KAWS has come a long way from bombing roadside billboards and cracking open bus shelters in NYC to paste his now iconic skull & crossbones on all sorts of corporate advertisement. He is now a respected artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries globally. He’s even made a foray into 3D sculptures and toys. A modest bloke, KAWS is not one for tons of limelight and fanfare. But Matt Black managed to squeeze a 3-minute oral autobiography out of him for his ongoing Reflections video series.

You wouldn’t think so at first, but this is a freakin’ SNEAKER commercial (shouts to Freshness Mag, where I found this).  I tend to geek out at anything anime-like.  Nike Japan put in a call to request the incredible work of the folks over at the incredible ilovedust design / animation house.  A new line of Nike footwear was set to drop and the creative juices were set to flow.  And those juices were oh-so-potent.  The actual creators can break down the story alot better than I can…

We worked with AKQA in San Francisco to create an animation as part of a campaign for the new Sister One range from Nike for the South East Asia market. Once we finished the spot we decided to tweak it here and there for our own portfolio and what was once a 45 second piece featuring a girl dancing turned into a 1:20 epic about a girl-turned-superhero outsmarting an enraged robot through the centre of a Tokyo-inspired Metropolis.

We used the spot as an excuse to try out a bunch of ideas we’d been playing with around client work for the past few months along with some new techniques we’d been eager to try out.

I’ve fast become a fan of the new HBO series How To Make It In America.  If you’ve never seen it before, I like to describe it as Entourage‘s hustling New York native cousin.  Alot less glamour and glitz.  So far it’s pretty entertaining.  Everyone’s scrapping to carve out a little name and comfort for themselves in this gritty city.  As a supplement and tribute to the enterpreneurial spirit of NYC, HBO has created an online series called Hustle Stories.  The first subject is graffiti legend Lee Quinones (who’s art was featured in an early How To Make It episode).  If anyone knows about manuevering these streets (literally and figuratively), it’s this man.

Chances are if you live in major cities such as New York or San Francisco and pay attention to your surroundings, more than likely you’ve seen a Neckface tag.  And then probably wondered to yourself, “What the hell is a Neckface?”  He’s not your typical graffiti / street artist, that’s for sure. 

His highly illegal creativity along with his skateboarding addiction has not gone unnoticed.  Vans somehow managed to find him and they teamed up on some apparel design.  However, he still has to keep his identity hidden as to avoid prosecution.  What a life.  Recently, Neckface had some of his illustrations put on display in Miami (which I’m sure he was indifferent about) and V Magazine was there to document it.  They even got him to sit down and chat.

Holy wet paint, Batman!  I honestly CAN’T WAIT to see this.  Living rogue art legend (yes, I’m sure he’s reached that status by now) Banksy is apparently releasing a film this Spring and it is billed as “the world’s first street art disaster movie.”  The flick is called Exit Through the Gift Shop (a genius title if you understand the reference). 

It documents the gritty, dangerous, non-glamorous and sometimes unintentionally humorous side of illegal street art.  Other infamous day / nightcrawlers such as Shephard Fairey and Invader also make apperances throughout this non-stop thrill ride (LOL, I’ve always wanted to type that).

The doc was just screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews.  And it even came with a little introduction that was delivered as the producer / director couldn’t be there himself (surprise, surprise).  Then again, how do we really know?

It’s always interesting the physical growth and evolution of a human being.  The first time I ever saw Doze Green was in the classic hip-hop documentary movie Style Wars, when he was a rebellious, young Bronx b-boy runnin’ around with an upstart Rock Steady Crew.  Time eventually passed and now he’s a full grown adult.  But that wild spirit, hip-hop sensibility and youthful personality is still present.  And all of that energy had been channeled into a very fruitful fine art career.  The man does some exceptional work.  The Friends We Love gang have produced their latest installment of Off the Wall and made Doze their latest subject.  Here’s a little intro…

It’s with great pleasure that we present this studio visit with the man, the myth, the legend…Doze Green. Besides being one of our favorite artists for the longest, he is now also one of our favorite humans.  Long story short, the man knows how to have a good time! But more importantly, he does so while inspiring everyone around him in the process.  In this episode of OFF THE WALL we simply feature Doze and his assistant Ian doing what they do best, paint and have fun. No interviews. No reasons. No justifications. Just a creative process. Enjoy…

It’s little things like these that make me happy that I live in New York City.  The MoMA is undoubtedly a major city destination and a global landmark in the modern art world.  Recently, film director Tim Burton (the dark mind such classics as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands) linked up with the museum to exhibit some of his fine art.  An array of drawings, paintings, sculptures and so much more are now on display up until late April 2010.  It vividly shows where Burton’s creative juices originate and presents sort of a rough road map of his psyche.  The video clip above is a great interview delving into all of this a little deeper.

I want y’all to meet a homie of mine.  His name is James Blagden and he’s a pretty f*ckin’ fresh illustrator.  He linked up with an equally-as-fresh NYC-based art and apparel collective No Mas to flex his art skills for the interwebs.  The first product of this dream team-up was the fun(ky) short posted above entitled The Greatest of All-Time (Muhammad Ali) vs. The Godfather of Soul (James Brown), inspired by the historic phenomenon that was 1974′s Rumble In the Jungle. 

You didn’t think they’d stop with that one gem now, did you?  The above clip (the second installment in this sporty collabo) is something that has garnered MUCH attention since it was released into cyberspace and rightfully so.  This time they got a little fancier too.   No Mas dug up some audio of former professional MLB pitcher Dock Ellis recounting the infamous game in 1970 where he took the mound and pitched a no-hitter high out of his melon on LSD.  James gets his trippiest ink work in on this one to illustrate the story.  And yes, this was an absolutely true story (according to him).  Look it up.  Dock Ellis passed away in December of 2008.

p.s. BREAKING NEWS!  Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No has been selected for the U.S. Documentary Shorts category in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

I can’t sing the praises of Friends We Love enough. Their aesthetic, selectiveness and digital eye is bar none. It’s almost like they’re reading my mind on what I feel is inspirational and at the peak of creativity.  One of my favorite sites, hands down.  Here’s a great 5-minute profile on London graffiti / street artist D*FACE.  Watch as D*FACE (whose face is strategically blurred for obvious reasons) explains the difference between the US’ and the UK’s acceptance of his methods and as he unveils his well-deserved first NYC show at the Jonathan Levine Gallery.

Big shouts to Flavorpill’s Flavorwire on this one.  I’m a fan of street art.  Mostly the general two-dimensional kind (graffiti, stickers, posters, etc).  But when it comes to Mark Jenkins, we’re talking about a whole new stratosphere.   Some of his sculptures are whimsical (like the one above, which is probably my favorite), while others are down right startling.  As Flavorwire so eloquently describes it:

The streets of world cities aren’t just the backdrop for Mark Jenkins’ sculptural interventions; they’re also an integral part of the work itself. His clear-tape and more realistic mixed-media sculptures of animals, babies, and scraggly, Robert Gober-esque transients incorporate edifice walls, bent poles, and even garbage piles into site-specific subversions of the norm.

You can check out exactly what all this means if you visit Mark’s official site.

The first time I posted about the incase x Arkitip series, it received a nice response.  Good to know that folks appreciate and are interested in things of this nature.  So here’s some visual info on their latest collaboration with Gary Benzel & Todd St. John of the NYC-based HunterGatherer studio.  What’s dope about this is that the HG guys are known for their wood models.  Which at first though, doesn’t make much sense when you look at the past Arkitip products and what items they create.  Kudos to whoever put some time and thought into how this project could be pulled off.  Thinking in reverse proves crazy successful at times.

I hope you were around when I posted the video of the Steven Lopez x Erykah Badu collabo.  Well, one of new favorite visual artists is back at it again.  Peep Steven in a brand new time-lapse video knocking out his SECOND incredible Sade piece in the After Midnight Soul series.  There’s something very calming about vibrant, warm colors juxtaposed against  her hypnotic voice.  Unbelievably dope.  You can see him working on his first Sade canvas here.   

Oh, some of you may be wondering what’s playing in the background of the video.  That’s Cottonbelly‘s re-work of “By Your Side.”  You can grab that below.

DOWNLOAD | Sade – “By Your Side (Cottonbelly remix)”

If it wasn’t for the homie Ant Demby’s blog, I don’t think I would have known about this right away.  And it’s right up my alley.  Kitsune Noir (run by LA-based freelance designer Bobby Solomon) is already one of my favorite design blogs and I just found out about the thing yesterday. I just added it to my blogroll and everything.

His content is top notch.  But the stand out section is his Desktop Wallpaper Project.  Solomon basically put the word out to his network of artisically-inclined peers to submit digital desktop designs for him to post.  And it caught on like wildfire.  All the wallpapers posted come in six different resolutions as well as iPhone and PSP versions. Snazz up your monitor pronto.

Weekly Drop wins for putting me on to this one.  Most major city streets are not the most picturesque in the world (unless you live in Amsterdam and have canals running through them).  I live in NYC.  I know this all too well.  Brazilian artists Anderson Augusto & Leonardo Delafuente took some initiative to beautify the blocks of Sao Paulo by starting The 6emeia Project (click that for more photos and info). 

By throwing some color and creativity onto walls, storm drains and manhole covers, they made dirty, hard surfaces a little more pleasing to the eye.  For the record, Brazil is one of my top 5 “bucket list” destinations.  Even more so after reading this.

I feel old.  It’s been 25 years since Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant published the definitive graffiti bible, Subway Art.  It chronicles the incredible NYC street aerosol movement of the ’70s  and ’80s all in beautiful full color photography. 

I open my copy up often just for general inspiration.  It captures motivation, rebellion and expressionism all against a concrete jungle backdrop.  In celebration of the 25th anniversary, the book has been re-released in hard cover format with a bunch of new unreleased material. How fresh is that?  Purchase your copy now if you know what’s good for you.  Great for the coffee table.

The good folks over at Elemental shot me an email regarding a special collabo between artist Steven Lopez and soulstress Erykah Badu.  Now I know who Badu is.  But I had no idea about Steven Lopez.  And I’m glad I do now. 

Steven does a painting series called After Midnight Soul where he basically paints beautiful, vibrant portraits of different ladies of soul music in his very signature style.  My favorites are the Aretha Franklin, the Chaka Khan and the Minnie Ripperton.

Erykah Badu was so enamored with Steven’s rendition of her likeness (now entitled “Amerykahn Promise”, after he posted it on the comments section of her site) that she contacted him and agreed to sign 100 limited edition prints of the painting to sell.  A portion of the proceeds go to Beautiful Love Incorporated Non-Profit Development (B.L.I.N.D.), a charity organization she established to provide community-based programs for inner-city youth. 

Those go on sale on April 15th on Steven Lopez’s official site.

The inspiration for this post stems simply from the fact that I just purchased an iPhone earlier this week and in turn, ordered the limited edition incase x Arkitip x Parra slider case for it.  That iPhone slider introduced me to this entire collaborative series that Arkitip has been doing with incase since mid-2008.  It’s great to see such well thought-out and strategic team-ups.  A perfect marriage of art and style. 

Above are three companion videos for each of the items in the series featuring graffiti game-changer / trendsetter KR, the aformentioned Dutch artist Parra (one of my favorites) as well as the always innovative Steve Harrington.

Two different people sent me a link to Wooster Collective (a great art blog that I don’t visit as much as I’d like to) in the past couple of days to show me the above work.  It was done by an British artist who goes by the name Word To Mother.  He has a show coming up at Stolen Space over in the UK this coming Thursday.  

Now we know the phrase “trees for breakfast” is not original. Yup, I jacked it right from a Nas verse with no remorse.  But it’s not really a phrase you see or hear all the time.  Nonetheless, it’s a dope piece.  I wish I could claim it as the official physical representation of this site.  Anyone know how I can get a hold of this Word To Mother guy?  Props to him.  I’m certain he’s cool in person.

A quick 1 minute and 45 second clip highlighting the work of one of the newest and most talked-about newcomers to the street art scene, Poster Boy NYC.  Poster Boy, armed with only a razor blade and creative wit, plays cut-and-paste with New York City subway ads to create new, attention-getting visuals.  He stays anoymous because obviously if he gets caught, he’s in deep shit.  Companies pay top dollar to get these ads up.  But you gotta love anyone that is all for rattling the system a little.  This video was shot and edited by Keith Haskell.  And peep Poster Boy’s Flickr page for a nice collection of his work.

Almost seldom do I ever get blogworthy material from my Dad.  But I had to post this.  Meet Willard Wigan.  An artist who creates microscopic sculptures (he literally HAS to use a microscope in order to work) inside the eyes of needle and on top of pinheads.  I don’t make this stuff up guys.  This is the intersection of where gifted and bat-shit crazy meet.  It’s really incredible.  The kicker though is the last bit at the end where they tell you how much he sold his work to an art collector for.

First of all, please check out Friends We Love when you get a sec.  As the creators Mike Vargas and Moni Pineda (aka DJ Moni of the lovely Ubiquita crew) so eloquently describe it:  “Friends We Love is an insightful video series exploring the motivations, inspirations and creative processes of some of today’s most forward thinking artists and creators.”  Something that’s right up my alley.

Here’s a profile recently done on Ellis G, a talented Brooklyn-based street artist who has gained notoriety for his chalk shadow outlines.  Apparently, this got so many votes on Current that the piece will appear on cable television.  Kudos!

In this day and age, amongst all kinds of super duper CGI and special effects, stop motion animation is still absolutely entertaining to watch and still gets the utmost respect (big ups to Robot Chicken, one of my favorite shows on TV). 

Nap sent me this the other day and it blew my mind.  It’s a quick animated short called Western Spaghetti by an artist named PES. 

Me trying to describe it won’t do it justice.  Just watch.

Consider this COPPED.  This is gonna look lovely on the coffee table.  Here’s some quick official press release verbiage that sounds way better than what I can type at the moment (if you don’t know what a piecebook is)…

“Before it hits the wall, graffiti is often painstakingly planned out in a sketchbook or piece book. Well-worn and dog-eared, these books are passed along from artist to artist as a way of sharing ideas and offering instruction. Here hundreds of drawings, most of them never before published, are reproduced on uncoated paper to resemble the pages of an authentic piecebook.” 

Sacha Jenkins (Ego Trip Magazine, White Rapper Show, Miss Rap Supreme) and legendary artist David “Chino BYI” Villorente give you a look behind the scenes into the graffitti before it’s immortalized on walls.  Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers is a compilation of sketches from world famous graffiti artists such as Dondi, Lee, T Kid, Lady Pink, IZ The Wiz, Kel 1st, Seen UA, Ali, Daze, Skeme, Noc 167, Cey, Part TDS, Don 1, West, Caine One, Mare, Doc TC5, Sye TPA, Shy 147, Kaves, Weber, Freedom, Wane COD, Dero, Reas, Erni and others.

ORDER (Amazon) | Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers

(click here for for a larger, clearer image)

This is just something that I find kinda cool that Kanye posted on his blog.  Yeezy received a very nice email from one Tinker Hatfield complimenting one of the recent Glow In the Dark shows. 

If you are unfamiliar, Mr. Hatfield is a world-renown designer responsible for the creation of some of Nike’s most successful sneaker models.  Namely some of my all-time favorites — the Air Max, Air Safari and Huarache lines to name a few.  However, one of his most notable contributions to Nike’s Innovation Kitchen is probably the Air Jordan III, one of the most successful pieces in the Jordan collection.

What I love the most about this is just the proof of how closely the art and music worlds can intertwine from an aesthetic point-of-view.  They are two of the most powerful things in the universe in my opinion.  And it’s great to see one of the masters of one field give props to one of the masters of the other.  Being an artist / designer myself, it’s very uplifting and inspiring.

I’m saving this quote forever:  “Art is a worthy pursuit, but I think design is an even higher form of creativity.  Design fuses art and science, or art and problem solving, or art and usefulness, sometimes all the above in the same project.”