Art
A couple days ago I stumbled upon a blog-post that made chills run down my spine. A liberal prank group, The Yes Men, created a fake (but very real looking) version of the New York Times dated July 4th, 2009 & distributed them across the region for free. The peoples reactions are priceless and the shear magnitude of the prank deserves a proper golf clap…Check the video
You can read the actual fake paper online at NYTimes-SE.com…Damn I wish I had a hard copy…
Speaking of Paper Boys, if you have seen the Mike Mills film ‘Paper Boys’? Add it to your Netflix. It’s classic!
Alan Fletcher’s book The Art of Looking Sideways has long been my favorite book and a never-ending source of inspiration. I was just looking for a few Alan Fletcher images online and stumbled upon this video of him speaking about The Art of Looking Sideways…Everything he says about the book I find to be true…
Pick up The Art of Looking Sideways…you deserve it!
**It makes a perfect gift around the Holidays…inspire someone!
Where was I?! I missed the boat; FOR REAL! I just stumbled upon this project called The Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea (via Fecal Face). The piece was designed and organized by printmaker and installation artist Swoon in collaboration with a ton of other talented artists and musicians.
“Swimming cities of Switchback Sea is a flotilla of seven intricately hand crafted vessels that will navigate the stretch of the Hudson River between Troy and the New York harbor this August 15th - September 7th. Imagined as a hybrid between boats and bits of land mass broken off and headed out to sea, the Switchback vessels will make stops in towns along the river bringing performances and music. Over the course of three weeks they will make their way toward their home port - an invented landscape tucked into a niche along the East River in Long Island City, Queens.” - Switchbacksea.org
These photographs (by Tod Seelie) feel like they are straight out of The BEST Dream Ever! More photos by Tod Seelie. More info about the project is available at Switchbacksea.org
I had a dream last night that I was sitting by the window of my apartment, clutching a giant sea-fishing rod. I was trying to reel in a monster fish from the sea, which was located just outside the opposite window of my apartment (which doesn’t exist). It was quite a battle. After struggling I finally muscled this giant catch into the window. It flew across the room. I grabbed the fishing line and held up the fish; Grabbed a knife and stabbed into it. I thought this giant fish was a monster. I leaned out the window I was sitting by, holding the fish far away from my face. From inside the fish dropped the skeleton of a lobster (keep in mind lobsters don’t really have skeletons but rather exoskeletons). Still thinking this fish was a monster, I asked Justin (who was standing by my side) what to do with the fish! He said calmly, “Just leave it outside the window on the ledge, we’ll cook it tomorrow. And don’t knock off the lobster skeleton!”. Just then realized I was just holding a giant fish. It posed no threat to my being. Immediately after I heard machine gun noises from the alley just below the window. I was startled and yelled! I leaned out the window and looked down. There sat a picnic table, not a soul in sight. Atop the table, a bunch of fireworks sat, triggering themselves. It was quite the show!
And all of a sudden it was 12:15pm. I was seconds from crawling out of bed at 10:00am. I’m kind of glad I went for the ride this time!
My first attempt at a Lobster Skeleton and some other doodles from today!
Today I’m happy to announce two recent projects! First…The wonderfully talented Damien Correll invited me to contribute to Issue 10 of 5-9 Magazine a few months ago, and now Issue 10 is available for DOWNLOAD! The most recent 5-9 features a heap of amazing designers and artists so the 16 meg download is well worth it!
Second (and I’ve had to keep quiet about this one!)…Today Adobe announced Creative Suite 4! This past Spring I had the opportunity to work with Illustrator CS4 to develop an illustration/tutorial to be packaged with the latest release. Make sure to keep an eye out for my work when you pick up the CS4 release later this year!
The other day a friend sent me a .PDF of The Artist Survival Guide. He said something like, “check this out, you may need it.” It just so happens he had stopped by earlier that day, probably took note of my messy studio area & my off-the-wall mind, and thought…”Damn, Nick is a trainwreck! I better send him some sleeping pills or something. Oh wait, look! It’s an artist survival guide. Perfect!” But in all honesty, this thing is pretty fun so check it out! I feel like I’ve seen something like this before, but I can’t remember where. Thanks Chris!
Download Artists Survival Guide (3 megs)
A while back I came across a video by BLU, featuring all sorts of creatures climbing over the interior walls of a building. It was amazing. MUTO, Blu’s latest project, in which creatures terrorize large scale walls leaves me without words. Blu describes the project as “an ambiguous animation painted on public walls.” The amount of time & energy and the shear magnitude of this project is mind-boggling! I’m SPEECHLESS!
I was in Boston this past weekend for the Legends of Style event at the Boston Center for the Arts. The show was jam packed with over 200 pieces of art work from some very talented street inspired artists, including but not limited to Kenji Nakayama, Ryan Lombardi, Jessica Hess! The Scion sponsored event had a great turn out, with DJs & Breakdancing throughout the night! I opted to enjoy the night and not have to worry about a camera but check Always on the Grind for photos!
Coincidentally this past weekend also happened to be the Open Studio weekend for Boston University’s Graduate Painting Exhibition. I made a point of checking out the exhibition and stopping into a few studios. I was blown away by some of the talent coming out of the graduate program at BU! The gallery at 808 Commonwealth Ave, as well as the studios on the third floor of the building, were filled with beautiful work. The show runs through May 4th so hurry up and check it out! A few of my favorites
L > R: Johnathan Daly & Lindsey Warren
L > R: Julia Fernandez-Pol & Lika Yurkovetsky
L > R: Karen Ann Myers & Adrienne Ginter (Hand-crafted Flowers)
This Saturday I am honored to be a part of Boston’s leading showcase of street inspired contemporary art, Legends of Style! I have been to a couple of Legends of Style events in the past and it’s always a great time, with tons of art, vendors, DJs, and break dancing! Annnd…a few drinks. Just a few. I will be hanging out all night at the show so I hope you’ll come out and say hello!
Legends of Style
Saturday, April 26th - 7PM-12AM
Boston Center for the Arts
Cyclorama - 539 Tremont St.
For tickets and more info visit LegendsofStyle.net
SiteLA is a beautiful communal work and exhibition space in Los Angeles. Six independent and creative women, who have been dubbed “Visionaries in Residence” have been living and working at the space since February and will continue to do so throughout the year. The project is a way of promoting and celebrating the launch of Quiksilver’s latest womens line.
Quiksilver will be supporting the six women for the next year as they pursue their individual goals as artists, activists, entrepreneurs and designers. At the same time they will be hosting positive community events which are free for everyone! Brands today seem to be trying harder and harder to get their lines worn by their ideal target customer. Quiksilver is taking a ‘Give before You Receive’ approach, which I think you will see more and more often as brands realize that they need to reach out further to their customers before they receive anything in return. It’s a ‘You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ with the customer coming first! Not only is this a very cool project but the bi-product of the entire year will be some fantastic work, and plenty of photographs and video, which will serve to promote the line of clothing and most likely will pop up in Quiksilver’s advertising and collateral. Just a VERY Smart Idea. When your ideal target customers (The Visionaries in Residence) unintentionally are creating your campaigns and living their lives in your clothes chances are the end result is big exposure and very natural and genuine marketing. Visit SiteLA.org for more and check out these six beautiful and empowered women!
