Behind the Scenes - "Caution: Falling Rock"

I love Wile E Coyote. I see a lot of myself in him: coming up with grand ideas and consistently falling short of the target. I’m sure a lot of people in creative fields can identify with this feeling… failure is a major part of creating. But I think it's also really important we find humor in the curse and the blessing of this need to create (especially when our income is tied to the success of what we make). This particular image is also about patience, as Wile E is perpetually looking off into the distance, optimistically waiting.

I tried to incorporate as much of the existing wall as possible into this mural: using the brick as a major element in the piece, and painting a post to make the "please back in" sign screwed into the wall look like it was in the scene. I really love blurring that line between reality and make believe.

photo by @DrewInChicago

I’ve been wanting to make more Wile E Coyote pieces in Chicago for a while. This mural was made possible because a friend and collector, Ryan Dromgoole (who is getting married later this year) wanted to help paint a mural with me for his bachelor party. He and the members of the party all pitched in to help pay for the paint and assisted filling in colors the whole first day.

Help from the Bachelor Party. - Photo by Oscar Alejandror

"Caution: Falling Rock" is located on the east side of Five Star Bar on Chicago Ave in Chicago IL. At 32ft tall and 55ft wide it’s definitely one of my largest public works.

Here’s a bit of the process:

photo by Oscar Alejandror

photo by @DrewInChicago

Click here to see Street Art News’ article about “Caution: Falling Rock”.

Behind the Scenes - Painting with Oakoak in Chicago and NYC

I count myself lucky to be friends with Oakoak. He’s one of my favorite humans on the planet. So far we’ve traveled together and painted on projects in Amsterdam and Japan. We would assist one another and give advice, but never had the opportunity to create whole pieces together. Oakoak and his partner flew in from St. Etienne France toward the end of July to come spend three weeks in the States. We planned to do pieces in Chicago and New York City, including our first collaborations.

The trip started off with a bang! Within the first few days of arriving Oakoak found (in his words) “the best cap in the world”:

“The best cap in the world” - Oakoak

I was very happy for him. It was a fine cap indeed.

I’ve always loved Oakoak’s work for its simplicity, universality and sense of humor. We brainstormed and came up with some collaborations using my coins and his hearts, along with some trompe l’oeil and anamorphic effects we were both excited to try.

We started in Chicago with a little piece on a corner store just down the street from my studio. It worked perfectly with their “ATM Available” sign.

photo by Pyatnochkina

Next we created our first anamorphic piece, using the corner of a building. (Anamorphic art is created using perspective to give a distorted image an interesting effect when viewed from a specific view point).

Now it was time for all of us to load up the van and start driving (Oakoak, Tiffany, Larysa and me). Our first stop was Detroit. Oakoak had a few print runs to hand finish at 1xRun. I helped of course, and then we could head out to see the rest of the town.

Me helping

The rest of the town:

Shark Toof

Dan Witz

Piling back in the van, we head for New York City. After getting settled, we get quite a bit of Chinese food (Tiffany is obsessed, but we honestly don’t mind). We also visit the Whitney and the Met. Tiffany, Larysa and I enjoy our time and a number of the pieces in the museums. Oakoak however takes this time to create a few drawings:

We make our way down to the Lower East side to see a show opening at 212 Arts and talk with the owner, Marc. When he sees the kind of pieces we want to do, he offers us the front of his gallery. It’s a perfect place for this small piece.

We get a lead for another opportunity to paint from @just_a_spectator (on IG). He sends us an address to meet him in the Chinatown diamond district, and says we’re free to paint anywhere on the roof. When we get there, I’m very excited to see three Invader pieces on the front of the building (my favorite street artist of all time). And on the roof, there are even more great pieces such as this one from Fanakapan:

Invader

Fanakapan

@Just_a_spectator happens to be a great guy and an amazing photographer who’s taken some of the biggest names in street art around New York. Oakoak and I felt very fortunate to have met him. Here are the projects we did on the roof. Some photos by "Just a Spectator”

A really great unexpected part of the trip was that Oakoak knew Dan Witz from painting at a couple of the same festivals. I’m a huge fan of Dan’s work! He’s one of the only other artists I know creating trompe l’oeil work successfully both on the street and in galleries. He likes to create small unexpected pieces that fit seamlessly into their surroundings. He’s extremely talented and it was a huge honor to get to meet him and see his studio. Here are some views of the pieces he was working on at the time of our visit. The last photo is a painting I was lucky enough to buy from him. I hung it above the door to my studio as inspiration.

my studio

Overall the trip completely exceeded my expectations. It was a lot of fun to collaborate and experience as much as we did in a few short weeks. I’m looking forward to planning my next trip to France for us to do something similar in Europe! About half the pictures in this post were taken by Oakoak… the picture below included: a friend I made on the subway.

"I'm Sorry" print release

The Astro Boy piece I did in Nagoya earlier this year was the simplest piece I did in Japan, but also happened to be my favorite.

I brought the stencils back and did a small run of spray-paint and acrylic originals on wood, canvas and cardboard. They all sold out and caught the eye of Billy at Galerie F in Chicago in the process. He felt it would make a great print, and set me up with Andrew from ARGhrist Prints. We worked through the best way to screen it, creating an edition of 45 on grey paper for Galerie F titled "Sorry" (click here to purchase), and a small edition of 10 on brown paper for me to sell on my own titled "I'm Sorry" (click to purchase).

In Japan I made an Astro Boy piece for Oakoak on paper and drew my tattoos on it just to make him laugh. He really got a kick out of it. So when I had the opportunity to make my own small edition, it made sense to create a few more for others to enjoy.  And on the brown paper... making the boots red just brought it all together.  

My tattoos are pieces inspired by a few of my favorite artists. Aakash Nihalani on my hands, Mrzyk and Moriceau on my wrist, Frank Stella on my forearms, and Toba Khedoori on my chest. I've learned different lessons from each of their work:

Aakash Nihalani's work is simple and direct. He plays with space, perspective and reality. I have it on my hands because, inexplicably it was the only place that felt right. It reflects how binary we often are in categorizing everything: right / wrong, up / down, black / white, off / on, man / woman. It's intriguing to me that one could see them as opposites or the same, all based on one's perspective.   

Mrzyk & Moriceau are brilliant in the way they can distill an idea down into something very simple... yet the more you look, the more you see. Their work shows a great sense of humor, and they're brilliant at using symbols to tell bigger stories. This piece can represent chasing after the perfect fit in one's life. There's also a masculine / feminine dynamic to it. I have it on my wrist so the key and the keyhole can chase each other in circles.

Toba Khedoori's work has taught me a lot about using negative space in my own work. She creates quiet, beautiful pieces with restraint and a sense of depth. The subjects are usually common enough to feel familiar, and yet she makes them feel so special... worth revering. I have this on my chest to remind me to feel deeply and remain open.

And then there's Frank Stella. This painting changed my life. I was in college at the time as an undeclared major. I took a drawing class on a whim, as I used to love drawing when I was younger. The professor took me aside a few months in and asked why I wasn't an art major. He said he could take one look at my drawings and see I truly loved it... and that life's too short not to do the things you love. I was a little hesitant as I wasn't sure what kind of job one gets with an art degree. The next week he asked if I'd like to join the art club on a trip to the St. Louis art museum. On the trip I turned a corner and saw this giant painting... and it stopped me dead in my tracks. I stood in front of it for 20-30 minutes and I cried. I have no idea why it made me emotional, but at that moment I knew I wanted to paint... and I wanted to make people feel. I changed my major to art as soon as I got back, and ended up graduating with a BFA in painting. After being out of college for a few years, the amount of work I was making started to dwindle and I hadn't tried to show anywhere. I got these tattooed on my forearms to remind me of the feeling I had that day, and that I needed to keep painting and getting it out in front of people.