seeking

i lived with KOH for nearly a year, guess how many canvases i got from him? ZERO. i fly out to his art show last month, i spend all day helping to set up, i dj, i sell merch, i nearly die in an arctic snowstorm just to catch 4 tags, and how many canvases did i come home with? ZERO don't tell him you like his work, he's mean.

if we need to post random shit from cats who have nothing to do with detroit in order to have pictures worth looking at, that's pretty sad.

i think the pictures are too big/blurry/flash burnt to really be able to get a good look at your stuff. i can also tell you that overspray/drippy backgrounds and wild style pieces on canvase are generally boring as fuck. there are exceptions, but they're few and far between. take that for what it's worth.

i didn't say futile to argue, i said futile to reason. there is no argument, we're not on seperate sides of anything. my opinion was that i felt philly hands were becoming like LA hands were a few years ago. people jock them, people bite them, but people don't take the time to understand them. instead they run around trying to emulate them, totally degrading them. now you don't have to agree with this opinion but it can not be proven 'wrong', it's an opinion. it's not that i'm so concerned with philly hands in specific, what i'm concerned with is the integrity of graff as a whole, and the lack of appreciation and respect that people have for any regional style. if you haven't heard/seen about bad philly's popping up all over the country, then consider yourself lucky, cause just cause it's not on the internet in the handstyle thread, doesn't mean it's not happening.

sorry, i totally forgot about the futility of trying to reason with you. my bad.

dude, c'mon, i understand other people not understanding what i'm saying, but you? put down your need to be 'contrarian' for a minute, would you? i'm not hating on philly hands, i appreciate the shit out of a good one, which is exactly why you never saw me even attempt one while living there. ;) i'm hating on seeing a billion shitty generic versions, and the idea that just because something is done in a philly style, that it's good, hence my 'illegible unifrm scribbles' comment. maybe you don't notice as much because you're there, but once you start seeing people trying to do philly's in detroit, you'll understand where i'm coming from. be honest, i'm sure that someplace inside you is an angry little fat guy, wishing he could fit into a trucker hat, mad at the bastardization of his cities style. :) as for wickeds/wickets, you got me there. i'd never heard them refered to (by anyone, ever) as 'wickeds'.

my problem with making up my own interpretation on that piece, is that it's not ambiguos enough to allow me to make my own story, but too vague to give me an idea of what it's supposed to be. if that makes sense. obviously other people don't have the 'problem' with it that i do, so take my words with a grain of salt if you'd like. it's hard to critique stuff like this, because it's obvious that you know what you're doing, so anything i (or anyone) would say is going to be alot more subjective, and alot more tailored to our tastes than if the work was alot weaker. it's easy to take a shitty canvas and point out 20 things it's lacking, much harder on work like this. i guess all i can say is that to me, again, the dichotomy between the two characters is just too much for me. they're too different and too contrasting for me to be able to compose some sort of unified 'story' out of them. when i look at it i see two different pieces, put on one board, in need of a band saw. obviously that's not what you see though, so i'd suggest go with your vision. if anything, maybe try to maybe create more of a unified feel between the two. something that somehow connects them. unfortunately, i don't know what that would be so i can't help on that front. can you post some more work? i'd like to see what other kind of stuff you've done.

if you're not a 'snot nosed kid' then don't act like one. let me have my opinion and understand what i'm saying instead of getting all defensive on some bullshit. if you were really repping where you were from, i'd think you'd be a little more understanding of what i'm saying. now a days philly hands are getting bastardized to the point where they're generic copies of what they used to be. a million people can do a bad philly, only a handfull of people can do a good one, and only a fraction of writers can tell the difference. by posting every philly hand that someone sees, you're (no you in specific) watering down your own scene, making it generic. if you're fine with that, then i guess thats all you, but personally, i'd rather see one or two dope phillys, than 50 kids trying to do phillys. and don't be fooled, philly hands are no harder to do than any other regional hand style. sure, they'll look like shit, but so do the people biting la styles, or boston styles. since you're not familiar with them, you maybe can't tell the difference, but it's definitely there. SF1, the word is 'wickets', not 'wickeds'. jesus christ. if you're gonna rep your style like it's life depended on you, atleast learn to spell it.

i like philly hands and all, but i'm so fucking sick of seeing them. theres no variety, no diversity, the whole intention is to make your tag look exactly like a text book 'philly' style. that's cool and all, but christ...there are more to handstyles than illegible uniform scribbles. remember 4 years ago when everyone and their mom was trying to do an LA hand? remember when everyone talked shit abotu them? philly is the new LA. please stop.

dude, my 'meaningless blabba' is my self promo, where you been? ha. personally, if we're gonna get all nostalgic, the dopest time for detroit graff, atleast as far as pieces are concerned, is the summer dibs and justo did all those crazy hollow pieces. watching them use two cans of paint, rusto fats, no cleaning up, and still coming off harder than anything i'd ever seen here just blew me away. of course i guess it really comes down to what you value in graff though. personally, i've seen enough of it and painted enough of it to no longer be impressed by flashy colors and tricks, so seeing that stripped away, leaving nothing but the letters, was sort of 'humbling' to me in a way. there was nothing to hide behind, no fill, no spot to rationalize or justify, there was just the wall and what they saw to put on it. people have painted all sorts of pieces in all sorts of places, but nobody else has done that. which again, all comes down to what you value.

be hiphop, i'll have an lengthy reply for you in the morning. im too tired tonight though. if you've got other work, i'll like to see some.

be hip hop, the juxtoposition (just to use an art word and sound cool) of the girl and the two guys has me a bit lost. cut her out of it, keep the same composition, and i'm feeling it. right now, i see a cool background (what did you use?) a black reagan frenchkissing (not too convincingly unfortunately) martin luther king jr, and a weird betty boot cast off 1920's cartoon character....nothing is really holding it together though...atleast nothing that my feeble mind can grasp. maybe you can briefly explain what you're getting at, or post some other work for reference. as it stands now, even without being certain of what it 'is', i'm interested by all the the things it isn't. forgerock, what do i think? i think you could put those on ebay and make a million buckaroos. carlojones, what does "using this as back-up for my major art prac..." mean? i'm kind of terrified of what i think it means. i'm hoping i'm wrong though. seeks/i didnt mean that about forge making money on ebay, i just wanted to say 'buckaroos'.

relinking a picture that was posted by someone else isn't quite the same as flagrant 'self promo'. but don't worry, i have no plans to make a habit of it.

i heard freights were the next big thing.

ill agree that the ferrari stuff i've seen hasn't really excited me all that much, but dude has painted so much ill graffiti over the last decade that i can't see any reason to question him. ash, you son of a bitch, i went out on two seperate occasions to paint that russell spot, but ended up doing other jawns instead cause i was too lazy to walk. bastard. ;) i can't believe no one's done it till now though. about time. hating on jlaw is just about the saddest thing in the world. dude is a good kid, with no ego who just wants to paint. sure he's not the greatest, but he's got a better attitude than 90% of writers you'll ever have the (dis)pleasure of meeting, which as far as i'm concerned, means a hell of a lot more. of course maybe that's just me. and fohr was right, burnt toast is seriously the pits.

you could have, but that would have been self promo. ;)

this whole nike thing gets gayer by the week.

if you actually have to ask...

holler. seeing old MESH stuff definitely makes me smile. anyone have pictures of beloved?

looks almost pistachio on the white wall. where's the army?

i see you pimped my ramen link. bastard.

mine wasnt so much a literal critique as much as it was an opportunity to (re)announce my annoyance with all things swooshed. on a more literal level, i second jokers comments. negative space is good...everything i paint is almost entirely dependent on it, and obviously you're a fan as well. don't be scared to take it a step too far. less is more...it's also, as i'm sure you know, hard as fuck to know when to draw the line. people don't realize how difficult it is to do 'minimal' stuff, because there is never a clear 'done' point. it's not like painting a still life, or doing a formulaic piece. it's totally subjective to itself...which is why i love it, and also why it drives me fucking nuts. anyway, i'd love to see more stuff if you have it.

cipher...personal time. my friend wanted to collaborate on something, so that's what he ended up with. http://www.worldramen.net

isn't there already a vurry famous 'codek'? just wondering. i dont mind the graff on the orange canvases. they're eclectic mixes of patchwork shit...including graff doesnt bother me at all. if anything, the shoes are more of a weak point IMO, but that's mostly because i think nike's are the most played out thing since being a girl on 12oz and not posting your tits.

i'd just like to point out that if anyone needs their fade touched up, and they live in the greater chicago area, our man spec can hook them up proper.