"At the Epoch of Eras: Utopian Marketplace" by Eve Skylar

“‘Broken’ and ‘hope’ are the two strong words to describe the Rusted Souls’ world: broken robots, broken people, broken ideals, and the thing that persevered was the people’s hope for the future.”  -Eve Skylar

Eve Skylar, one of our featured artists and top-sellers from the current exhibition, gave us some comical and in-depth answers during her interview:

Can you talk a little bit about your work in this exhibit and how it relates to “The Rusted Souls“?

When James proposed “The Rusted Souls” as a concept art themed show, I was thrilled to see how the different worlds might look like: totalitarian, utopian, and dystopian states. Having worked as a production designer and concept artist on
animated films, I tend to see paintings through the cinematic lens. So I wanted to create a narrative of the Rusted Souls environments through a progression of shapes and color.

What kind of artist do you consider yourself?

I am a visual story-teller/artist. I tell stories through my art.

What’s your favorite thing to draw?

Everything fascinates me. But people point out to me that I tend to draw a lot of trees and robots. Apparently as a kid, I drew animals and their poop.

How did you get started making art?

When I was seven years old, my parents enrolled me in a city-wide drawing competition. They bought me oil pastels and my uncle handcrafted a drawing  table. The theme was “a normal Sunday.” I drew an elephant playing soccer. I didn’t win any awards. But that one experience was etched into my memory. My parents didn’t have much, but they always tried to prioritize and give me early life experiences. The rest of my life afterwards was pretty much about survival. I worked two jobs and got myself through college. It wasn’t until about five years ago that I consciously decided to start making art again. I have a lot of people to thank for it.

What is something people may not know about you?

I like to surf. When I lived in Long Beach, I surfed almost every day along the Pacific Coast Highway. I have a 7’8” trick board waiting for me. I once got stung by a stingray.

Where is one your favorite places to go in the city?

You can probably find me sketching inside Café Hana or perusing Kinokuniya in Japantown or in Green Apple Bookstore on Clement Street.

Can you give us some insight behind your three major paintings?

I  wanted to include weather and time of day into the environment narrative. The “Utopian” painting, with its brighter palette emphasizes the ideals of sunny daytime. The “Night Watch” nurses “hope” through a blistery snowy night just
before the break of dawn. The painting “Infiltration” (inside the Capitol), with its industrial complex working around the clock, takes place during an unknown- ambiguous dusty timelessness, when it is either always daytime or always nighttime.

A lot of these discoveries came by through my sketch explorations. “Broken” and “hope” are the two strong words to describe the Rusted Souls’ world: broken robots, broken people, broken ideals, and the thing that persevered was the people’s hope for the future.

What advice would you give to artists?

Art is freedom!
Do what you love. Get heated about life. Chase your dream with all your pride.
Challenge yourself, seek new skills, and grow to “see” better.

Art is a lifetime’s worth of adventures and everyone travels differently. Your best guide to “getting there” is to ask your seven-year-old self. You are more than you think, you have the courage and imagination to see beyond “impossible” things.

 Art is: a riot!

For more information, you can visit her official website: www.eveskylar.com
Eve would like to thank: 1AM, Maya Griffin, James Garcia, Rick Kitagawa, Martha Tian, family and friends.

“The Rusted Souls” exhibit will be showing until May 6th.

In 2005, Facebook’s President at the time Sean Parker, hired artist David Choe to paint the original Facebook Headquarters in Palo Alto. Mr Choe was offered $60,000 for the commission but instead chose to take Facebook stocks. 7 years later it is now 2012 and the stocks he holds could potentially be worth over $200,000,000.

‘Nuff said!

Check out this clip of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and David Choe painting .

Mike Bam: How did you come about your name Poesia? Does it mean anything?

Poesia: It was way back when I was more of a tagger and going through multiple names. I had started to sketch pieces and my name at that time, Emerge, wasn’t flowing well with my style. Then, I ran across this record and it had “Poesia Mix” on it. At the time, I had never heard that word and it seemed like something to mess with. So I started piecing it and later learned its meaning. It means Poetry or Poem in Spanish.

"Study 3" by Poesia

MB: Can you elaborate on how your style has evolved to what it is today?  It is quite powerful with sharp lines and angles. I’ve been told that it’s quite masculine.  How did it come about?

P: I think coming back to graffiti recently in 2007, after taking a couple years off of being a serious painter, I tried to get back in the saddle with some older styles that I had always relied upon. I had started with a west coast wild style influences by local writers like Picasso TWS and Rayge VOB, and then after meeting Raeyvn TWS, I started to experiment a lot more. It was about this time that I started to talk to Joker and I was put down with Transcend in the mid nineties. My style really went off the deep end as I had deconstructed and reconstructed it. I was attempting to paint on walls like I would a canvas and I think a lot of graffiti writers didn’t know what to make of it. I had taken color out of the equation and also worked in muted palettes to create some emotional context that colors weren’t giving me. It was fun times but I think it got old explaining myself.  I teamed up with Poem TDK and established a more traditional style again, west coast wild style with some Oakland funk if you looked close enough. This brings us to the current style. I had created this signature style in the 90′s of transparent outlines on the background and things like that. When I came back, I painted some of these same style pieces when I was in Spain with some of the MSK crew. I found out right away how advanced the art form had evolved stylistically and technique wise. I was way behind, so I went back to the drawing board and tried to establish something new. I really have yet to get fully back after almost 4 years but it’s getting there. This new style is only half of an experiment that will fuse all my styles together soon. The angular geometric style is about breaking down letterform and movement into straight lines, being able to create flow and form without any curves. These pieces are exercises in finding new patterns for my style. These new patterns will emerge in the next series of pieces.

MB: I know you have a blog called Graffuturism.com and it is representing a movement. Can you hit me with an explanation on what “Graffuturism” is all about?

P: This is a tough question because it really isn’t about anything yet. It’s a start to the possibility of something and a direction for some of graffiti artists who attempt to transition into fine art. It is also about the evolution and progression of our art form. I feel we are at the pinnacle of change in our culture and without communication and proper documentation it will get lost in all the noise that is reported on out there. This is one of the reasons why most of the issues featured on the blog, I ask the writers to explain, in their own words, their opinion.  What the evolution of our culture means to them personally is more important than what any one person tries to define.

Without proper discourse we will be swept into the pile with the rest of contemporary art. Or worse be written off as just graffiti vandals. We are so much more than that and people need to pay attention. This new Graffiti Avante-Garde that is forming will become a powerful force in the art world for decades to come.

MB: Why do you think the Fast Forward show was important?

P: I think it’s important for San Francisco to be a starting point for future projects. This city has amazing graffiti history and has established world renowned graffiti artists that have made the transition successfully. What it also has is a very strong style of art. However, I don’t think a lot of people want to admit or see this but it has become predictable at times. I love this city but it is hard to see so many of the same styles grace the galleries for the last decade. There is tremendous talent locally and internationally and the scene is changing in our culture. Important graffiti work is taking place throughout the world and we are at a high level of activity right now.  I’m not dissing any of what San Francisco has accomplished, this has been a mecca of art and creativity for decades. I just personally feel like some of galleries are missing the importance of the current movement of graffiti. Graffiti has grown up. 1AM was able to see this vision with you (Mike Bam) as the curator and take a chance on the artists in the Fast Forward show. Fast Forward is an important show that I feel will be the first step of many towards bringing some relevant graffiti exhibits to San Francisco.

MB: Explain a little on your new “masters” series of work .  What’s it all about?

P: The series of “old masters” paintings that I have been working came about when getting ready for a two-man show in Oakland this year. I wanted to comment on some things and also engage the viewer in a new way. Everything I paint is about graffiti or the letterform. I don’t want to give away too much as these works are still an experiment in progress, but they are part of an on going commentary on the relevance of what we do. I don’t like to spell things out, I would much rather have the viewer have their say on the pieces. This is one of the reasons why I have not titled any of the artwork. When we paint murals and pieces all we do is sign our name rarely do we title a painting in the street environment. These works are far from the street, but created with the same identity and thus align themselves with similar processes.

Check out Poesia’s art at 1AM’s Fast Forward show, up now through October 30th.

"Suiko Okii" by Suiko

Mike Bam: I was very attracted to your style in the Rakgaki book back in 2006 even though I could not read it. Can you explain what your style is?

Suiko: I don’t paint American or Roman letters.  My graffiti style consists of painting Japanese Kanji characters.  However, similar to how American graffiti lettering is based off the Roman alphabet, the styling that I paint is based off of the Kanji alphabet. You will not understand or be able to read my style if you don’t know Japanese Kanji and for many that know Kanji, they still may not be able to read my Kanji style depiction.

M: I noticed that over the past 2 years, I see hints of characters or animals mixed in with your Kanji lettering. Is this what you’re mixing?

S: Yes, I like certain animals and you are correct in seeing the mix of animals with my Kanji lettering.  I usually paint creatures from the Japanese culture (like sea life or a bird). I like painting animals, but I don’t paint animals or characters in the same style that you do with that perfect airbrushed rendering.  I mix it up by incorporating my lettering style with the image of an animal.

M: What does your name mean?

S: The literal translation of Suiko in Japanese to English is not my name.  My name is actually made up of 2 words – “Sui” meaning ‘drunk’ & “Ko” meaning crazy.  However, “crazy drunk” is not the meaning of my name. It goes deeper than just breaking down 2 syllables or 2 words, where there are actually several meanings to “Sui” and several meanings to “Ko.”  (Mike Bam’s editorial note: This definition actually took a long time to explain from Suiko, but the best English definition was that Suiko’s name is based off of a way of life where deranged people or graffiti writers simply do what they do just to do it)

Suiko gettin' down!

M: We just watched Planet B-Boy together & had a great, engaging discussion about the difference on spraycan/street artists that paint full time (and don’t go to an office job) everyday. Can you explain how you became a full time artist?

S: I was about to finish at my university and I had the opportunity to go to Germany to do an exchange in the last semester of schooling. At this time, I was not a graffiti artist. When I got to Germany in 1999, I was introduced to graffiti art. I loved it so much, I picked it up and started painting everyday instead of going to classes. Instead of studying, I collected my monthly allowances and chose to paint everyday. I had such a blast!  Since then, I have not stopped. It was in Germany that I decided that I needed to paint spray can art everyday instead of going to a graphic design office job. I agree with the Bboys from Japan that once you follow your passion and do it everyday, you will have found your identity.

M: As a fine artist of spray can art or graffiti, there must be some commercial gigs or jobs that you do. How do you determine the paying jobs that you do with graffiti art?

S: I choose clients that want my style of art. If they don’t want my style, then I don’t take on the job. For example, I am currently doing a job for a Jeep/Dodge Ram dealership in Hiroshima. I proposed to Jeep/Dodge that I could do their mascot of the Dodge Ram in my “Suiko Style” and they accepted that. This is a perfect marriage of painting something I want to in my style and completing a commercial job using graffiti art.

M: Thank you for answering my questions!

S: You’re welcome!  Please visit Hiroshima anytime and lets paint!

Suiko makin' his mark in SF

Check out Suiko’s work in “Fast Forward”, now up at 1AM gallery through October 29th.  If you want to learn more about him, visit www.suiko1.com.

How did the Fast Forward show come about?

I got together with Dan Pan and Nate1 and we talked about which artists were hot and what topics were at the cutting edge of spray can art.  I mentioned that Poesia’s blog, Graffuturism.com, was featuring new and innovative graffiti as well as discussing where graffiti has been and where it is going.  After being inspired by the site, Poesia and Jaybo were added to the show.  After that, all the other artists started to fall into place.

The artist, Suiko1 from Japan, has always been a favorite of mine for the past 4 years, but not too many people know about him in the US.  His work is nothing like the graffiti art or graphic design I’ve seen in my lifetime. Then, there was Scott Sueme.  In the beginning of the year, I went to a show that exhibited his work in Vancouver and I was impressed. I knew I had to have both of these guys in the show.

Tell us about your works for this show.

My work for “Fast Forward” will be art none of my peers have seen before.  It is a prediction and prophecy of what I think graffiti art will look like in the future but, at the same time, it is a reflection of my past work with computer graphics and my experience in the video gaming industry.  My favorite past time is to do work with lighting in computer graphics and I have translated this to my current work.  As an artist, I aim to manipulate the way people feel when they see color and lighting.

My body of work for this show is also my first attempt to do all my canvases with only Montana Colors spray paint.  I also wanted to show my graffiti writer peers that spray can art in a gallery does not have to look like what it looks like in the street.  It’s much more mature conceptual, abstract, and sophisticated than the public spaces that get smashed in the streets.

I hope everyone enjoys the works of all the artists in the show.  We did a big effort to get a good mix of talent from several different areas of the globe for “Fast Forward”.  It is interesting to see what the future of the graffiti will look like through the eyes of different artists.

Christopher DeLeon breaking it down for his fans

James Garcia dropping knowledge

Representing the struggle and the voices of the less fortunate, Toro projects his graffiti in places people want to ignore and avoid.  This graffiti artist strives to bring light and awareness upon a world that is consumed by darkness and injustice.   Like the bull does to the matador, Toro’s graffiti stares down the law and vigorously fights to the end.

This raging bull is featured in 1AM’s current exhibition, “Outside In” until March 12.  If you can’t make it, check out the available work online.

Also, don’t sleep as Toro presents a larger than life piece in Goorin Brother’s “Extended Stay” exhibition this March 5th from 8-11pm alongside Barry McGee, Steel, and Reyes.

Click for full-size view.

By Michele Lin.  The U.C. Berkeley Extension at the corner of Haight and Laguna, abandoned for years, is now officially a hotbed of delicious street art!  Lower Haters, in cooperation with the city to beautify the neighborhood, got the O.K. to paint this giant stretch of dead real estate.  They pulled together over a dozen artists, gave them paint, and let them loose.  The line-up includes the likes of Mars-1, Doze Green, NoMe Edonna, Romanowski, David Choong Lee, Jeremy Fish, Leanne C. Miller, Matt Sanna, Ursula Young, Hugh Leeman, and a plethora of other talent.  The result is a gourmet of tasty delights to stimulate your optic nerves, feeding your cerebral hemispheres to debunk, and eat up!
 
One highlight of the Lower Haight murals is a mesmerizing collaboration between Mars-1, Doze, NoMe Edonna, Romanowski, David Choong Lee.  I had the opportunity to sit down with artist NoMe Edonna over Philz coffee and a recorder.  We talked about art, living, social structures, and more.

Michele Lin:  You, Mars-1, Doze Green, Romanowski and David Choong Lee all collaborated on a mural in Lower Haight.  What’s your section all about?

NoMe Edonna:  I can’t really say if it’s ‘about’ anything in particular. It’s a freestyle painting, made up on the spot, so I just let it come out.  Visually, It’s a mix between animal, machine, plant, everything. Stylistically, it’s a bit of a return to the ‘characters’ I began painting about ten years ago.  My characters are evolved from letterforms. Like a deconstruction and reconstruction of various written languages and in the process, become a new language. An unspoken language, only to be felt.  You could see it and it might move something inside of you, leading your mind to see animals or something, but there’s no way to know for sure.  Like seeing things in the clouds.

ML:  Does the mural tell a story?

NE:  No, no story.  Okay, there’s a story there if your mind wants to create one and string things together, which may or not be there.  Some of us, we have a certain world view or just the way that we think about things in general and see the world around us, so I think that always creeps into the work.  Doze, for example, works a lot with symbolism and mythology, while Mars’ work is a bit more ethereal and equivocal, which leaves more to the imagination.  Even if there is a particular story there, people will see it and form their own story or meaning and that is the great thing about art, it’s a circular communication between creator and viewer.

ML:  So, did you go to school for art?

NE:  No, I’m an autodidact.  I’m not very good at school.  I usually learn things pretty quick and then get bored.  I just found that I’m better at learning on my own, in my own ways, at my own pace.  The way the system is set up is very archaic.  People learn differently and they don’t encourage that.  In many art schools they don’t even teach you how to draw anymore!  Basically what most learn in school is how to be a cog in the machine, to go off and be part of the system and to perpetuate it.  Even art school. Many of the artists making it in the upper echelons of the art world have gone to Yale or something like that.  The system feeds itself. 

ML:  We’re all part of the system.  It’s a human condition.
 
NE:  Yeah, if you choose to be.  I mean okay, we are ’cause we all live in this society to some degree and depend on the water and power etc., but ultimately, the ‘system’ is a system of beliefs and protocols for living.  I don’t subscribe to most of it.  Most things are designed to make you a distracted, docile consumer. 

ML:  Do you feel like it’s a constant battle?
 
NE:  In some sense, yeah, everyday.  But then you get to a point where you set up your life in a certain way, in the way that works for you as a unique individual within society.  Eventually, you have a good community of people around you that have like ideas and beliefs, so you have the love and support that you need as a human.  It makes it easier, but ultimately, yeah, you’re still in this system that is constantly bombarding you everyday with ads, jingles, images, ideas – you can’t escape it.  I mean, I don’t watch T.V., I haven’t owned a TV in 20 years.  Just that alone is HUGE.  People don’t realize how much of themselves, how much of their own creativity and thought they forfeit to this, every single day of their lives.

ML:  What do you do to make a living?
 
NE:  I’m an artist.  People buy my work and it helps me to continue.  But I’ve also been doing it for a long time and that helps.  There are definitely times where I need to make ends meet and I do what I need to do, whether that’s an odd job or creative consulting, or teaching or something.  I taught at SF School of the Arts for the last five years.  I used to DJ quite a bit and I still play some gigs here and there.  I’m not really a super go-getter businessman type of person.  I’m sure if I were, I’d probably be making a much better living off my art.  I make art because I need to make art, and if I make money off it I feel very fortunate.  I’ve been so blessed over the years with the people in my life and the opportunities that I’ve had.  In the end I’d rather be a bit broke sometimes and do what I love, than work in some job I can’t stand and make “good money.”  A teacher once told me, “Life’s too short and if you’re doing something you don’t like, then stop! Right now!”  That’s something that really stuck with me.  It may sound cliché but it’s really true.  I think a lot of people don’t do that because they’re afraid to go out on a limb and they become seduced by the ‘secure’ life, then they get stuck in that system.

ML:  People like security – it’s safe.

NE:  It’s easier for most.  I mean, I don’t blame people in some way.  But ultimately it’s just fear.  Fear of what your family and friends and society will think of you if you break out and follow your own path, follow that crazy idea you have rolling ’round in your head.  I think the world really suffers from it though.

Ursula Young's section.

ML:  I think it’s holding us back from evolving as a society.
 
NE:  Exactly!  I mean, imagine if everyone was living their lives, doing what they truly loved and were passionate about, and being supported to do it, it would be so amazing!  And it’s fully within our potential to live that way.  In fact, I believe it’s the true way.  I always believed that if you do what you love, and you’re really putting the time and effort and passion into it, it’s going to be good.  It may not be good right away, it may take some sacrifices or whatever, but it will work out in the end.  It always does.

ML:  The world would be so undeniably colorful.
  
NE:  Yeah!  It already is, but could you imagine if instead of handing their lives over to what they’re ‘supposed to do and be’, people were living as truly intended, as unique, creative creatures?  I almost can’t imagine it.  If all the energy that was put into making money, to make war, to make things we don’t need, to mask fears and insecurities – if all that energy was no longer tainted, but pure- oh man, I can’t even begin to guess how the world could be!  Utopia can exist.  I’ve seen it.

ML:  Now what are some significant inspirations?  Derived from anywhere.
 
NE:  Everything; Love. Death. War. Justice. Inequality. Music. Woman….  I’m inspired by countless things everyday.  Artistically, I’m influenced by way too many things and people to even begin a list here.  In a general artistic sense, I guess I would have to say that the ideas of Dada and Surrealism have always made the most sense to me.  Most of my work is born from the subconscious realms and dream states.  Early Hip Hop was also a strong influence.  True Hip Hop, when it was a mix of Funk, Disco, Punk, Rock, Electro, Techno, Soul, all that.  The movement, the dance, the style and color.  The flow.

ML:  What does NoMe mean, and is that your real name?

Doze and NoMe's work collides.

NE:  It means, literally ‘No Me.’  It’s a multi-faceted word that is, at the same time anti-ego and full of ego (in the sense that we are human and have a basic sense to preserve the self).  Also in other languages like Italian for instance, ‘nome’ simply means ‘name’.  I really like that.  My last name Edonna is my father, Ed, and my mother, Donna, names combined.  I changed my whole name.  I changed it legally in 2001.  It’s kind of a long story.  I will make a book in the future and you can read all about it in there! 

ML:  Sweet, I look forward to it!  What are some necessities in the daily life?
 
NE:  Dreams. Growth and evolution. Love and friendship.  I’m just really trying to experience life as I think it truly should be, moment by moment.

ML:  You mentioned that you have a daughter.  How has raising a kid changed your views?  How about your art, has it influenced what you make?
 
NE:  Yeah, she’s about to be 9.  She pretty much kicks ass.  She’s one of the most loving, sharing and creative people I know.  I don’t think it’s really changed my views.  Perhaps it’s just deepened them.  It’s made me want to do my part to change the future of this world into a better place.  She has to live in what we’ve left her.  I read something once before she was born that said something like, ‘One of the most detrimental things for a child is the un-lived life of the parent’.  That always stuck with me.  I feel like so many parents give up on their dreams when children are born for ‘The sake of the child’.  But ultimately, what will these kids have to look up to when they are growing?  And in turn, how will they (and the world) end up if everyone around them is just a hollow shell of their former, true self?

ML:  San Francisco is your home.  How has the city influenced you as an artist, and as a human being?
 
NE:  Oh god, yeah, San Francisco is the best.  I think this place is so special on so many levels.  There is a real ‘earthy’ energy to this place as opposed to somewhere like LA or NY.  And I don’t mean earthy in some sort of ‘hippy’ way, though there is that.  I just mean that it’s extremely beautiful here with the coastal environment, and people here are quite down-to-earth and open-minded.  So much has happened here in the past.  Early SF was crazy during the Gold Rush days.  And then the whole psychedelic movement in the 60′s.  And you can feel it all.  Sometimes the wind blows a certain way and you can get a smell of the history here.  Like when you smell someone’s fireplace burning in the Fall and it makes you think of Halloween or something.  A very visceral, emotional feeling of a time long past.  I often think of how this place was before the white man arrived.  This must have been a very special and magical place to native peoples. This area of the world is definitely some sort of energy vortex.
And, there are people here from all over the world and every kind of food, which really lends to having an open mind about things and facilitates new experiences.  Not to mention, the houses are old and beautiful.  The hills and the streets, dilapidated buildings.  It’s all very inspiring.  And there are so many amazingly talented people here!  I feel blessed to live here.

ML:  Do you have anything to say to readers?
 
NE:  Well, thank you for reading!  I guess if you mean some sort of advice or something to young artists…  I would say to stay true to your own visions and beliefs.  Copy to learn, but then find your own way.  And most importantly, KEEP DOING IT!!  Don’t give up. Sometimes things take years to develop and it’s really worth the process, both as an artist and a human.  I’ve been at it for ten + years and I feel like I’m just getting started!

Michele Lin is the newest member of the 1AM team.  She is an art historian who currently resides in San Francisco, CA.

Murder of Crows 2

Murder of Crows 1

They met 10 years ago in while living in Colorado. Gallegos would travel from Fort Collins to paint walls in Boulder, where Loucheur was living. Says Loucheur on Gallegos: “I always admired his work, but I had taken issue with him because he painted over one of my pieces. Eventually, a mutual friend introduced us. We talked it out and drank a couple tall cans in friendship. Then we went out and painted til dawn. We’ve been painting together ever since.”

They painted together on the streets for many years before the Chamber Made collaboration came to life. “We liked that name, because it reflected the art we made indoors, painting canvases in our chambers.” It was an unlikely collaboration since their styles were so different, and by the time they began working as Chamber Made, Loucheur was already living in San Francisco. Says Loucheur: “I painted a portrait of him and me, leaving room for him to do his thing, and mailed it out to him.  When I saw what he had done with it, it blew me away.  I had only intended to do that one painting, but after that first one we were both hooked.”

Source Material

Loucheur is the artist behind much of the representational content, while Gallegos’ contributions are more graffiti-inspired. Sometimes Gallegos will fly to SF to work on bigger pieces. “We generally shoot for two layers each, so ours is a life of post office lines and airport security,” Loucheur explains. “I think working from a distance was a hidden blessing for us.  We weren’t around to try and direct each other, so the collaboration evolved as more of an organic freestyle, each of us working independently and surprising each other with our moves.  It made it more of a candid visual dialogue, a discussion in paint… As a rule, we work better when we minimize our expectations of what the other will do.  We’ll just agree on a topic beforehand and then riff on that subject, responding to each other visually.”

A Suicide

Their response to to the Nature’s Revenge theme is a prophetic one: “We saw Nature’s Revenge as more than a revenge fantasy… We wanted to address it as the inescapable fate that it is, the day when our greed and gluttony catch up with us, and our species is erased from the world forever. Black birds became a central theme in our symbolism, not only as an ominous harbinger of death, but we also wanted to present birds as modern incarnations of dinosaurs, a nod to the pending extinction of our own species,” says Loucheur. “The painting A Suicide is about exactly that, the collective drive to bring about our own destruction.  It’s the story of a savage end to a savage species.”

A Suicide is part of Nature’s Revenge at First Amendment Gallery.

Chamber Made online: cmcollab.com

Valerie Leavy: What is it about graffiti that lights yer fire?

Nathan Tan aka Nate1: It is an art form I started doing as a kid, and I still find it challenging now as an adult some 23 years later.

VL: How did you choose the artists in the show [The Classics]?

Nate1: Eeenie, meenie, miny, moe!  Hahaha.

I wrote a list of all the writers that made an impact on me and my crew and started contacting them first.  After that, I got alot of help tracking down other influential writers of that era from the artists themselves.  Soon, word got out about the show and a few major players contacted me themselves.  I feel very lucky to have been the one to facilitate this event.

VL: Have they all been active since the beginning?

Nate1: Some of  the artists have consistently been “getting up” in one form or another for 20+ years and some of them have not painted in 20+ years.

VL: How has their work evolved over the years?

Nate1: Here is the beauty in that question: on one hand, artists from the past have continued in their style and advanced it, or explored it more in depth.  On another hand, a writer like Zest KGB did his first piece in over 20 years on canvas and it looked like we time-traveled back to that era, stole a piece, and brought it back to the present.  And that to me is dope because it says that style can stand that test of time.  Now if Zest were to utilize the technology and paint we have today his pieces would further develop, and I would like to see that as well.

"Uno" by Zest KGB

VL: What makes Bay Area graffiti unique, or rather, what is Bay Area style?

Nate1: The early days of Bay Area graffiti lay somewhere between tradition and experimentation.  I say tradition, because a lot of us 80′s writers were trying to carry on the tradition of style and writing that Philly and NYC pioneered, yet we did not have a lot of information available to us, so alot of experimentation and situations influenced our scene.

To me, original Bay Area style can go in sections or generations. When I think old skool though, I think multi colored fills, big letters with little negative space, some computer-rock influence, double vision pieces and more.

VL: Explain how Bay graf has influenced design, etc.

Nate1: For years, Hip Hop and graffiti art have been an influence in the media and pop culture.  There are many designers that came from graffiti roots.

In the Bay there are alot of writers I know that have had careers in the fashion, advertising,
and art industries where they can show their personal graf style in their “day jobs.”

I went the fashion route and worked for a few local corporate clothing companies
and occasionally got to sneak some styles into my work, but until I started New Skool
that sort of thing was usually very infrequent.

On the internet tip, Crayone was one of the first to pioneer a fully dedicated Hip Hop site
with graffiti design. He still continues to do freelance work where he can utilize what he
does naturally, only this time on the computer.

VL: Where would you like to see the Bay graf scene go now?

Nate1: I would like to see the younger heads collaborating with the OG’s more often.  And I would like to see the older generation upping their game and becoming even more professional as we are looked upon in that light.  We pioneered this thing, we should be able to drive this thing
a little while and then pass the wheel off to the younger cats.

To answer your question more literally: when the hype is there, I want to see the Bay graf scene go to other countries where we can share our unique West Coast history and introduce them to some of our giants in the game. The hype is almost there and I think [the Classics] at 1:AM Gallery really helped.

Woooord up.