www.banksyfilm.com
www.banksy.co.uk

We’re getting ready to move. Almost everything in the store is 50% off so we can reduce to make the move easier. Also, we have some copies of PEEL Magazine that we’d rather sell than move. Check it out on the shop.

Brooklyn stencil artist Logan Hicks completed his largest stencil to date today on the streets of Brooklyn. The 30′ x 8′ image of his son Sailor playing with a train set is made with 5 layers of stencils and 150 stencil plates. Curated by BrooklynStreetArt.com for Espeis Outside Gallery, the mural was completed in about a day and a half. The end of the stop action video features footage of the boy himself playing with his train. Says Hicks about his motivation to do his largest scale mural about his son, “The funny thing about time is that you dont realize how fast it is passing until you have a kid to remind you. Each day my son grows, and although I love watching him sprout up, it reminds me of how quickly time is passing.”

Check it out here on BrooklynStreetArt.com

The often imitated, never duplicated, OG vinyl art show, Vinyl Killers returns this October for another round of rescuing long forgotten records from the world’s landfills. This year there have been at least 6 other vinyl shows in North America alone and interest in the artform is at an all time high. After six annual shows and several touring exhibits Vinyl Killers remains committed to staying open call, independent, D-I-Y, and free of corporate sponsorship.

Since it’s inception in 2003 Vinyl Killers has showcased well over 1000 records painted by artists from around the world. A quick glance at the VK website shows both the genres global influence and the absolutely amazing things that are being done with paint and old records. Media recognition for this innovative show includes The Art Of Rebellion 2 and Stencil Nation, and features in numerous international street art magazines and blogs. In 2005 Klutch, the founder and curator of VK, had the room that he decorated with painted records for San Francisco’s Hotel Des Arts featured in Time magazine.

You can view and purchase art from the entire show after Sun, Nov 1st
http://thegoodfoot.com/gallery/

Wall Lords 2009 - Korea Stage from Wall Lords on Vimeo.

wall-lords.com

Dave and Holly Combs are wonderful people as well as the founders of PEEL Zine. They took the risk of following their artistic passion and have paid the price of losing their home. I created this print with and for them to raise money to help with their huge debt. PEEL has helped to support and grow the street art community and I believe they deserve to have the favor returned. Profits from this print go to help the Combs family. Please help out. -Shepard

Nearly eight years ago a sticker changed my life forever. My wife Holly and I had traveled to Ground Zero NYC to assist with the 9/11 recovery effort. Amongst the noise of a city in turmoil an unassuming little sticker kept popping up declaring that “André the Giant has a Posse.” My curiosity was piqued and investigation ensued. I was both delighted and amazed to learn that I had unknowingly participated in a kind of social experiment in Phenomenology. The stickers had challenged the way I viewed public space and led me to question many long-held ideas about what art could be. That raw, unexpected, anonymous encounter stuck with me and powerfully impressed upon me the efficacy of street art using the medium of the sticker.

Shepard’s work inspired Holly and me to start our own propaganda campaign to “ban comic sans” and soon after to document street art in our own DIY fanzine, PEEL. Over the course of eight issues and about five years the zine grew from 200 black-and-white, ½-size copies to 20,000 full-color, full-size glossy copies distributed worldwide. We eventually started an online store, GORILLAmART.com, to sell sticker packs and zines related to street art. After a while we also opened a gallery in Indianapolis dedicated to showing the work of street artists, Alias Gallery which lasted for about a year. We also worked with a publisher to produce the book PEEL: The Art of the Sticker which collects highlights from the first eight issues. Through our work we were directly involved in the production and/or distribution of about one and half million stickers.

In all of this work, we were unable to turn a profit, but rather incurred a large amount of personal financial debt secured by our home as collateral. About the time of the economic downturn we were unable to continue paying on all the loans we had taken out to pursue our dream and as a result lost our home in bankruptcy. Though it’s been difficult we have no regrets and it’s been an incredible ride.

Holly is now teaching street art in public schools through her Street Styles workshops. We are both are grateful to everyone who has been involved with and supported PEEL in some way or another from fans to street artists. We are especially grateful to Shepard for both inspiring us to embark on this incredible journey of doing PEEL Magazine and for now helping us get back on our feet with this print. - Dave Combs

The Sticker Kit Print will go on sale 10/6 at a Random Time, Limit 1. Edition of 450, 18×24, S/N, $50
For sale tomorrow on: obeygiant.com

By Meg Duffy
Photos by Todd Brooks

When Raymond Salvatore Harmon paints, he likes to get up close and personal with the piece. Shoes are discouraged as he walks the floor, surveys the scene, and paints directly on the ground beneath his feet. His multi-eyed creatures wave their many arms as they crawl towards an all-seeing eye. Layering colorful circles to create complex shapes, Harmon’s work sometimes seems like it’s from another planet. I managed to pin down this nomadic soul for five minutes and asked him about his recent show at New York City’s Secret Project Robot Gallery.

Did you have any formal education? When did you start officially working and exhibiting in galleries?
My education background is in cultural anthropology, but I have been painting since I was young, like 13 or so. I was involved in a kind of experimental arts laboratory classroom in high school in Michigan. In the late 80’s, we had digital computer graphics, VR and animation software. We were beta testing Disney’s first internal animation software, “Disney Paint,” about a year before I graduated. It was a full range art class environment: computer suites, painting studio, design room. All this was happening before almost any university had a digital arts program. As a painter I did my first show sometime in the mid 1990’s. I’d had some ‘private viewing’ shows before then through people I know. I have always spent a lot more time in the exploration of new forms and ideas than I do in building exhibitions.

What spurred your interest in Kabbalah and mysticism?
My interest in the esoteric came at a very early age. Around 11 or so I had a love of mythology and was fascinated by Dante. After reading my way through my library’s books on world myth I stumbled onto a book called 9 Visionary Girls about the Salem witch trials. From there, it grew into D&D and eventually into serious study of the Kabbalah and Thelema by my late teens. It’s just something that has always fascinated me and influenced everything I do. Even before any reading I spent a lot of my childhood thinking about ideas like “god” and the shape of the universe. I guess most kids do, I just never outgrew it.

You mix so many different techniques: graffiti, web-based media, performance, paint, etc. How did you become a jack-of-all-trades? Was the process filled with more education or experimentation?
I have a lot of ideas about things and in order to see them done I have had to learn to use a lot of different tools. Some of them are physical, while others are software-based. Different creative concepts take on specific forms and require a wide range in terms of execution. I give equal value to a soldering iron, a can of spray paint, a brush or some design or photo software. My education came from my friends and the environments we inhabited.

Since we at PE3L love a good graff story, could you tell us a little about your graffiti style ad bombing?
I did a series of pieces where I went onto subways systems in San Francisco and Chicago with stenciled text statements meant to look like hip adverts. They were placed on the bit of the train above people’s heads where ads go. I just slipped them into the slots. Each stencil was a web domain on which I had placed some piece of interactive art. There were three or four sets of 200 made and distributed. One was “doyoueverunderstand.com” another was “Ihavealwayslivedhere.org.” All that was on them was the domain in big letters and some abstract stenciled shapes. One site got about 30,000 hits in a month, which isn’t bad for the early 2000’s.

The other side of the piece was that I used spam software to email specific cultural institutes (like museums, etc). In the email I used software to mask myself as the director of the institute so that all the employees from the institute thought they were getting an email from the boss. Each email’s subject was “Have you seen this?” with just a link and the signature of the director. I used tracking software to document how many of the people I sent the emails to actually looked at the site. You’d be surprised at the accuracy. Usually at least half looked, with 60 of the 70 people I emailed at the Whitney checking it out within two days.

The idea was that graffiti is a lot more than a tag or a stylish picture. It can be a command, a bit of code placed into the urban environment that changes the way those who see it act. What seems like poetry on the subway turns out to be a map to some other, more abstract thing.

Your style tends to lean more towards the abstract. What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in this surrealist realm as opposed to a more realistic approach?
The thing about abstraction is that it’s open to interpretation. Some people see the color/form and that’s it. Others think they see the figurative hidden inside and draw meaning from that. With my paintings I use a great deal of abstract patterns, but they almost always take the shape of some organic being. I am fascinated with organic forms; especially those forms that are alien to us yet hold some semblance of life and movement. Over the past few years my paintwork has become dominated by the trance/visions I have during ecstatic experiences.

This time around, what direction are you trying to go in? Is there anything new you’re experimenting with/trying this time around?
My current street work grew out of the drawing diaries I have kept for years of psychedelic inspirations. Bits and pieces of trance states that come out as sea creatures and abstract patterns. My first street work started when I lived in NYC in the mid 1990’s. I did a lot of text-based poetry/writing on the glass of bus stop terminals. I used a kind of paint that has a catalyst/hardener in it so you can’t just scrape it off the glass as it binds to the glass surface. (This kind of paint was used on old cola bottles). All of these were just one liner texts like Japanese Zen koans. I also did some mural gang work - big pieces done by a crew - but it was never my design.

When I moved to Chicago I realized the stuff I had been putting down in my sketchbooks would make great street pieces. Over time the process has become more focused. I almost always paint on the ground as I walk around the piece. Since moving to the UK I have started using field line marker (the kind they use to draw lines on sidewalks and football fields.) Its perfect for doing flat work as it sprays down, plus it comes in 700ml cans and you can use it in the rain to paint on grass as well as concrete.

The pieces I am doing now are all freehand. No preparation. I love stencil work but personally it feels so confining. I want to be able to paint, not just print an image on a surface. I like the dance of the process through developing the lines and seeing a piece come into reality. I never pre-plan how a piece will look before I show up to a site. I just take some cans and see what happens. The pieces become very site specific that way. I don’t think my work has a ‘message’, but it comes from a very personal place. The abstract forms develop out of my experiences in transcendentalism. I see the work as a representation of my inner thoughts. The development of the imagery comes as a flowing experiential process.

I read that you moved around a lot in the USA, living in New York, Georgia, Kentucky, and Oregon. Why the constant motion? Do you finally feel settled in London?
When I was young I spent a lot of time exploring what was happening in the US. From age 18 on to 23 I didn’t stay in any city longer than a year, often moving after only a couple of months. I moved in wider and wider circles away from Michigan: first all over Michigan, then randomly around the states. NYC was a big stop (about a year) but then I finally hit Chicago, where I lived for about 11 years.

Eventually, though, I started to feel confined in Chicago. It’s a great city but I came to realize it’s easy to live there and get by. In the end, it wasn’t challenging me enough. So I gave up the huge studio I built and moved to London. The one upside of all the moving is that I have seen an amazing amount of live music performances, many legendary, due to the constant movement. A couple of times, the timing of my moving was calculated just so that I could see a band perform.

London is just another temporary space. I fantasize about settling someplace warm, Portugal or Spain. I figure London will last a few more years, but I would like to try getting out of the urban for a while. Someplace with trees and no winter.

Why did you relocate to London? What’s special about the art scene there?
I came to the EU on tour with the Exploding Star Orchestra doing live improvised video in the winter of 2007. I spent a month on the road and decided that I had to move to the EU. While I was here I came to the UK to work on a book and decided London was the place to be. Lots going on, a huge unknown expanse of street to paint on, plus the CCTV challenge. I got out of the US just before the financial crash, though it happened here as well.

The biggest difference between the EU/UK and the US is the level of art appreciation. People, normal everyday people, are into art. There is still the typical elitist art world, but the level of art appreciation here runs deep. The Banksy show in Bristol had block long lines all day the whole month it was open. In the States, Banksy wouldn’t get a museum retrospective; he would get arrested for destruction of property.

What prompted the show at Secret Project Robot? How did Brooklyn’s creative community differ from your London home base? What kind of feedback did you receive from the show?
Todd ‘Pendu’ Brooks is the guy who puts on the New York Eye and Ear Festival. He curated the show at Secret Project Robot during the last No Fun Festival. It was good timing because I got to see an amazing weekend of shows while I was in town. I am always up for a visit to Gotham. When I lived in NYC I hated it: too much pressure, not enough having a good time. This was around 1995. I did some nice things, got involved with a graffiti mural gang, and did the solo pieces on the glass bus stations. But I was constantly broke and never really into being there.

I tried to convince the graffiti group I was working with to do a live raid/bomb on the elevator of the Whitney Museum. We would do these pieces that were 6 3×3 ft sections of a grid. Each of us did the fill of our square then Julio (the leader) would seam it all together at the end. We could do a 6ft by 9 ft piece in about 2 minutes. We always did Julio’s work/designs though, which I wasn’t into.

So I planned and proposed this piece where we would go into the museum separately and all get in the elevator together and do the inside before we got to the top floor. Its a huge elevator and slow. I figured even if we got caught we could say it was ‘art’ and get out of it. But the guys didn’t go for it; some of them were on probation so they wouldn’t risk it. After that I kind of lost interest. Eventually, I went out west for about 4 months to San Fran and then Eugene, Oregon.

But when I lived in NYC Williamsburg was divided between the Latin Kings and the Hasidic. There was no art community at all. Things have changed. It’s a fun place with a lot of things happening, and it’s way more open and low key than NYC in the 90’s. The only shame about the visit was that I spent so much time in the gallery; I didn’t get a chance to go out and do some street work.

In addition to your visual work, you also produce music and collaborate with artists like Andrew Bird and Magik Markers. Compared to producing visual art, are the processes similar? Do you get a different kind of satisfaction with an audio project?
I have somehow managed to always be around music. It’s more of an accident than anything else. I became a record producer because I collect 16mm film and met Bob Koester (who also collects film), owner of the Jazz/Blues label Delmark.

Through Delmark, I produced records by Rob Mazurek, Josh Abrams, and Chicago Underground Trio. My first two records were by Kevin O’Donnell’s Quality Six, which featured Andrew Bird on vocals and violin. It’s a shame he gave up jazz; he is one hell of a jazz singer.

Before I made it to Chicago, I had somehow made friends with a bunch of people on the Michigan scene: John Olson from Wolf Eyes, Pete Nolan from the Magik Markers. The Michigan scene was just insane in the late 80’s/early 90’s. There were all kinds of music and shows with so many crazy bands.

I guess music is what kept me sane over the years. It’s the one constant. I can go anywhere in the world and the records remain the same. Mingus is still Mingus in Berlin, London, NYC, Tokyo, or Detroit.

This past June, you spearheaded the Equinox Festival, a self-proclaimed ‘festival of scientific illuminism.’ What was the experience like? Would you do it again?
It was a lot of work but in the end, it was worth all the pain and suffering. I wanted to create something that took esoteric ideas out to a broader audience. We had 15 lecturers, 12 films and 15 bands over three days, with everything relating to the ideas of transcendental discovery and mystical tradition. The highlight for me was lying on the floor the opening night as John Zorn, Z’EV and the guys from HATI performed in the centre of the crowd. Total immersion, that’s what it was supposed to be.

I am still uncertain if it will happen again next year. It may just be a singular occurrence. I am not sure how I can do it better and if I can’t make it better the next time around, it’s not worth doing. Time will tell.

What are you working on now? Where will you go next?
I always have too many things going on at once. I have a video performance coming up at the Foundry here in London on November 1st called “Visions of the Al Azif.” It’s based on the hallucinations/visions of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred from HP Lovecraft’s Necronomicon. There is rumor of an exhibition before the end of the year here in London. In the meantime, I am making films and wandering the streets at night looking for a nice patch of ground to paint on.

More at: raymondharmon.com

BrooklynStreetArt.com curates the Espeis Outside gallery space with Brooklyn street art favorites Veng and Chris from the collective Robots Will Kill (RWK).

Veng and Chris worked two days this week to complete the brand new piece in which they pay tribute to the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, published in 1963. It’s a concept they have wanted to paint for a while and their selected scene is a composite of both their painting styles and a few of the scenes in the book. Together they bring the viewer in touch with the power of imagination.

In the original story, the main protagonist, Max, is banished to his room by his mom for acting out around the house and basically being a little punk. While hanging out in his room he begins to imagine a slew of monsters and a jungle and eventually he escapes into a place where he has power over everything and everyone and becomes the King of All Wild Things. Veng and Chris have depicted many characters of their own on the street in the last few years and decided to create some new ones to play the roles here. Vengs photo-realistic boy looks at peace afloat in this parti-colored boat as he sails toward a cluster of Chris’s big comic-book bright monsters. Inspired by the whimsical nature of escapism playtime for kids and the untamed imagination that they have, RWK let their own imagination run wild.

robotswillkill.com
brooklynstreetart.com

Interview by Meg Duffy
Images courtesy of Soft Skull Press

USPS labels are the perfect pocket canvas. With their blank fronts and sticky backs, you can collage, doodle, and paint to your heart’s content. When you’re finished, they’ll stay wherever you slap them. Plus, it’s rumored that online you can get 3,000 of them delivered to you just for the asking. Hmmm…free canvas anyone?
Camden Noir knows a good label when he sees one. He’s compiled the best of the best into one volume of pure street art goodness. Label 228 drops in September, so getting a copy should be your number one priority. Last week, Camden and I sat down to chat about the process.

What inspired you to create the book?

I got some stickers from Mecro. He’s all over the place and they were pretty awesome. Everywhere I went, I saw the labels. I also read a lot, so I’ve read all the graffiti books out there. I noticed that there wasn’t a book specifically featuring the labels. I did some research and found that there weren’t even any books coming out that dealt with the medium. So I thought, “I want to try it!” I started a MySpace page and e-mailed everybody. Through word of mouth, it spread.

How many people ended up sending you stuff? Did you have to cut it down? Did everybody that sent stickers get in?

I started out with just the artists I preferred. Then it was word of mouth: they told artists they liked, etc. The MySpace kicked it off, too. I want to say I got labels from over 600 plus artists. Pretty much every person that contributed got in. Unfortunately, the art director overlooked a few. Sket1 was one of the main ones. I’m a huge fan of his and his stuff never should’ve been left out. This guy Jamus sent in ten of them that were all awesome. Penloon got in under a different alias. They’re amazing artists and shouldn’t have been overlooked. But for the most part, everyone who sent in labels got in.

Did you have any hometown favorites or stickers that really stood out?

My stickers weren’t even supposed to be in the book. I didn’t want to be in the book as an artist. I wanted to be the compiler or author. As far as local people, that was why I started it. I live in Wilmington, N.C., right now. It’s an art town but everybody’s kind of lazy. The book was a reason for them to get off the couch and stop watching reruns of “Flava Flav.” My main intention was to get artists inspired again. There are a couple people from Wilmington who did it. I’m from New York originally, so it was also cool to see a lot of New York artists get in.

Are there many street artists in Wilmington or did gallery artists contribute stickers to the book?

I wish there was more street art here. I put up two pieces and they were taken down immediately. Graffiti doesn’t last long in this town, so I think that keeps people from trying. There are some small stencils but they’re not very adventurous. Kids try, but it’s not very Banksy-esque.

Lots of local folks contributed stuff. I had an art show where I had 3,000 labels just laying on a table. There wasn’t a sign saying what they were for. A couple people came up, asked what they were for, and made a couple labels. Some kid played tic tac toe and I think that sticker made it into the book.

Since I’ve never put a book together, could you explain what the process is like? How do you translate 600 labels into a book format? Did you get software? Did you work with the publisher?

Initially, I had to go through a lot of rejection. I sent the book out to Mark Batty, Ginko, and a bunch of other publishers. There were about six or seven where I just got rejected. I didn’t want to self-publish, but I was getting ready to do so. I started working on the book myself and put some pages together, but I’m not as technologically advanced as other people. It took me about twelve days to do six pages. Finally, I found Soft Skull on MySpace, so I sent them a message explaining my project. They wanted to know more, so I sent them the proposal. David Janik, the guy who’s doing the book now, put it together really quickly and it looks beautiful. Once Soft Skull accepted it, everything moved really fast. The book is bound right now; we’re just waiting for the finishing touches.

How long of a wait did you have between finishing the book and looking for publishers to actually getting accepted?

I’ve moved three times in the time it took to get the book published. It probably took a little over two years to get to where I am now.

Did you receive any kind of feedback as to why publishers weren’t accepting it or did you just get a form letter?

A couple of them did. They said things like, “We appreciate what you’re doing, but we can’t accept any books right now. Ginko said they loved the project but that they were doing Martha Cooper’s book, Going Postal. There were a couple of companies who told me the project was awesome even though they couldn’t take me. Some companies steered me in the right direction and gave me the names of people to speak to. But once I called Soft Skull, it was smooth sailing from there. Those guys are awesome.

Why did you fight so hard to get this book published? What are you trying to accomplish through it? Why are you so committed to it?

I just want artists to be inspired again. I’m an artist myself, so I need some inspiration and something to motivate me. Initially, my goal was to get unknown artists published. That way, they could say, “Hey, I’m at Barnes and Noble. I’m on Amazon.com. You can buy a book that I’m published in.” Then the bigger artists could put the book on their resumés. But it was always for the artists; it was never for me. If I gave up on the project, I would be giving up on them, not myself. They contributed their work and their time.

What’s the next step? Will you be throwing any release parties once the book comes out?

I’d love to. I talked to Adam over at Soft Skull and we’re trying to put together an East Coast book-signing trip. I have friends in Raleigh, DC, Philly, NYC, and Syracuse. I figure I could just fly up to Syracuse and work my way down. School is going to be a complication since it starts on August 28. That might get in the way of things, but I’m willing to give up November or Christmas break to go on a trip.

Wait, do you teach or are you still in school?

I’m still in school training to teach.

Wow, that’s a pretty serious commitment! You’re doing all that school stuff and the book stuff on top of it? I salute you!

Ha ha, thank you! It’s difficult to juggle it all, but it’s not as difficult as you think. I love what I’m doing.

What are you doing now that the project is over?

I was going to do a Hello, My Name Is Book. Huck Gee did some demos of the “Hello, My Name Is” stickers and I thought, “Same thing, different concept.” But once word got out on MySpace, three books popped up. But I have some ideas that I pitched to Adam about Priority Mail boxes. You could do a two-page layout where the box is in 3D form and another with the flat box. It would test people to do a 3D object and see what they could come up with on all sides. Or, the USPS came out with new January 2008 labels. They’re a little bit smaller but it’s still the same format. Plus, I could get new artists, new labels, new everything. I just don’t want it to be redundant. But if you think about it, Post Secret sold so well and all those books are the same concept. It’s about what in the book, not the idea.

To pre-order a copy of the book, visit Camden’s MySpace and throw your name on the list. While waiting is great, a signed copy is fine and dandy. For more info on Soft Skull Press, check out their site as well.

This is going to be a great show, and the exhibition is going to include walls of stickers. If you would like to send stickers for their installations, you can send them to the address below:

Ish Muhammad
7342 Magoun Ave.
Hammond, In 46324

www.swope.org