MAC ART View RSS

New EL MAC prints: 'Gravity and Grace' 8 Dec 2024 12:38 PM (4 months ago)

New EL MAC mural with Augustine Kofie + Aise Born in Los Angeles: "Monument of Love: Mother and Child" 21 Nov 2024 12:42 PM (5 months ago)

New EL MAC prints: 'Mystical Rose' 15 Aug 2023 11:14 AM (last year)

New EL MAC prints: 'El Obrero' 24 Feb 2023 1:41 PM (2 years ago)

New EL MAC prints: 'Totlazonantzin' 20 Oct 2022 6:00 PM (2 years ago)

New EL MAC prints: 'All Shall Be Well' 21 Feb 2022 9:15 PM (3 years ago)

New EL MAC prints: 'Rebirth' 21 Apr 2021 12:11 PM (4 years ago)

New print release this Saturday, April 24th. Purchase info will be posted that day at http://elmac.net

New EL MAC mural with AISE BORN in Ohio: "AXIS MUNDI" 15 Apr 2021 7:26 AM (4 years ago)

This mural is a collaboration with my friend Jacori "AISE BORN" Perry, commissioned for the exterior of the Akron Civic Theatre, painted last year in Akron, Ohio. It was in the works for more than a year, part of a larger downtown revitalization project that includes a number of public art commissions from both local and national artists.

New EL MAC prints: 'Sun and Clouds' 29 Sep 2020 10:34 AM (4 years ago)

New mural in Tucson: 'Desert Soul' 2 Aug 2020 7:55 PM (4 years ago)

Painted this mural at the beginning of the year in downtown Tucson, Arizona, in the heart of the Sonoran Desert. The figure is holding a Saguaro blossom, and is based on my wife. The mural is on the outside of Cobra Arcade Tucson, commissioned by its owner Ariel Bracamonte–my compadre and one of the best people I know.
Tucson has been a special place for me ever since my first visit as a little kid when I caught a sunrise with my parents at Mission San Xavier Del Bac–the same place where I would eventually marry my wife and baptize our son decades later.
In the late 90s and early 00s I painted some murals with NG crew in downtown Tucson including behind the old Chicago Music Store. I remember there was a mural downtown from the early 90s by visiting NYC graffiti OG's Futura, Lady Pink, Lee, Stash, and Chico collaborating with locals Fyce, Such and Tackz, which symbolized to me back then just how hip this sleepy, dusty desert city was.
I associate Tucson with a certain warm spirit of love and creativity, a tranquil Sonoran vitality, and I hope this mural can capture or transmit some of that desert soul.
Thanks to Ari + the Bracamonte family, and the Cobra Tucson crew for helping make this mural possible, thanks to Kim + Máximo for putting up with me, and thanks to the good people of Tucson.
(Photos 2, 3, 4: Fernando kAZual)

New EL MAC murals in Miami: 'A Love Supreme (Wynwood Saints)' 18 May 2020 1:35 PM (4 years ago)

These are my first murals in Miami since 2009, and some of the largest and most visible in Wynwood. They're a permanent public art work commissioned by the Related Group through Primary Projects for the Wynwood 25 building (next to Wynwood Walls and the Museum of Graffiti). They were created with thousands of spray cans, no painting assistance, and months of long, hot, often rainy or windy nights from dusk until dawn, high up on a swing stage. Every line and pattern that these figures are composed of was spraypainted with the hope that together they might transmit to the viewer some of the love and soul that went into them.

Returning to Miami for this project was a pretty big deal after having last painted murals in Wynwood with Retna during Art Basel in 2007, 2008, and 2009 as part of Primary Flight. I was very proud of those murals but, after seeing how saturated the area was becoming with what was starting to be labeled "street art", it seemed time for a break. Ten years passed and then this opportunity came along to paint some of the best and most visible walls of my career in this place that had, for better or worse, become a world famous epicenter for public art. I was a little hesitant to take on such a massive task around the same time I was becoming a father, but I couldn't say no to such an epic platform. Although there were already a number of art spaces in the Wynwood area when I first painted there in 2007, it was still mostly a blue collar, working class area so I was blown away to see how much had changed. I take my responsibility to the communities I make art for seriously and approach every project with conscientiousness, especially so with this project considering the scale, location and context. I wanted to paint something representative of this place, its history, and its people, while conveying strength, dignity, balance, solidarity, and love. To begin, through the assistance of some local friends and contacts including YoungArts, I met and photographed a number of awesome local young folks for references. I eventually ended up painting three: the figure to the left was modeled by a young woman named Mandolina who helps run a nearby community garden, the figure in the middle was modeled by a young ballet dancer named Jamaii, while the figure on the right was modeled by a local Seminole boy named Kyle. While the paintings do carry the likenesses of those three, they've also been generalized in such a way as to resemble many other young people as well. These figures might be seen as either imploring or offering, funereal or uplifting, mournful or hopeful. If nothing else, they portray monumental, everyday saints—prayerful, resilient, and representative of upliftment, beauty, and loving kindness.

I faced a great deal of stress and difficulties working on this project, including delays that sometimes lasted for weeks due to lift equipment problems, unexpected expenses, persistent rain, heat, and wind, and worst of all long periods of separation from my infant son during his first year of life. There were many challenges, but for the most part I was able to maintain my patience, focus, and joy in my work. I’m thankful for the opportunity, and extremely proud of this project and the tremendous amount of energy, persistence, and sacrifice that went into it.
I strongly feel that the creation of art can be, at its best, a spiritual vocation, a means of responding to the world in service of truth, beauty, and goodness. The artist can be, in the words of John Coltrane, a force which is truly for good. Another great jazz musician, Mary Lou Williams, famously said that she was praying with her fingers when she played, and I approach the act of painting in a similar way—I hope the prayerfulness that went into the creation of these murals shows through in the results.

Many thanks to the teams at Related Group + Primary Projects for helping make this possible. Thanks to mis amores Kim + Máximo, and my right hand man Eric Heights, for hanging in there... Further thanks + shouts to el mero mero JP Pérez, Patti, J. Yormak, East End Capital, Cristina, Books, Sheila, Tamz, Hoxxoh, Veny Zorrilla, Jessica Goldman, Troy Kelley + Wynwood Walls, Mandolina, Jamaii, Kyle, Evan + Chadoe Grant, Breeze, Louis Coupal, Dejha Carrington + YoungArts, Reggie O'Neal, Axel Void, Alexis Diaz, Reinier Gamboa + Linda, Alan Ket + the Museum of Graffiti, Carlos Mare, Rage Johnson, Atomik, Komik, Typoe, MSG, TCP, InkHeads, Dos Alas, Futura, Muta, Odobo, Michael Vasquez, Jason Joshua + Mango Hill Records, the buena gente at La Fama Cafeteria, Los Bobos, and Zak the Baker, Squirrely Fleetwood, Joseph Treaster, Rose Cromwell, and any others I'm forgetting here.. Much love to all the artists and supporters of art in the great city of Miami. Respectful remembrance of Ray Brown, RIP

"What is a saint? A saint is someone who has achieved a remote human possibility. It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has something to do with the energy of love. Contact with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence. A saint does not dissolve the chaos; if he did the world would have changed long ago. I do not think that a saint dissolves the chaos even for himself, for there is something arrogant and warlike in the notion of a man setting the universe in order. It is a kind of balance that is his glory... Something in him so loves the world that he gives himself to the laws of gravity and chance. Far from flying with the angels, he traces with the fidelity of a seismograph needle the state of the solid bloody landscape."
-Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers (1965)

New Murals in Los Angeles: 'Shared Roots (Unity Threatens Inequity)' 24 Jan 2019 3:20 PM (6 years ago)

These are my most recent murals for the City of Los Angeles, produced with the support of Art Share L.A. and Meta Housing on the exterior of an affordable housing project in South Central LA, just below the DTLA Fashion District.

The initial inspiration for the agricultural theme of these murals came from a neighboring community farm run by the All Peoples Community Center, Roots For Peace and the American Friends Service Committee.
Farming or gardening imagery can carry an extra significance in this context considering how much of South Central Los Angeles (like many low-income urban areas) lacks easy access to healthy fresh food.
The figure on the left was modeled by Rigoberto Jimenez Oropeza, and the figure on the right was modeled by Ron Finley. Both are Los Angeles residents and both grow food from the soil.
Rigo began his workers' rights activism long ago with the United Farm Workers after being hospitalized for exposure to pesticides while working in California orange fields. Now in his eighties, he is still stubbornly working the land when not helping out with his son's art gallery.
Ron has become a prominent and inspiring community leader and advocate for social justice, food justice, and urban farming. He has also been a friend ever since Retna and I met him and his two sons while painting a mural in his South Central neighborhood over a decade ago. I'm grateful for my friendship with Ron and his sons, Kohshin and Delfin, who are both extremely talented young artists, and it's been an inspiration to witness their development over the years.

The choice of subjects came about partly in response to our current national (if not global) social and political climate, as well as a more local history of poverty and black-brown conflict in South Central Los Angeles. In these confusing times of demagoguery, racist scapegoating and social division, as wealth has been increasingly redistributed upward while the working poor are further disenfranchised, and organized labor has been largely weakened after decades of assault, I feel even more urgency to create conscientious and relatable public art that elevates common working people and promotes ideals of compassion, unity, equity, and interracial solidarity.
I would like to think of these murals as contributing to a proud tradition of humanism and social realist art that promotes the importance and dignity of all ordinary working people.

This project ended up taking a great deal more time than anticipated, with many late nights working into morning, but I enjoyed the process and am proud of the results. Though at a glance these murals may appear simple and straightforward, a tremendous amount of thought and care went into them. As usual for me, painting these walls was a meditative and devotional labor of love.

Many thanks to Cheyanne, Liz, and Art Share L.A. + Chris, Frannie, and Meta Housing for making these murals possible, thanks to Ron and Rigo for modeling, thanks to Eric Heights for all his help and late night grilling skills, Josh Rhodes for the gifts, and thanks to everyone else who supported in one way or another.
(1st photo courtesy of Tim Jentsch, 3rd + 4th photos by Eric Heights)

New mural on the US/México border: 'Abuelita of Presidio (Desert Rose)' 27 Jul 2018 7:51 PM (6 years ago)

This is a recent mural I painted on the US-Mexico border, commissioned by the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE). It is on a roughly ten-story high water tank in the remote border community of Presidio, Texas, facing its southern neighbor Ojinaga, Chihuahua.
Along with two other excellent articles about this project, from John MacCormack for the San Antonio Express-News + Bayla Metzger for Marfa Public Radio, this article written by Sasha von Oldershausen for the Texas Observer describes the project much better than I could:

In Presidio, a New Public Art Project Crosses Borders
The new mural is a small binational gesture reminding those who reside in the margins that they are not forgotten.
On the northern outskirts of Presidio, a series of modest dirt hills offers a view of the small border town delineated by the meandering Rio Grande. Just beyond, the Mexican sister city of Ojinaga — many times bigger than the Texas town — sprawls along the foothills of the Sierrita de Santa Cruz. 
On one side of these crumbling hills is a gridwork of housing for Border Patrol officers, surrounded by chain-link fencing and topped with barbed wire. On the other side of the hills is the city’s water tower, a lone white tank that juts above an otherwise unassuming and dusty landscape. It is the only apparent landmark in a town whose inhabitants have figured out ways to fit their lives discreetly into the rugged desert landscape. 
A month ago, a face began to appear on the water tank. She emerged over the course of two weeks: a Latina woman, clutching the stem of a red rose in her thick hands. Her brow and cheeks are lined with age. Her gaze, deep but benevolent, looks out beyond the Rio Grande into Mexico. 
The sudden appearance of this face felt out of sync with the pace of the town, where not much changes fast. The change was monumental enough to warrant a field trip by Presidio’s elementary school. Each day for a week, teachers paraded their students up the hill to see the face and asked them, “¿Qué piensa? What do you think?”
The mural is a gift from Mexico to the site of its smallest consulate. Amid the hyper-politicized rhetoric that surrounds the border, it was a small binational gesture reminding those who reside in the margins that they are not forgotten.
The Mexican government commissioned Los Angeles muralist Miles Mac, known as “El Mac,” whose work has appeared in the border cities of Juárez and El Paso, as well as myriad other places across the globe, from New York City to Agdz, Morocco. 
El Mac had never worked on a federally sponsored project, and if he had concerns about it feeling propagandist, those fears were immediately assuaged. “It was the kind of project I would do for myself anyway,” said El Mac, who often paints with an implicit social message in mind. “No part of it ever felt uncomfortable to me and I think it was clear that everyone behind it had good intentions. This is a general gesture of goodwill.”
He added, “I think they were making a point that even the smallest and most remote town is still important and still considered, still relevant.”  
El Mac’s large-scale murals — composed of circles and lines that register as realist portraits from a distance — often feature everyday people. In El Paso and Juárez, he painted the faces of those who had lost family members to violence. “I paint regular people, normal people, and that’s something that I’ve been doing for a long time,” El Mac said.“The work isn’t super explicit. I’m not painting works with the intention of hitting people over the head with some ideology.”
Some residents recognized the face on the water tower as that of Linda Lujan, a 62-year-old Presidio resident who owns and operates a small secondhand shop just a stone’s throw from the International Port of Entry. Originally from Mexico, she emigrated to the United States more than 30 years ago to work and put her children through college. In many ways, her face was meant to be more broadly representative of the average person who resides in this border region. “It’s definitely based on her,” El Mac said, “but it’s a composite.”
Others have come up with their own interpretations of the image. “I see my wife’s mother, I see one of my aunts, I see one of my old teachers,” said city administrator Joe Portillo. “More than anything, I see a mother. They are the glue and they are the love.”
“It’s a beauty kind of like the desert itself,” said the town’s mayor, John Ferguson. “This shows somebody who probably worked hard her whole life, had kids, raised a family.”
El Mac spent two weeks in Presidio, interviewing and photographing possible subjects. He might have chosen a more politicized subject, and for a moment he considered painting two female relatives of Esequiel Hernández Jr., the 18-year-old who was mistakenly gunned down in 1997 by Marines stationed near the border as part of a drug reconnaissance mission. Ultimately, he chose Lujan, whose warmth offered relief from the caustic desert. “She had these warm cheeks,” he said. “She looked like she’s used to smiling.”
El Mac would experience the kind of kindness Lujan seemed to represent throughout his stay in Presidio. On days he spent painting for 10 or 12 hours at a time, perched some 100 feet off the ground in a mechanical lift that quaked against the howling spring winds, staff from Don Jose Panaderia, the local bakery, delivered pumpkin empanadas in a basket rigged with a pulley system. “That mural was fueled by those pumpkin empanadas,” he said. 
The face on the water tank is visible from both sides of the border, a reminder of what many in the town already know to be self-evident: that Presidio is inextricably tied to its Mexican neighbor, and that its well-being is rooted in their mutual goodwill."

Many thanks to the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and Mónica Cortina Mariscal for making this project happen, and many additional thanks to Guido Mascherpa, Eduardo Romero, and Eric Heights for all the assistance and good times. They helped rig a protective structure for the lift basket out of cardboard, duct tape, pvc pipes and canvas--a small Mexi/Italo/Salvi/US engineering project that was crucial in helping to block the constant strong winds there and ultimately made the painting possible (it also included a pulley system that allowed burritos and empanadas to be hoisted up to me during my long, sometimes 14-hour painting shifts). Extra thanks and shout-outs to the Mexican consulate in Presidio, Mariana Da Silva, Austin Saya & their team, Don Jose Panaderia, the Bean Cafe, Oasis Restaurant, Three Palms Inn, Enrique Madrid & the family of Esequiel Hernandez Jr., Brad Newton, Terry Bishop, John Ferguson, Trisha Runyan, Linda Luján, and to everyone else in Presidio who showed support or kindness. Presidio/Ojinaga, in all its remoteness and smallness, felt important, familiar and alive--I'm grateful for my experience there, and the opportunity to share my art with its people.

New mural in Belgium: 'Mural for My Father' 17 Jul 2018 4:51 PM (6 years ago)

New mural for the San Jose Museum of Art: 'Sophie Holding the World Together' 22 Mar 2018 5:30 PM (7 years ago)

‘Sophie Holding the World Together’, 2017
Mural commissioned by the San Jose Museum of Art, in collaboration with The Propeller Group.

In these times when fear, inequity and divisiveness are so prevalent, this mural is intended to convey hope and empathy. The figure is based on an inspiring young activist named Sophie Cruz, who represents mixed-status families and advocates for immigration reform in the US.
When I met Sophie to shoot reference photos of her I asked if there was anything she wanted to hold for the photographs, and she came back holding a globe. This seemed perfect, while the lotus was added to symbolize the beauty that can grow from humble origins. .
I’d like to thank everyone who helped make this mural happen, and everyone who came by offering positive feedback. The response from the people in San Jose was some of the most encouraging and supportive I’ve received anywhere, I’m very grateful.

Many thanks to Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Matt Lucero, The Propeller Group, Lauren Dickens and the San José Museum of Art, Empire Seven Studios, Will Moran, the Children’s Discovery Museum, The Knight Foundation, University Art, Tad Freese and Brook Hartzell, Beverly and Peter Lipman, Lubliner, Dipti and Rakesh Mathur, Ian Reinhard, and SGSR. Additional thanks to Sophie + su familia, Eric Heights, Yosi Sergant, Define American, Yosimar Reyes, Bích Cao, and everyone else who helped or showed love.

“No Te Rindas
Esta es la Hora y el Mejor Momento/
Don't Give Up
This is the Hour and the Best Moment/
Đừng Bỏ Cuộc
Bây giờ là phút giây và khoảnh khắc tuyệt vời nhất”
(-M. Benedetti)

New EL MAC prints: "Purgatory" 22 Jan 2018 4:42 PM (7 years ago)

New print release this Tuesday, January 23rd. Purchase info will be posted sometime after noon Pacific Standard Time at http://elmac.net

Print details:
Purgatory
Signed, titled, and numbered by the artist.
Hand-pulled serigraph by master printer Tony Clough at Serio Press in Pasadena, California. Printed in five colors/layers.
Printed on acid-free, 100% cotton, 290 gsm, Coventry Rag paper.
18.25in x 20.25in paper size
(16.25in x 17in printed area)
This print has the same exact dimensions as the 'Los Campesinos' prints from 2015.

There are two slightly different color editions of this print:

Purgatory:
edition of 47, darkest brushwork layer printed in black

Purgatory II:
edition of 25, darkest brushwork layer printed in dark teal blue

Artist's statement about the work:
'Across ancient cultures from around the world there are concepts of a period of postmortem atonement, with associated traditions of prayers and offerings made for the souls of the deceased so as to relieve their expiatory suffering. This artwork is also, in its own way, a similar kind of prayer or offering.
In these times of fear, confusion, nativism, and worsening inequity as more and more wealth is distributed from the many to a few, I painted this piece partly as a meditative gesture of support for the marginalized and scapegoated amongst us who live and work in a metaphorical state of purgatory.
"As brothers in the fight for equality... Our separate struggles are really one -- a struggle for freedom, for dignity and for humanity. You and your valiant fellow workers have demonstrated your commitment to righting grievous wrongs forced upon exploited people. We are together with you in spirit and in determination that our dreams for a better tomorrow will be realized." - Martin Luther King, Jr., in a 1966 telegram sent to UFW leader Cesar Chavez

"Tower of Songs" - Leonard Cohen mural for the City of Montreal 30 Dec 2017 9:01 AM (7 years ago)

“The world is all forgetting, and the heart is a rage of directions, but your name unifies the heart, and the world is lifted into its place.”
-Leonard Cohen, ‘Book of Mercy’

New mural in Los Angeles: 'The Mother Creator II' 12 Nov 2017 2:49 PM (7 years ago)

More devotional work for the great city of Los Angeles, painted last Summer. Putting some serious time, soul and energy out there for the people; striving to create good, uplifting public art in these strange, troubled times. This is a companion to my 2016 mural for the City of Montreal, 'La Mère Créatrice' -my homage to feminine creative force. This one's a tribute to artistic mothers, and their capacity to not only make people but art as well. I am an artist largely thanks to the influence of my mother, who is a great, inspiring painter. I've benefited from a lifetime of great conversations about art with her. Also, my mother-in-law, who passed away recently, though she probably wouldn't have considered herself an artist was as prolific and creative as any. The figure depicted in this mural is based on my reference photos of Jane Choe, the fiery artistic mother of my friend David Choe. It was a pleasure working with my talented young crewmate, brother, and local neighborhood resident Aise Born who assisted with the extra Alphonse Mucha-inspired acrylic embellishment on the halo designs.

New EL MAC prints: 'Winter in America' 19 Jul 2017 12:37 PM (7 years ago)

New print release this Thursday, July 20th. Purchase info will be posted at a random time at http://elmac.net

Print details:
Winter in America
Signed, titled, and numbered by the artist.
Hand-pulled serigraph by master printer Tony Clough at Serio Press in Pasadena, California. Printed in two colors, the linework was printed in four layers to create a slight embossed effect.
Printed on acid-free, 100% cotton, 330 gsm, Italian Magnani Revere paper with one natural deckled edge along the bottom of the print.
18.25in x 20.25in paper size
(16.25in x 17in printed area)

Winter in America:
edition of 48, dark red on bright red/vermilion

Winter in America II:
edition of 8, dark blue on bright red/vermilion

Winter in America III:
edition of 8, black on cobalt blue

Artist's statement about the work:
'It seems that much of this country, if not the world, has been experiencing a growing climate of fear and confusion. Daily tragedies overwhelm and desensitize as we grow accustomed to hearing constant reports of killings by terrorists, criminals, and police. We face obscene and ever-worsening economic inequality alongside countless social and environmental problems. A dismal and surreal political atmosphere have contributed to a collective feeling of frustration and powerlessness.
I started working on this portrait of a woman in despair late last year as a response. This piece is also an homage to the great German social realist Käthe Kollwitz, who was known for her melancholy drawings and prints depicting the struggles and suffering of the working class from poverty and war. She was born 150 years ago in July of 1867, and her work is still just as powerful and relevant today. The figure was modeled after my wife's grandmother, and like most of my paintings it was not intended as a specific portrait of just one person but rather a representation of many people. It is a simple, direct expression of grief and fatigue in troubled times.'

"It is mid-winter in America; a man-made season of shattered dreams and shocked citizens, fumbling and frustrated beneath the crush of greed of corporate monsters and economic manipulators gone wild (...)
We must all do what we can for each other to weather this blizzard. Now more than ever all the family must be together; to comfort, to protect, to guide, to survive..."
-Gil Scott-Heron (1975)

"La Mère Créatrice/The Mother Creator" : New mural for the City of Montreal 6 Jan 2017 1:40 PM (8 years ago)

This is my most recent mural for the great city of Montreal. It is a symbolist homage to feminine beauty and creative force as represented by a figure that can be seen as a sort of fertility goddess wielding a glowing paintbrush, emanating light amongst verdant, leafy growth. As with most of my work this mural was a devotional labor of love and neurotic perfectionism.
While procreativity is generally seen as a feminine characteristic, creativity is often perceived as intrinsically masculine, and one doesn't need to be an art historian to recognize male domination of the visual arts throughout history. However, thanks to the early influence of my exceptionally talented and inspirational artist mother, I've always taken for granted the tremendous dual capacity in women for both creativity and maternity. Thus, from my own perspective, woman is truly the greatest creator of all and this piece speaks to that.

This project was initiated by Artgang Galerie and made possible by the public art program of the Ville de Montréal, l'Arrondissement Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie, la Société de Développement Commercial de la Plaza St-Hubert, and Le Medley Simple Malt. Many thanks to my good friend Louis of Artgang Galerie for a decade so far of friendship and support. Thanks to Erica for modeling. Additional thanks to Valérie, Kwest, Louis-V, and all the locals who offered so much positive feedback and encouragement. Additional thanks to poutine for sustaining me on a few long cold nights..

Short video below by Eric Heights.
Music: 'Pacification' by La Nouvelle Frontière, recorded in Montreal in 1970

New EL MAC Prints: 'Peyote Blossoms' 30 Nov 2016 1:05 PM (8 years ago)

New prints from Santo Press in Scottsdale, Arizona:
Peyote Blossoms is a six-color relief print from photopolymer plate and multi-block linocut. Produced in an edition of 45, it is printed on 17.5" x 13.5" Arches Johannot 240 gsm paper. Signed, titled, and numbered by the artist. $300 with free domestic shipping.

Peyote Blossoms II is a single color relief print from photopolymer plate. Produced in an edition of 15, it is printed in dark black-brown on 16.5" x 13.5" Hahnemuhle Copperplate warm white 300 gsm paper. Signed, titled, and numbered by the artist. $150 with free domestic shipping.

Both editions are printed on soft papers to create a heavy embossing effect.

"Native Son (This Saint Floyd)" : Mural for the Manitou Art Center, Colorado 26 Oct 2016 2:06 PM (8 years ago)

The mural is based on my photos of legendary and reclusive local artist Floyd Tunson (born 1947), who had a retrospective at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 2013, a couple years before my own exhibition there last year. Tunson is a Colorado native who has been creating art in his Manitou Springs studio for over 30 years. It was a pleasure getting to know him, and I would consider him one of the most inspiring and interesting people I've met. I recognize in him a deep love for creation, experimentation, and a certain shared philosophy that art and life are inseparable.

Many thanks to FUSE & the Masters Family, Floyd & Flo, The Manitou Art Center, Natalie Johnson, Joy Armstrong, Don Goede and all the kind people of Colorado Springs & Manitou Springs who supported with such tremendous positivity. This was one of the most beautiful and welcoming places I've painted.
Thanks as well to the Bee Vradenburg Foundation, Gazette Charities, the City of Manitou Springs, Ben Harvey Financial Group, Manitou Springs Real Estate, Adventures Out West, City Paint, & SunWater Spa

"Spark of Divinity": New mural in Sedona for Whole Foods 4 Aug 2016 2:00 PM (8 years ago)

This is a mural I just recently painted in Sedona, Arizona, commissioned by Whole Foods for their store there. The embracing figures are based on my mother-in-law and her granddaughter. I hope this mural might convey some sense of the positive influence of familial love and joy, as I've seen the impact of these on my mother-in-law while she has been going through cancer treatment the last few years. The mural is also a sort of southwestern homage to one of my favorite artists, the great Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. The mural is based on a section of Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, from 1902, which was inspired by a Beethoven symphony from 1824, which was inspired by a Friedrich Schiller poem from 1785. That poem, the infamous 'Ode To Joy', begins with the line: 'Joy, beautiful spark of divinity...'

Thanks to my good friend and Arizona aerosol pioneer Mando Rascón for his help with the background designs.
Thanks to Whole Foods and Carlo Carbajal for making such a cool public art project possible.
Thanks to Saichai, Madeleine, Kim, Jorge Bracamonte, Peter Votichenko & the Votichenko family, Marisa Aragon, Fernando Ramos, Corey @ACE, Tamaliza, the good people of Sedona, and anyone else that provided encouragement or support.

EL MAC in Morocco 30 Jun 2016 11:45 AM (8 years ago)

I spent a couple weeks in Morocco recently to paint some small murals as part of the Igloo Hong project (along with an all star team of artists including David Choe, Andrew Hem, Aaron Horkey, Mars 1, Esao Andrews, & DVS1)

The first mural, painted in Agdz (southeastern Morocco), is outside the Casbah des Arts, and is a portrait of Mohamed Ait El Caid ( محمد ايت القيد ). He is a 92 year old man who lives next door to the mural. He is a respected local figure, who once had the first radio in Agdz and would also receive foreign newspapers so he could share the news with local residents. I was impressed with his willingness to be photographed and painted by a strange foreigner 
The second mural, also in Agdz, is based on images of my cat, and is painted on a centuries-old mudbrick kasbah. One can clearly see a great appreciation for cats throughout Morocco. There is a story about the Prophet Muhammad having such affection for cats that he once cut off the sleeve of his robe so as to not disturb his cat, Muezza, who was sleeping on it. Agdz also means 'resting place', so painting a sleeping cat seemed appropriate.
The third wall is further east in Merzouga, at the edge of the Sahara, near the border with Algeria. Andrew Hem painted the background designs for this one. It is based on my photos of Hssain Ahnana ( حساين اهنانا ) who comes from a lineage of Sahrawi nomads and now owns the camping ground (Secret du Sahara) where the mural was painted. He is painted wearing his 'cheche', which is a traditional indigo-dyed head wrap worn by indigenous North African Amazigh/Tuareg/Berber people for protection from the harsh sun and sand. The Tuareg have been known as the 'blue men of the desert' for this. 
Having grown up primarily in another desert (Sonoran) on the other side of the planet, it was fascinating to come to the Saharan Desert and see some of the environmental and cultural parallels, along with the local adaptations for desert life. I hope to make it back someday.

Many thanks to the good people of Morocco, the David Young Choe Foundation + the Igloo Hong team: Dave, Matt, Jy-Ah, Karim, Jason, Paco, Steve, Soufian, and everyone/anyone else that helped out. 

Photos by me except:
2,10-12 by Matt Revelli
6,16 by Dave Choe
9 by Jy-Ah Min
13,15,21 by Paco Raterta

"Desert Rose (Nuevas Generaciones)": New mural for Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum 25 Apr 2016 11:52 AM (9 years ago)