Pleasure, pressure... pain

Things have slowed down a bit now on the artistic front, so I'm finding the need to push myself a little harder to keep projects coming. I have done a bunch of kind of crafty stuff recently, working quite a bit with stuff I would otherwise discard (i.e.: wooden President Brie containers, empty spraycans, stuff I find at the town dump when I bring my compost there, etc.). This work is of course rather enjoyable to do from a process perspective; I do love process; but they leave me feeling a little less fulfilled than something like a 4'x6' painting might.

I had an awesome night of freestyling with what I consider to a "best of" compilation of Burlington emcees down at the 1/2 Lounge the other night. Hosted by DJ Kanga and my man Backwoods (Heileg), with appearances by Rajnii, Habit, Adrift, Question the MC, Polyrhythms, and several others,(Notably absent was Humble) this was definitely a high point of my creative month thus far. Good vibes were definitely flowing and I felt on top of my game as far as bringing positive and intricate freestyles without falling off.

The night before last was highlighted with a trip to the infamous "barn," essentially an enormous garage that some friends and I utilize as a painting studio, and a long evening of new painting. Shape and I got things rolling pretty early with some great critical conversations and strong coffee and Transplante made a slightly late appearance but brought the thunder artistically, resulting in all 3 of us getting some new paintings started. It felt really good to start something new again and I felt the influence of recent work informing the way that I have been working. Expect to see some photos of this stuff soon...

Oh yeah, the pressure and pain part. I am never one to dwell too much, but I am definitely feeling some pretty significant physical ailments at the moment, lower back, left knee, right hand... whatever. I'm not really bitching. I guess I mostly mention it because it feels relevant and furthermore because whenever I notice some physical pain I tend to get focused quickly on doing what I need to do to get rid of it, so I am thinking it's time for some more excercise.

Ya know, I dug around a bit for something more to share with y'all this morning, but honestly nothing is moving me. I've seen a couple of pretty cool videos lately, but so have you. I guess that's it for now. Get out there and make some art... I know I will. Oh yeah... something I saw...

Latenight

Wall2Canvas

Turning pages...

What a sick weekend I just had!!! The Wall2Canvas event turned out to be a huge success. Hundreds of people showed up to watch everything from amazing, live freeform graffiti to beautifully planned and executed wheatpaste collages and an awful lot of painting that falls in between. My own work was extremely spontaneous in it's nature, while it certainly had a framework laid out in advance. I met some pretty amazing artists and just interacted with a lot of really cool people. I am very thankful that I spent the $10 and took the time to be a part of this event.





Check out more shots of this event here


So the day would have been done right... but NOPE! Since my good friend and long time collaborateur had come up to take video and photos of the day and had driven his epic Mocean 365/Mocean Mate Dodge Sprinter which has long been in need of some sprucing up, I quickly assembled a crew of some of the best around and got back to my lot and straight to work. As the picture indicate we painted until the wee hours of the evening until a couple of friendly yet not so friendly police officers came along to convince us that even though we were on private property connected to the building I live in, we would still have to move along.





Check out more pics of the evenings festivities here


All in all, I feel blessed to have been a part of so much creativity in one day. I woke up the next morning sore... from painting. That's good stuff. So the projects continue and the energy keeps moving on. So, that's it for now, but as usual, here's a little something to feed the fire: