conversation with mathew curran 18/06/2008
Posted by dlatman in Graffiti, art, fun, nc, u.s..add a comment
One of Mathew Curran’s stencils, located off Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC
Two weeks ago the Indy ran an article about tension between an elderly black couple in Raleigh, who have apparently allowed loud, disruptive and potentially criminal activities to occur on their property, and their mostly white neighbors, who have repeatedly complained to the authorities. Central to that story was the image of a stencil, spray-painted throughout the neighborhood, depicting a person with a wide-open mouth and a wiry patterned background. The elderly couple and their family believed the stencil to be a hate target, and the artist, Mathew Curran, was called in to the Raleigh police department for questioning. He said that the image was actually based on a picture of his brother laughing.
I spoke with Mathew this week to learn more about his artwork and the controversy over his recent stencil.
Q: How do you make your stencils?
A: I have different models, some are myself and my brothers. I distort the faces: first I shoot the photo (using a standard digital camera with a video fisheye lens taped to it), and then draw from the photo using a thick graffiti marker or shoe polish pens. I freestyle the lines; it really breaks up the face a lot. Sometimes it looks kind of scary because the lines are jagged.
Most of them are black and drippy. I’ve been working on ‘prettier’ images, but even they look distressed. I like to keep the drips, it’s the influence of street art. Keeping the drips is pretty important.
Q: How did you get involved in graffiti?
A: At the end of middle school I started skateboarding, and graffiti came out of that. In high school I did a lot of art. And in college [at UNC--Greensboro] I was exposed to graffiti through the people I lived with and the people in my classes.
Graffiti was always an element I worked with. Then I started doing stencils, which have a clean-cut, graphic design feel. I felt it should tie back into the graffiti style, so I started adding the drips and using graffiti markers.
I don’t do so much on the street anymore. I build canvases, travel around and do a lot of gallery shows. The one time something was put up on the street, it got into the paper and there was misinterpretation. (more…)
pele say… i’m comin to get you! 12/06/2008
Posted by dlatman in Collage, art, feminism, hawai'i, history, nature, spirituality, u.s., women.add a comment
Happy (almost) Friday the 13th!
Some people think it’s bad luck, others consider it good. From a feminist perspective, this can be a powerful and positive day: 13 cycles of the moon in a year, related to women’s cycles; Friday is named for the Norse goddess of both love and war, Freya, and the French Vendredi is named after the Roman goddess of love, Venus. (I first learned this from Cooties zine in the mid-1990s. Kate, where are you?)
Regardless of whether you believe in good or bad luck, God, goddesses or nothing, I’d like to dedicate this day to Pele, the fiery volcanic spirit of Hawaiian mythology. I was inspired to make this collage upon visiting Hawai’i in 2004 and seeing the end of the road in Kalapana, where lava had flowed over the entire fishing village in 1990, destroying about 100 homes in two months and forcing all residents to evacuate.
I was also able to visit the current flow in the Kilauea crater, due to the generosity and patience of a local resident and hiker, and experienced first-hand the power of volcanic lava. The heat was so intense I could feel my arm hair and the rubber on my sneakers getting singed. We put an empty soda can in the flow and watched it explode!
Whether you believe fire is a spiritual, scientific or evolutionary element, the power to both destroy existing land and create new is amazing. It reminds me that good and bad can balance each other out in the end… even on Friday the 13th.
fafi, partly covered 04/06/2008
Posted by dlatman in Amsterdam, Graffiti, art, beauty, europe, shopping, women.add a comment
Update 6/21/08: a recent issue of Vogue Nippon (Japan) includes a fashion spread entitled “Angels,” in which female child models wear Fafi-inspired outfits. It’s adorable and visually appealing, the colors and props bringing Fafi’s alternative world to life. But my feminist sensibilities bristle somewhat at the sexualization, however slight, of young girls. While the child models wear clothing that provides enough modest coverage, it was an unusual decision to use children as models for very sexual women characters. Oh, well. You can check out some pictures here.
Recently I was able to visit Amsterdam, which is a beautiful, unique and really fun city. There are many canals and everyone rides bicycles, plus they have cookies called stroopwafel which are like two firm round waffle cookies glued together with a sweet syrup. Yum.
While exploring the city on foot, I was so happy to encounter this graffiti by Fafi, even though it was partially covered by many stickers and tags. Fafi is a French lady graffiti artist who paints sexy and mischievous-looking female characters on city streets throughout Europe and the world, creating beautiful, soft, feminine images onto hard, dirty urban walls. She has also developed non-human creatures for toy and action figure lines.
Partly what intrigues me about Fafi, and what sets her apart from many graffiti artists, is her accessibility in the consumer world. Last year she launched a bag collection with LeSportsac, this year she designed a makeup line with MAC. I also really like this video, basically a commercial for her 2006 limited-edition Adidas sneakers, in which a very pregnant Fafi describes her creative process.
