Tag Archives: graffiti art

True TrustoCorp.

What a weekend! Wow. I hope you all had as much fun as I did. I pretty much did it all, and I’ll be sharing some of the details throughout the week, but right now I want to share this very cool piece of street art. It’s a true TrustoCorp.

trustocorp, trustocorp street sign, trustocorp graffiti

A friend wrote in after my No Killing Anytime post to say that the series looked like the work of TrustoCorp. They certainly did, but they actually weren’t. They were wheatpastes that had been applied over existing real street signs. The way TrustoCorp does it is they manufacture real metal signs.

When this one caught my eye initially, I thought it was a real city sign. Woah, I thought, Berkeley really is progressive! (Sign was spotted right outside Looking Glass Photo on Telegraph Ave where the Pinhole Workshop was held yesterday… great fun… more on that later.) But as I got closer I spotted the TrustoCorp logo (the T inside the “wings”) and then this on the back…

trustocorp sign, trustocorp berkeley, real men use fists

I was particularly excited to see this piece of street art because the whole blogittersphere was abuzz last week with the sightings of possibly Banksy pieces in San Fran, and I was feeling a little left out…
http://spotsunknown.com/new-banksy-in-chinatown/
http://missionlocal.org/2010/04/famed-unseen-street-artist-banksy-marks-the-mission/

Folks aren’t sure if these are the real deal (they look pretty authentic to me) or the work of a copycat artist, but either way, it’s certainly great P.R. for the recent release of the new street art documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. The film had a sneak preview showing in S.F. on the 15th, and is now playing Bay-wide at a few select locations…

Exit Through the Gift Shop Showtimes

In any case, I think Mr. Banksy and the folks from TrustoCorp should make their way over to Oaktown! C’mon y’all, show us what you got…

Art Show tonight at Old Crow…

There’s an opening reception tonight at Old Crow Tattoo and Gallery for a new “conceptual exhibition” titled Stand Tall…  I plan to go, along with apparently hundreds of other folks (according to their Facebook page which has links for all 20 artists participating).  Yikes!  This is going to be packed.

Here’s their write-up…

Old Crow Tattoo and Gallery with curatorial support from Barrett Moore, has given simple but rigid parameters to the participating artists for this exhibition. Our hopes are to create an all inclusive visually dynamic result. Spanning the country, and at the same time the stylistic confides of aerosol art; the plan was to keep the conceptual execution at the essence each decision. These artists span the country, and at the same time the stylistic confides of lowbrow art. Each selected for his or her individual efforts, this show will also find grace within the group’s overall presentation. Standing Tall at 3ft x 9ft, each artist will be fully in control to install, hang and paint whatever they choose within this personal space. 10 of these columns will line each gallery wall independently. Around 10 o’clock The Chastities will be playing, the event is scheduled to last until about 11… which means it wont end till at least 12.
Photography from Scott La Rockwell so look swell… it’s going to be a gala.

Four G’s Magazine will be on site with the best Graff Magazine on the newsstands right now. Montana’s will be supplying us with the paint needed to make this happen. Give thanks to Art Now SF for continued support and creative focus.
Wine supplied by Steven Heimoff of the Wine Ethusianst Magazine
Organic beverages from Bionade
Musical Selections from Turntable Terry
Hope to see YOUUU ALL THERE.

And here’s an example of a collaborative piece done by two of the artists participating in the show… Desi W.O.M.E. and Ras Terms. The mural is located on the front of the old Parkway Theater… installed for their recent show at Woody’s Cafe across the street.

desi w.o.m.e., ras terms, rasterms, graffiti art oakland, oakland mural art

This is not Art.

Ok… I’m a little peeved, so please excuse.

There was a big warehouse party in my neighborhood Friday night to celebrate the birthdays of several graffiti artists. The flyer was super-cool and the party was right around the corner from me so I was kind of excited to check it out.

There were DJs, live bands, an outdoor firepit, and tons and tons of kids (what I call “kids”… I think I was the second oldest person there!) It surely seemed like a great time for everyone else, but I ducked out early as tall PBR’s aren’t really my cup of tea (did you see my post on The Trappist? – that’s more my style). Walking back around the block we spotted numerous kids (aka young men) tearing up and down the street… the rattling sound of shaking spray-paint cans echoing against the concrete and brick. They were tagging anything and everything, in a neighborhood they don’t live in.  Would they do this on the block where they live??!

The next morning I surveyed the damage.

Here are just a few pictures of my neighbor’s building…

tags, tagging, spraypaint, lame graffiti

graffiti, spray paint, lame graffiti, tagging, tags

graffiti, spray paint, lame graffiti, tagging, tags

graffiti, spray paint, lame graffiti, tagging, tags

graffiti, spray paint, lame graffiti, tagging, tags

I’m sorry, but this is not cool. In fact, it’s incredibly LAME.

You heard me… I don’t care if I sound like a stodgy old fart. That brick building is home to people who actually live in this neighborhood… working artists and interesting people. Do they deserve to have their property disrespected like this?

And what’s worse is that I know some of the people who did this are actually talented artists. There was a collection of wonderful poster art inside the party, with interesting and thought-provoking messages. This is Art…

graffiti art, graffiti artists, poster art, oscar grant art

It’s too bad these kids didn’t collaborate, and actually do something interesting, something that might be considered a complement to the neighborhood that would live on and inspire others. Instead, they created a bunch of eyesores that we’ll all have to spend money to remove. Thanks a lot guys. Pretty lame.

Crude & Gats

So I’m a little late getting this one up… always so hard to catch up after the long holiday weekends… busy busy busy. And even though this is a new week, it’s the last day of the month and I really wanted to finish up the graffiti focus of last week with the stellar and ubiquitous work of a couple of local artists…

“Dead Eyes” is the tag you’ll see on much of one guys work, but he’s a West Oakland artist who actually goes by the moniker “Crude”. I know this because my graf friends tell me these things. Thanks Endless Canvas!

He’s enough of an entity that KQED actually did a brief feature on him as part of their arts program Spark… you can check out the clip here.

I’ve featured his works before… I think the first one was a hand-drawn USPS sticker right outside my home. You can use the search feature to find all the other posts if you’re curious… He does lots of faces with a wide flat nose and thick lips. He embellishes many of them with more ornate elements reminiscent of African masks.

Crude, graffiti art, sticker art, dead eyes sticker

In the shot below, the smaller sticker top right is his… it says “Dead Eyes”… duh. The sticker below and slightly left (with the beard) is the work of another artist named Gats (short for Graffiti Against the System). This is one of his simpler pieces… You’ll see a developing trend…

Gats, gats sticker, gats graffiti art, west oakland graffiti

Here’s another pair… Crude on the left (Army of One) and Gats on the right… This face with the beard seems to be his trademark.

crude sticker art, stickers by crude, dead eyes stickers, dead eyes graffiti, graffit art oakland

A lot of these works seem to be unique hand drawn stickers (rather than mass produced)… maybe that’s why one was ripped off below….

Dead Eyes Stickers, Crude stickers, West Oakland Sticker art, west oakland graffiti

This one below is the most detailed of Gat’s images that I’ve seen…. it’s incredible.

solidarity forever poster, poster art by crude, dead eyes graffiti art, wheat paste

Another Dead Eyes with a handful of other folks…

sticker art by crude, dead eyes stickers

And two more Gats…

wheat paste by gats, gats wheat paste

gats wheat paste, sticker art west oakland, wheat paste by gats