RHYMOSAURS: Brush Your Teeth Rex

Looking for a great gift for a kid? Artist Charles Ugas has just illustrated a new children's book called Brush Your Teeth Rex (RHYMOSAURS).

It was written by Orlando 'Zeps' Molina, who is a very talented MC out of Brooklyn, and Illustrated by Ugas who explains, "It's a short story about a young dinosaur that loves to eat junk food and at the end of the day he has to figure out a way to brush his teeth, because being that he's a T-Rex, he has very short arms."

 

The cool thing about the book is that it is told in a RHYME format so kids could rhyme along as they read OR they could get the Audio version on Audible.com and sing along. Half of the book is in color and the other half is in Black/White with space for the kids to color and/or write their own rhymes," he said.

 

In addition to illustrating children's books, Ugas' work is also included in an Illustrated Anthology called "Puerto Rico Strong' under a comic company called Lion Forge. It's a collection of short illustrated stories about Puerto Ricans and their story about what makes them American. The proceeds will be go toward the Puerto Rican Recovery Efforts from Hurricane Maria.

 

Puerto Rico Strong is available for Pre-order on Amazon as well...and will be released in March 2018.

 

The Beautiful Psychedelic Pollution Floating in the Gowanus Canal

Steven Hirsch’s photographs, now in a new book called Gowanus Waters, capture unexpected beauty in one of America’s most polluted waterways.

 

Who would have thought that such dangerous pollution could produce such vibrant colors in compositions that remind us of high art?

According to Allison Meyer of Hyperallergic,

New Yorker Steven Hirsch brings his lens so close to the toxic surface of the heavily polluted Brooklyn waterway, you may worry about his health. Yet the results are strangely mesmerizing, transforming the burbling brew from more than 150 years of industrial runoff into psychedelic abstractions. Streaks of purple mingle with neon greens and blues, while rainbow wisps swirl amid a murky darkness, like galaxies floating in space.

Hirsch’s vibrant images encourage a new perspective on the 1.8-mile waterway. And while they’re not necessarily a form of environmental advocacy, it’s hard to separate them from the site’s polluted past. The Gowanus neighborhood continues to be gentrified and developed (the gleaming Whole Foods got a $12.9 million tax credit for its cleanup of contaminated land) even as the adjacent waters remain poisonous. In a 2013 article for Popular Science, Dan Nosowitz asked, “What would happen if you drank water from the Gowanus Canal?” The answer was complex due to the sheer number and variety of pollutants — in one of the stagnant micro-zones, you might be guzzling raw sewage or E. coli, while another would be rich in radioactive material or arsenic. No matter what, you’d probably get dysentery.

The Gowanus Canal is now an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund Site, although it’s possible the cleanup plan could be delayed under the Trump administration, with longtime EPA opponent Scott Pruitt leading the agency. Some of its “black mayonnaise,” a grotesque mix of coal tar, heavy metals, and PCBs lining the canal’s bottom, along with old boats, tires, ragged metal, and even boulders, was dredged late last year. Will Hirsch’s photographs eventually be a time capsule of industrial folly?

“One spring day, we visited the canal and Hirsch saw, for the first time, the water teeming with tiny fish, but caught virtually none of the slime he’d been hoping to discover to make new photographs,” journalist Jordan G. Teicher writes in an introduction to Gowanus Waters. “Indeed, thanks to its Superfund status, the canal — long referred to by locals as ‘Lavender Lake’ for its distinctive, unnatural hues — is slowly on the mend. Soon enough, Hirsch’s polluted palette will be a memory, much like the industrial heyday of the borough’s interior.”

 

The Art of Spray Paint

Check out the newly released book on aerosol art, The Art of Spray Paint: Inspirations and Techniques from Masters of Aerosol

The Art of Spray Paint features CRASH, Logan Hicks, Conor Harrington, Joe Iurato, Nick Walker, Casey Gray, Tristan Eaton, Matt Eaton, Hueman, Ian Kuali’i, Elle, Tatiana Suarez,  PichiAvo, Remi Rough, Will Hutnick, Rubin415, Rebecca Paul, Zac Braun, Ele Pack, Dana Oldfather, BR163, and mural projects like Nuart, No Limit Boras, WALL\THERAPY, Wynwood Walls and The Underbelly Project- and is a damn good book!

 

Beautiful Losers

Beautiful Losers is the name of one of Leonard Cohen's novels but it is also the title of a great street art based film and accompanying book. The film Beautiful Losers and the street art book Beautiful Losers

 

Beautiful Losers celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural moments of a generation. In the early 1990's a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip-hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the "establishment" art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, has now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture. Starring Ed Templeton who skated pro for New Skateboards winning awards all over the world, Harmony Korine who wrote the cult favorite Kids and then went on to direct Gummo and most recently Mister Lonely and Mike Mills who designed album covers for The Beastie Boys, Beck, Sonic Youth and directed the movie Thumbsucker. Also starring Barry McGee, Chris Johanson, Geoff McFetridge, Jo Jackson, Margaret Kilgallen, Stephen Powers, Thomas Campbell and Shepard Fairey who has experienced recent success with the now famous 'Hope' poster featuring Barack Obama.

If you are a lover of street art as I am, you will enjoy this film. Here is the trailer:

 

XCIA's Street Art Project

These are uncertain times for the book industry, which is one reason former Virgin Books Publisher Ken Siman is trying out a new model. He's launching a line of lavish, full-color illustrated books, each of which will be published simultaneously with a mobile application that he's trademarked EbookExtreme.

“We only publish if the book is suitable as both a book and an app,” said Mr. Siman, who previewed Siman Media Works at the Frankfurt Book Fair last week. “What I've learned is that if you're going to do a book, make it a beautiful book. And the app must blow you away.”

The Manhattan-based imprint will launch March 1 with XCIA's Street Art Project: The First Four Decades  a collection of four decades of photos by CIA agent-turned-photographer Hank O'Neal, who specializes in pictures of street art. The book sells for $39.95; the iPad app, which includes a slide show, an animated short and videos, for $12.95. An iPhone app will go for $4.95.

The privately backed imprint will put out six books next year and a dozen in 2013.

 

Taki 183

For those of us who grew up in New York, maybe one of our first experiences with graffiti was the ubiquitous Taki 183 scrawled on the walls wherever you looked. The graffitist, a Greek kid who lived on 183rd Street in Manhattan, spawned copycats. 

I'm talking the 1970s and what happened from Taki 183 was an explosion of street art (much of it on subway cars) and tags all over the city. It was great. And it led to the likes of Keith Haring and Basquiat in the 1980s. So what happened to Mr Taki 183? He has emerged from hibernation to publish a new book called The History of American Graffiti

 

Here is a video compilation of NYC in the 1980s when graffiti covered the subway cars. This was a gritty, raw precurser to the street art of Banksy, English and Supine, all of whom now boast gallery representation. Pish tosh. 

 

The Voting Booth After Dark

I am not a big book reader but my friend George Tibbett suggested that I read "The Voting Booth After Dark" by Vanessa Libertad Garcia. He said it reads like poetry, of which I am a fan. And it is an engrossing and quick read. I agree and found a lot of elements that I liked very much.

The book is an addiction confessional that reads like a series of poems. The chapter titles immediately sound like a series of poem titles - The Dead End Days, Envy, Anxiety, Lament etc. (They also read like the names of tarot cards in a post modern deck, albiet one with very few good and redeeming cards.) Or maybe it is reminiscent of a Leonard Cohen song of longing or a weird twelve step program that has on twice as many steps. The chapter, Hatred, reads to me like a po mo Elliot take-off on The Wasteland which is one of my favorite poems. So I got a lot out of this book.  

Needless to say I got into the rift and while I found it depressing, I also found it illuminating and deep. Read it and see what you think.

Cuban-American writer & filmmaker Vanessa Libertad Garcia has completed a myriad of successful projects in both the film & literary worlds.  Her debut book The Voting Booth After Dark: Despicable, Embarrassing, Repulsive is available for purchase online at numerous well-known and independent sites. Ms. Garcia is currently in development for her first feature film based on the book’s characters titled Dear Dios, and her second book -- a collection of love poetry.

Everything Is Art

My work is represented in this edition of Everything Is Art which is an amazing collection of art and artists from around the world. Beautiful images and fascinating text and content.

ISSUE "Y"   INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS. TALENT. VISION. PASSION. This isn’t your average magazine. This isn’t your average endeavor. This is an extraordinary new concept in the art world. Focusing on the art and not the page count, and centering on the artist and their work, not what is mainstream. Not what you see every day. This publication is dedicated to the passionate ones.                 The aim of this publication is to bring art to the forefront and make it more accessible to the world. To destroy the boundaries of space and location and replace them with something universally uniting, and to show people that art is everywhere.  Not merely for the highbrow art intelligentsia or the curators of chic galleries, but a platform for the masses; both to view exceptional art and for artists of all paths to be seen, heard and respected. Bringing what is beautiful and what is moving into the limelight, this publication is aimed at the masses, targeting it’s crosshairs on groundbreaking pieces which will tear down the walls of what you think you know about art and free expression. No holds barred, no stone unturned, no subject too risqué, and no partiality, this is not your average art magazine.  This is something else, something more soulful and moving. PURCHASE ON: ISSUE "Y" WWW.EVERYTHINGISART.CC AMAZON.COM    (HARDCOPY) AMAZON.COM     (KINDLE DOWNLOAD) PAST  ISSUE "Z" WWW.EVERYTHINGISART.CC AMAZON.COM     (HARDCOPY) AMAZON.COM     (KINDLE DOWNLOAD)   WATCH VIDEOS ON THE  NEW YOU TUBE CHANNEL: WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/EVERYTHINGISARTCC

Valentines Day Gift - The Street Art of Love

My book Street Art of Love might just be the perfect Valentine's Day gift.....

tasj

The first issue of tasj for 2011 is now out!

in addition to our regular distribution, copies of tasj will be available at two great art fairs this week

Art Stage Singapore and photo l.a. + artLA projects

 tasj vol ii - issue iv

Our longest issue yet, it features:

an article on Yoshitomo Nara (our cover artist)

a conversation with Slinkachu (including collectible pull out center spread!)

reviews of Rachel Whiteread at Galerie Nelson-Freeman
John Baldessari at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sixeart at A.L.I.C.E. Gallery
Will Barras at StolenSpace Gallery
Massimo Vitali at M+B
and Block Party at Carmichael Gallery

backstage with Wendy Asher

a studio visit with Simon Haas

a postscript from Boogie

plus our regular auction, art fair, book, magazine, film, limited edition, product and unurth pages!

If you can't make it to the art fairs, you can subscribe to receive tasj in the mail for free here.