out on the cover, he could have picked anyone, so for that I am honored... 

  You can also see the article online today as well  http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/02/05/nyregion/20100205GRAFFITI_9.html

        

A friend of mine came by my studio space last week and put a blog entry up on his visit to my place, with pictures that he took of inspirational things he saw here... I thought it was a cool idea so I decided at my next pit stop through my man's spot I would do the same.  Sub DF has been a long time inspiration for me, man, gotta be dating back to probably 92' when I was first introduced to his walls, meeting around 94 and kept in touch ever since. In 95' I asked him his opinion about my work and what he thinks would be a good move for me to study in college, his response - "Yo man, you should do animation, you see all this shit on MTV these days? The industry is booming right now"   This was the days of Liquid Television, and shows like Aeon Flux, Ren & Stimpy, and The Head, who another of our friends Ted had been working on... So needless to say I looked up to these guys and followed Tony's suggestion going into a four year focus on traditional animation.  I call it a blessing and a curse, in that I got a grasp of the industry and how to make something come to life, the amount of work involved and the know how etc etc.  A SHIT LOAD OF WORK!!!  But from learning this I know IF AND WHEN I do take that step again, to do it in a better , faster way by utilizing the programs out now that weren't out back in the 90's like After Effects, Blender 3d, Cinema 4D... So for those things... in good time...

Moving on, here's some images from Sub's place, and a couple sneak peaks at a project he is working on that I couldn;t show actually until the project goes public.  I was able to shoot a few images of some still life references though. For the rest you'll have to use your imagination and just wait till everything goes public...  Sit back and enjoy a look into the work space of someone I respect and have watched grow and develop over the past 15 years. Wish I could show more but this will have to do....

oh yes, the ever so hardcore IG 88......

An old self portrait... 

Ohhh, a Tusken Raider in the studio..... I want this....


A lil scribble on the wall... Prolly' a story to this  but I don't know it... still funny..

Sub working....  Sorry I had to kill the subject this way....Just gnna' have to hold tight folks...


sculpture in the public space.....


And lastly, a peak at something I've been working on at my studio.... more to come...

        

        

a nice shout to the late Andy Kessler....

And in other news, Some dumb broad falls on a Pica$$o....


Courtesy of Cousin Frank (Cousinfrank.com)

        

This is one of the sickest videos of last year ( or maybe '08 I forget) Love this shit. and Clipse, Pharrel and Kanye is a dope chemistry + genius video = CLASSIC.

        

        

This will undoubtedly be some of the best visuals ever seen! ( by fish)  A one time Signature series offered by Cannibal Surf Boards.   A small edition due to the complex hand process that goes into each board.  Feel free to inquire with Cannibal on securing one for yourself.  Check out their site.  http://www.cannibalsurf.com/index.html
  More images as I get them. 

        

        

http://landyachtz.com/   coming soon....

        

Thanks for the heads up.   http://anthonyarias.com

        

        

Recently brought to my attention, another questionable act by a fellow "reputable" arteeest......  Chalk'm up with all the rest on my shit list until further notice....  Apparently I'm going to have to start approaching people and finding them accountable at these trade shows again on some ol' SCIFEN wyle out shit... I'm tellin' yall, you keep fuckin around someone's gonna end up learning a harsh lesson.  And Y'all g'nna be the one's who bring the beast out the cave, not me..... 

Okay so, walk with me.... Me first below...








You see where I'm goin' with all this?......



A "creation" by TOE-KEY-DOUGH-KEY selling currently when mine was over a year and change back, conceived, painted large, documented, published in press and made into shirts with the fellas over at THEBBOYSPOT.COM for The "Biggest and Baddest". 

  Apparently when you'er selling your work in Target, you no longer worry about things like integrity and how your name can be viewed by us in the underground.....  Just remember, the hotter the flame, the faster the burn....... 


Post edit:  What else is kind of interesting is the idea for my creation comes from the flyer to my first Japan show in August of 2004, where another of my Godzillington-esque characters is also resembling to the "arteest" on front street above....

 This news to me makes my last post below this, with the "2010" picture all the more ironic now..... Gotta love it.... 

Discuss amongst yourselves...

        

News stands now....


Apparently destined to be a character.....




Happy New Year bitches....

        

Sad loss... Rest Easy Brit........ 

        

        

It's been a while since I updated so there's a lot of shit to unleash.  Let's get started..... Some images are very high resolution, hang in there while they load...

 the 12 footer finally getting to connect with the people...

the venue space the night before. Ready to rock...

A private gig lined up while I was in Miami.... This guy's got a pool with class now..... (right click image and view for larger/ detailed version) And in the vein of real graffiti, this entire job was done under moon light, due to priorities I had to attend during the day time.

The Miami club scene is pretty much out of control, i was kinda shocked...

I had no idea what this was all about, but this guy was really takin' his job seriously.

One of my favorite parts about traveling, the food...

DEATH FROM ABOVE, on 21st. & Miami Ave.

These are some prototype ideas sent to me from TYO Toys, that had arrived for me while I was out of town. Together we're planning a small release of an extremely small run of signed and numbered Ewokone bombed collectable box trucks.  They sent me samples of all  their truck models, and as much as I love the traditional Chinese delivery cube truck, they're just too small and I don't think anyone would be interested in such a small piece, I think I'll be going the larger Mack Truck model.  Although the sides shown look cool, they probably won't be the graphics used for the final production pieces.  Stay tuned for this as things unfold...

 
 
A comic book project that came out recently featuring some EWOK5MH tags and str8 letters. Concrete Immortalz

Also this week in the mail I received the new Phillips DePury December Auction( NEW YORK CITY themed) book with original artwork featured from myself, Ghost and Cope 2 to be up for auction this Saturday at Phillips. If you don't know about this stuff yet you need to step your fine art auction game up son. 

The Graffiti Gone Global book featuring all the artists in the show from the Art Basel Exhibition. A nice book to add to the library. These are pretty rare, if you see one scoop it.... Here's a few of the interior pages, Right click to see bigger....

That's just about it to wrap 09 up...Here's a hint at the wave 2010 has on the horizon......
 







 

        

        

Graffiti: Where Art, Expression and VandalismCross Paths

PULLQUOTE “In Brooklyn having paint on youdoesn’t matter, because there are lots ofhipster artists walking around with paint ontheir clothes. It can be more dangerous inother boroughs.”—SAZ

By Chuck Marvin

On a mild evening recently, I was walkingdown Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg with alocal graffiti artist in his late teens whogoes by the street name “SAZ.”

"This is the epicenter of the New Yorkgraffiti scene," said SAZ with a smileas we walked south past North 5th Street.

"Are you serious?" I asked. Thebustling, well-lit Bedford Avenue is the lastplace I thought would be a big draw forgraffiti artists.

"Yeah, I'm serious," SAZ laughed."There are always graffiti artistsmixing it up with regular folk outhere."

SAZ is friendly, talkative, confident, andsmart. He seems to enjoy teaching me thebasics of graffiti art and society. I haddifficulty finding many graffiti artists whowould talk to me for this story, so he was arare commodity.

Graffiti can be found in all cities, but itthrives in Brooklyn, and in Williamsburg itadorns almost every man-made structure thatisn’t newly built. It is art to some, andvandalism to others. For its artists,graffiti is a unique community with its ownlanguage and mores. To the City of New York,graffiti is a felony offense that can reapmore than a year in jail time.

For the artists, graffiti is an addictivemelding of artistic exploration, socialnetworking, and the cat-and-mouse excitementof hiding from the police, neighbors, andeach other. The graffiti community issecretive and suspicious of outsiders. And itgoes without saying that graffiti artistsnever “tag” under their real names. Tags arerenderings of an artist’s street nametypically three or four letters in length.

It did not go down especially well when SAZtold his friends he was cooperating with thisarticle. SAZ talked to me anyways, and he wasthe only source willing to meet me in person.He believes that graffiti has social valueand is worth teaching outsiders about.

Graffiti art began to pop out from alldirections as we moved further down BedfordAvenue. Walls and fences bore smatterings ofsingle-color tags. Signposts and street lampswere covered in small stickers with printedgraffiti tags or artist logos. Tags andstickers can be applied in seconds, and arethe safest methods to use in areas wherethere are pedestrians or police.

Where congestion thins in an area, graffitigrows in complexity. Single-line tags aresupplanted by “throw-ups” that display anartist’s name in multi-colored bubblelettering. More involved “masterpieces,” or“pieces,” can look like fine-art murals, andusually still retain the artist’s street nameas their core component. Some graffiti iselaborate and requires some time to execute.But graffiti is illegal, speed is almostalways a priority, and speed is the essenceof the style and economy of the form. SAZ hasbeen improving on the time he needs for athrow-up. “I can do one now in less than twominutes,” he says proudly.

SAZ has been painting graffiti since he wasfifteen. His curiosity was sparked bybathroom and locker graffiti at his highschool. He engineered his first tag in apersonal notebook, a tool that most graffitiartists keep and harbor over the course oftheir careers. He was soon marking tagsaround his school, and he was eventuallycaught and suspended by school authorities.

SAZ stopped tagging the school during hissuspension, but he continued to tag anddoodle in his notebooks. An experiencedgraffiti artist eventually saw SAZ’s notebookand encouraged him to take his art to thenext level—the street. “He told me that I waswasting my talent in my notebook,” SAZ said.

Eventually, some experienced “writers” tookSAZ under their wing and helped him make thedifficult switch from magic-markers to spraypaint. “I was horrible at first, but myfriends made me keep at it.” SAZ startedleaving tags all around Brooklyn, and histechnique improved. He slowly built upcredibility in the neighborhood, and otherartists started recognizing him and his work.“It’s a pretty cool feeling when someone at aparty walks up and says ‘hey man, I’ve seenyour stuff.’ Younger kids who are new tograffiti look up to me now.”

SAZ leaves his house at night to paintgraffiti, wearing clothes that will blendinto the local environment. When painting inWilliamsburg he likes to wear a flannel shirtand hipster pants. In the Bronx, he wearsbaggy pants and a hoodie. He usually bringstwo cans of spray paint per outing, which isenough to paint a handful of quick tags or acouple of intricate throw-ups. And the cansare easily concealed beneath a baggy shirt orjacket. If he needs more paint he’ll carry acheap bag that he won’t mind discarding if hehas to run from the police.

No matter how secretive they try to be,paint can easily give graffiti artists away.After a night painting around Williamsburg,SAZ will sometimes return home covered in it.“In Brooklyn having paint on you doesn’tmatter, because there are lots of hipsterartists walking around with paint on theirclothes. It can be more dangerous in otherboroughs.” If he sees someone in public withpaint residue on a sleeve, SAZ will walk upand ask, “yo, what do you write?” If theperson looks confused, he’s probably not agraffiti artist. If the person reactsdefensively and says, “I don’t write,” thenyou know he is definitely a graffiti artist.

Paint residue on a person isn’t enough forcops to prosecute, but a can of spray-paintor a magic marker is a legal smoking gun.Paint is also a touchy subject at SAZ’s home.At times, SAZ will have upwards of 1000 cansof spray paint stashed around the apartmentin shoeboxes. He steals most of his paintfrom Home Depot using a technique called“rack and return.” Home Depot and otherhardware stores keep their spray paint behindlock and key, but that isn’t enough to keepSAZ from getting the paint he needs.

SAZ does his best to keep his paint out ofsight at home, but his Mom and Dad are nofools. “My Mom thinks graffiti looks cool,but she warns me not to shit where I eat,” hesays. “My Dad once told me he hopes theycatch me and cut my fingers off.”

SAZ and I migrated to the WilliamsburgBridge overpass, and we sat down on a loadingdock next to a large white wall that he hadtagged with the artist RAMBO. “I want to be afamous graffiti artist, but I never want thepublic to know my real name, and I don’t wantto be a sellout,” SAZ told me.

Since the 1970’s hundreds of “writers” haveemerged from the graffiti world. Some, likeBrooklyn locals Ewok and Futura 2000, wereable to transition into fine-art galleriesand lucrative licensing and design careers.Their successes have drawn envy from theirpeers in graffiti, as well as resentment fromart world people. At best, the art world hasmixed feelings about graffiti artists and thecritics who dole out praise for theirartistic prowess.

Said Ewok in an email: “It is interestinghow the people who show up at a gallery andpraise your art are the same people who callthe cops in the middle of the night when theysee you painting.”

Street Art Versus Graffiti

The term “street art” is increasingly usedto describe publicly accessible art that isbeyond the scope of traditional “graffiti.”Artists and art connoisseurs all seem to usethe terms differently, and the distinctionbetween graffiti and street art is somewhatof a semantic battleground. Some argue thatgraffiti is illegal while street art tends tobe sanctioned by public arts commissions andprivate store owners. Others say graffiti artis limited to the act of rendering anartist’s name or initials, while street artassumes other stylistic forms such asposters, murals, mosaics, and sculpture.

Famous contemporary street artists includeElbowtoe, Banksy, and Shepard Fairey, thedesigner of the Barack Obama “Hope” poster.

Steven P. Harrington, who co-authored“Brooklyn Street Art” with Jaime Rojo, toldme he believes there are stylisticdifferences between graffiti art and streetart, but the two art forms share anhistorical relationship that was integral totheir development.

“The current street art crop is definitelyan evolution from the tradition of NYCgraffiti writers as well as a number of morepublic artists in New York dating back to theearly 1980’s, like Keith Haring, RichardHambleton, Jenny Holzer, and Jean-MichelBasquiat,” says Harrington. “Despite thesimilarities [with graffiti art] this newmovement has a wider scope and a greaternumber and variety of participants, probablydue to the ‘do it yourself’ movement thatcontinues to take root.”

While Ewok says that his roots will alwaysbe in graffiti, he has recently been devotingmore of his time to “fine art on canvas.”Next month his work will be showcased at theArt Basel gallery in Miami. He admits thatage has been a factor in this transition—theolder one gets, the more a graffiti arrestand the threat of jail time will wear downmotivation.

The “broken windows” theory of crimeprevention says that if you repair a brokenwindow within a short time, say, within a dayor a week, the tendency is that vandals aremuch less likely to break more windows or dofurther damage. For New Yorkers it hasperhaps had mixed results. But few wouldargue that the city is not a safer place tolive today than when the theory was put intopractice against graffiti by Mayor Ed Koch inthe 1980’s. However, it has also left askewed system of justice that sometimestreats graffiti artists more harshly thanviolent crime offenders.

Ewok knows this first-hand. He was oncearrested for graffiti at his high school onthe same day another student was caught witha loaded .357 magnum pistol. “They treated mygraffiti charge more seriously than the kidwith the hand-gun.” The city booked Ewok inthree different precincts that day. While hewas being fingerprinted at the first policestation, Ewok saw the gun violator walk outthe door with his parents. Ewok received along school suspension; the other kid “wasback in school the following Monday.”

Given the potential consequences of gettingcaught by the NYPD anti-graffiti task force,it isn’t surprising that artists like Ewokeventually prefer painting murals andcanvases instead of construction sites.

While walking back toward the Bedford Lsubway stop, SAZ said to me, “You’d besurprised how many graffiti artists are over40 years old.” But he admitted that he hasslowed down his graffiti painting lately tostay on the right side of the law. “Ifsomeone would buy a canvas from me, I’d paintcanvas too,” he said. Clearly, graffiti ismostly a young person’s game.

The immense artistic and expressive spiritthat attracts so many artists and creativetypes to Brooklyn is a blessing and a cursefor graffiti artists. Real estatedevelopment, a more lucrative form ofcreative expression than graffiti, has wipedout many of the legendary graffiti spots. Andlegal street art can keep only a handful ofgraffiti artists busy at one time. The othersmust constantly scope out new territories tofeed their “writing” addictions.

“That said, there is a great amount ofunderground talent living in this borough,”Ewok said of Brooklyn where he resides. “Ilike it for the most part—a lot of artiststrying to live down-low lives.”

http://thewgnews.com/

        

        

        

Broken Windows, the directors cut, 100 more pages added and a hard cover, made specifically to coincide with the Graffiti Gone Global Art Basel Campaign this December in Miami.  BUT, don't get left out just becasue you're unable to attend.  Act fast! 

http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Windows-Graffiti-James-Murray/dp/1584233761/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258417292&sr=1-4

        

This entire "scene" is full of frauds and dick sucking yes men.....    I no longer can sit by and watch the bullshit unravel around me in every direction. The ass kissing, the brown nosing, the fake complimenting..... Ever direction I look is fakeness, socialites trying to be down....

I ask, is there anyone still in touch with reality?  Is there anyone still living on planet Earth? Or is it all Hollywood plastic fakeness?     

I've figured it out, this is why I've become the outcast, the one that's been a decade plus ahead of the curve yet these clowns would love to act like I don't exist, then amatures come around and conduct themselves in a caliber that should make my entire city feel embarrassed and you get praised like Elvis came back to life with the cure for Herpies.....



Check it out, I'm boycotting you, and all the fake shit....  When you see me, don't bother cuz I m lookin'  right through you frauds.......... You know who I'm talkin about......


And if you and I don't get along, it's because you're fake and I can't fuck with you....   



I'm the same person I've been since day one, and you will forever be stuck being you.  Have a nice day.  

        

        

        

So I swung by my boy Chino's  house to finally get my copy of the "Piece Book Reloaded" 1985-2005.  I was overwhelmed, they stepped it up this time, the first book covering the earlier years was already top notch.  But this one caught me off guard because the first page you see is the actual back of a REAS AOK page, so you see the bleed thru back, yo, they actually scanned and reprinted the back side!  Right there I was hooked. I can't say enough about this book, it's thick, super nice quality and the color reproduction is superb... Here's a couple images that at a glance you would think are actual page of a book... Don't be an idiot, add this to your book collection before they're out of print..  And I wanna give a thanks to a long time homey of mine who's been in my corner since we first met back in '96 through an old homey Kelly, time flies man..... You shown me nothin' but love bro, I t's good to know there's still some stand up guys in a scene so full of crabs and jealousy....    Thanks Chino. 





So here's the old book stuff I submitted. This was something I did in 1997, my mind was more on the wavelength of trying to make a blue print for an actual 3 dimensional and functional wood puzzle. Two E's, two W's, two's O's and two K's.   This was something I envisioned but didn't have the resources to make a realize.  If there is anyone out there who thinks they're willing to take on this kind of thing, feel free to reach out.  Never too late.  Something in the vein of these images bellow.


Something like how these pieces hold tight when aligned.  Always intrigued by this kind of hand craft work.

        

Swing over to ABDUZEEDO today.  Pretty cool art inspired page, and much more.  Im sure you'll bookmark it and go back.   Tell'm large marge sentcha'

        

There are a very small amount of prints left, if you where planning to put it off this is your last chance. Don't get caught paying triple on Ebay a year from now  when these are long gone and the flippers are running the market cost.  I give my network the first chance at all these goodies.  I understand it's tough out there on you guys but that it why we are making these available for such a good price.  We're all in it together.  But don't get caught sleeping. 

Direct link    http://dirtypilot.myshopify.com/products/ewok-5mh-working-9-9

        

"You where his favorite writer, you and Totem"   


Rest easy BEZ...........