Tag Archives: art

How sick is this?

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EVOL is an artist that I have been following for a while. He has a knack for turning small items into cityscapes with his precision stenciling. I had the pleasure of shooting some of his work earlier this year at Volta. It was awesome to see his work in person. But his latest piece is the coolest that I have seen in a while. He excavated a field to create crisscrossing trenches, before lining them with his stenciled plywood walls. He documented the entire process on his Flickr page. Check it out.

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[images: EVOL]

Happy Friday

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I had myself quite a busy little night, last night. I stopped through the new location of the Hole Gallery on Bowery to see NYC graffiti legend, TAKI 183 in the flesh (and shoot his book signing for curatedmag). For fun, I put together a little animated gif above of TAKI scrawling his tag in someone’s book. I hope that it doesn’t give anyone seizures.

After the book signing, I headed across the street to the New Museum for an event with KAWS and Hennessy to celebrate the ltd. edition bottle that KAWS designed for them. ?uestlove was the DJ. It was a cool scene. Here are a couple of my favorite shots–

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Above and below: ?uestlove, of The Roots.

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I threw this one in just for kicks. The CK billboard hasn’t been as good, since Eva Mendez left. But I think it is funny the way that the BP and CK logos line up from this angle. Anyway, I’m a nerd.

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I feel like Jakesmag has been a little bit heavier that I intended, for its first week in existence. I think it is partially a result of the fact that I have been in such a serious mood all of the time lately. I’m shooting for a bit of relaxation this weekend, so that I can tone things down a bit, if that’s ok. Have a great weekend.

One of those things I read and hope is true

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[photo]

David DiSalvo wrote an interesting piece in the Forbes blogs this week about a study of the link between men’s wellbeing and their appreciation of art. The title of the article is “Study: Men Who Dig Art and Culture are Happier, Healthier and Calmer.” Sounds intriguing, right? You can check out the abstract of the actual study, over here. But the gist of the data, according to DiSalvo is that,

Overall, both men and women who participated in cultural activities—including playing an instrument, painting, going to the theater and visiting museums—had lower levels of anxiety and depression, reported more life satisfaction, and generally “felt better” than those not participating in cultural activities.

But the biggest beneficiaries were men. And here’s the strange part: men more interested in watching and looking at culture—in museums and art galleries, for example – enjoyed the greatest benefits of all; even more than men actively participating in cultural and creative activities.

So apparently, a guy doesn’t even have to be an actively creative person to reap the mental/health benefits of appreciating those who are creative. I feel like I’m wound a bit more tightly than I would like to be, a lot of the time. Apparently, I need to spend some more time in the galleries.

Some faves from last week.

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Element held a preview for their new Emerald collection at Saturday’s Surf (above). I did a little editorial shoot with my homey Jace, on an UWS roof top, for Sons of Intrigue (below).

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After shooting, we hung out and enjoyed the weather for a while. I snapped this long exposure of the UWS at dusk.

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I covered an Olek installation that was held in a recording studio. You may recall that Olek is the eastern European knitting street artist who once completely covered the Wall St. Bull. Part of the exhibit included various people wearing full body crocheted camo suits (below).

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Awkward Cheek Kiss Greetings

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The other day, I was shooting this thing at the new agnes b, store in SoHo. They are rotating art installations through the store there, and are currently featuring the work pictured above (among other items). Anyway, the PR person who organizes these openings is a really cool lady. At the last one that I went to, I ended up talking to the woman for at least a half hour.

The other night when I showed up, I walked over to say hi and she leaned in for the cheek kiss. PS, this is totally normal practice for this scene. I grew up doing handshakes and high-fives. And I have to admit that I was a bit caught off guard when I first moved to NY and people were doing the cheek kiss thing. I was like, “what is this, France or something?” But over the years I have grown accustomed to it, and even tried to learn how to do it without being totally awkward. But the problem is, I can’t.

My friend Mike, who was born and raised in southern CT has the greeting down pat. He makes it look so easy. I really envy that. When I was in Spain recently, some of our friends there, even gave me some pointers, on how not to mess it up so badly. But inevitably, every time someone opts to do the cheek kiss thing with me, I either end up giving an accidental headbutt, or else actually planting one on the cheek (you are supposed to kiss the air).

So, I apologize to the very nice PR girl and countless others over the years who have been the recipients of my poorly executed attempts at the cheek kiss greeting. One of these days, hopefully I can get it down. Maybe I’ll watch some instructional youtube videos.

Love Me calling out BNE

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It is no secret that I’m not super fond of the French, generally. I mean, they basically don’t really like me either. Don’t get me wrong there are loads of great French people. I just never met most of them, I guess. Anyway, the same it true IMO when it comes to French street artists. Invader, yes. JR, yes. Guetta, no thanks. BNE, no thanks. Since when was putting a sticker with block letters everywhere (I seriously don’t think that I walked 2 blocks in paris w/o seeing another stupid BNE sticker), art. I’m sure that some people find the ubiquity alone, a form of art. I on the other hand really appreciate the latest Love Me campaign, which appears to be calling out the lamitude of BNE’s garbage sticker campaign.