some pittsburgh flavor

i don't know, i think he knows and just likes getting away with it because he's apparently from europe. those bites are so blatant it hurts. why do people feel the need to reproduce their idols' ideas and call them their own? you're allowed to have influence, but influence is more of a state of mind as opposed to a style of drawing a character and a background.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/noise.jpg'> last night http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/thesmiths.jpg'> just started

http://www.woostercollective.com/images2/Egotripper-show1.jpg'> Holy Barry McGee Bites, Batman!

bleh. the lighting sucks. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/grimeyism.jpg'>

those pascal magis paintings are really really good

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/blackwhiteyellow.jpg'> almost finished http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/tension.jpg'>

i think i''ve seen some of your hands in chicago

unfinished paintings and a drawing http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/raton.jpg'> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/unfbwy.jpg'> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/phishglare.jpg'> it's a phish concert http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/3kids.jpg'>

yeah especially the thong tan line part

i've been saying it all along.... crappy, spraypainted background + crappy, unoriginal characters + stupid, un-poignant words = crappy, stupid paintings *edit- when did somethign so stupid become a "style of art"?

that's wierd wanting to convert from artist to.... "graffiti" artist.... on canvas.... that's wierd.. i don't know man, you don't have any letters on that thing, it looks kind of cool, so maybe you just want to try to use spraypaint as another medium? i was thinking first "man, this guy would love new york in the 1980s" but i'm confused. do you want to start writing graffiti? or just get like, you know, the comedy central commercial kind of thing going on?

see, here we go. i'll admit it's possible to do a piece on a canvas with integrity that looks good, but rarely, and it really depends on the person. there are 10 or so people who can do that, so i don't think anyone else should really go down that route. keith haring did wierd as shit graffiti and then did wierd as shit stuff with it on canvas so he's okay. but uh, when i paint, it's sort of about the culmination of events that led to that point. It's like a photograph. in your senior picture you might have a mowhawk and be giving the gas face, whereas you're a quite refined young chap now. It's like a snapshot of the mind at the moment. i think there is so much more to people than the latest piece they pulled out of their blackbooks and painstakingly copied onto canvas. there's something called "the realness". stupid swirly background and paintmarker piece does not equal the realness. who had the realness? picasso had the realness, basquiat, twombly, de kooning... the realness involves the perfect combination of confidence, inquiry, accidentals/unplanned action, determined moves... you know what i mean at all? you look at these guys and you know they did what they did not because they knew they could make money but because they needed to. that's how they worked. suckers who hop on the bandwagon with the art trends because theyre trying to get the name out there and sell out for no other reason than to have it easy need to chill. there is so much more to people than a piece on a canvas, let it show. everyon'es got the potential for the realness but the want to make somethign other people will like and fear are the two biggest factors in why something has no realness to it. look at modern installation sculpture in the past ten years or so. there are some people doing crazy shit that will knock your ass off, but what do you see more than anything? white room, a dozen or so of the same object arranged on the floor... such crap. the realness is what comes out without premeditation. it's the wavelike flow of the natural obsessive need to make things aesthetically pleasing and general knowhow that makes the dopest paintings. in my opinion, at least.

...and right about now, spraying a little dab of purple on a black canvas with some green way-too-ahead-of-you-yet-just-like-everyone-else's-attempts letters doesn't cut it in the art world. Agreed, people like totem and joker are dope artists and do more than just a flat wildstyle piece on an awkward background. Who am I to demand anything, but you guys need to try something original, or at least make your canvases different than your blackbooks. You're allowed to do more to a canvas than have your paint markered piece ride the bottom. and on the integrity issue, i hear you. but if i can make a living selling art then i'm going to do it. like picasso said, why have something else there as your priority so yo ucan 'fall back' on your art? if you have that much integrity, why would you live by any means other than what you love?

at the Andy Warhol museum w/ random white kids... http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/warholmebasq.jpg'>

http://www.phhfineart.com/Artists/McGinley/Blow_Ups/Images_Thumbs/ryan21.jpg'> bump for "boy george" and "poop dick" hands.

http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/cafe.jpg'>

yeah... the one with the grocery list and the one with louis armstrong are definitely quite basquiat-influenced, which is what i was trying to do there. the satchmo one was for an art history project. i don't do things like that too much, i want to try to get more of my recent ones up because theyre completely different. but yeah, basquiat about equals awesome.

older paintings... i don't like any of them anymore. but anyway. http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/mantits.jpg'> http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/asbestos.jpg'> http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/whitegreen.jpg'> http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/iwnfwjyk.jpg'> http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/my_father.jpg'> http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/satchmo.jpg'> http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v143/grafburgh/charles.jpg'>

my problem with graffiti writers doing canvases is they all end up looking the same. come on, challenge me, people. make me think. do something original. a spraypainted background with bitten MSK letters and some drips does not = good. thank you

i really like this thread, especially the b.hope unfortunately, i'm going to have to call out webl on the joker characters. sorry

what's up with sumbliminal messages on that one ^^

yeah, it's a good thing IVO is above and beyond that prehistoric yank graffiti. And also, every one of his pieces don't look the same. And they've got maad style. He definitely has a lot of room to talk; especially when it comes to history and letters.

this goes out to joker/whoever else it applies to... the background i'm 16, and i love art. my drawing skills have progressed tremendously in the past few years because of graffiti and my love for anything that looks cool. i started getting into canvases two years ago.. they were cheesy and not very appealing at first, but the more recently produced ones i'm rather fond of. anywho, i plan on going to a college to study art. only problem is the problem i've got no idea what to do; how to make it as an artist. sure, there's always burger king. but that's not fun. i recently saw ESPO do a lecture. he was talking about different people/companies like Reebok and Calvin Klein wanted him to do things for him. how do they know about him? is it simply a matter of organizing gallery shows and hoping the right people go there and like your work? i'm sure there's more to it. what kind of jobs are out there? where do i start? granted i'm no barry mcgee, i like what i do, other people do as well... i guess i'm asking how does an above mediocre budding artist not starve to death in an alley, and what should he study in college? any help is much appreciated... i'm thinking about deferring for a year and then going to hopefully Pratt (it's the only school that sent me things and looks interesting, but expensive) thank you

Dear Snuze: Snuz/Snooz CF already writes that. thank you -SPF

those herbie cars are so cool