As you might know, we worked with shoe company Generic Surplus on another collection of shoes this time for Fall. The latest footwear collaboration connects street and civility artfully outfitting the creative class with five new styles. Both brands look to this community and those making a declaration of independence for inspiration. Disciplines, a short film set in Los Angeles, celebrates the spirit and vision of director, photographer and bassist for the Dum Dum Girls, Malia James, DJ/produder, Gaslamp Killer and artist/skateboarder, Gareth Stehr. These stories are but a few woven into the fabric of the Generic Surplus and Obey cultures whose wearers embrace the journey it takes to turn their passion into a profession.

Generic Surplus and Obey Present 'Disciplines', A Short Film from OBEY CLOTHING on Vimeo.

Once again we have a new feature up in the Propaganda section. This week we feature an article on street artist Alice Pasquini.

"The first word that comes to mind when looking at Alice Pasquini's work is 'big.' It's bright and rich and full of colors, and seems to take up the entirety of a space. Most of her subjects are women—sleeping, reading, smoking, staring back at the viewer, drinking coffee, captured in everyday moments using a mix of acrylics and marker..."

Click HERE or the image below to read more.

AMERICANA

New Paintings by Shepard Fairey

Public Reception

Perry Rubenstein Gallery (LA) presents a special project by Shepard Fairey and Neil Young in celebration of the recent release of Young’s new album with Crazy Horse, “Americana,” which features reinterpreted classic, American, folk songs. Fairey has created eleven new paintings, each one inspired by the songs, such as Oh Susannah, This Land Is Your Land and Clementine. The new Shepard Fairey paintings will be on view to the public at Perry Rubenstein Gallery in Los Angeles starting August 25th.  In addition, Shepard will have a limited quantity release of the Americana Print Edition Box Set at the opening on August 25th at Perry Rubenstein Gallery. The Box Set will include a collection of screen print versions of all the new paintings, more info and official release date on the prints to come shortly, so STAY TUNED!

The “Americana” project developed as a result of Shepard Fairey’s relationship with Neil Young and his long-time manager Elliot Roberts. Fairey created a portrait of Young for the artist’s May Day show in 2010, based on his view of the musician as a social commentator philosophically aligned with people like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Joe Strummer. Young and Roberts then asked Fairey to design the art, CD and DVD packaging for the 25th anniversary of Young’s Bridge School charity. Fairey states, “Neil really liked the art and I was thrilled he asked me to collaborate by making paintings inspired by the songs on his “Americana” album. I’m a huge fan of Neil’s music in general, but when I heard the album I realized how much the subject matter of several songs reflected the aspirations and tragedies of those pursuing the American dream tied into issues relevant to the 99% movement which I have been supporting.”

Fairey says he listened to the music and lyrics to come up with concepts for visual representations of the songs. Then for each song, Fairey presented Young with ideas about a visual image that would best capture the meaning and/or protagonist/s in each song. The artist enjoyed hearing how Neil interpreted aspects of the songs that moved him the most musically and lyrically. Fairey states, “I showed Neil sketches, and then we discussed the ideas and refined them. He was very open to my ideas and encouraged me to go with what inspired me the most. Latitude for interpretation is something that Neil utilizes and seems to value as an important way for the listener/viewer to personalize their interaction with art and music. I also was excited about this project because the concept of re-interpreting pre-existing songs filtered through Neil’s unique sensibility parallels what I have often tried to do as a visual artist by building upon iconic images that are an accessible part of the cultural dialogue.”

Each of the new Fairey paintings resonate powerful messages presented in the songs, some depicting a hopeful outlook on the pursuit of a better tomorrow, while others reflect the hardships that come in trying to achieve that dream. One painting related to Clementine, which captures the words of a mourning lover whose “darling,” the daughter of a California Gold Rush miner, drowned. Here she is represented by the levitating body of a young woman draped in white, with the text “And Gone.” Another painting is related to the 1848 minstrel song Oh Susannah that features a dungaree-wearing banjo player with the text “DON’T YOU CRY FOR ME.” Other works feature a wanted poster (Travel On); an iconic image of Queen Elizabeth embroidering an American flag (God Save the Queen); and, a lonely tree, stripped bare of its leaves, in a desolate landscape (Tom Dula).

For Young and Crazy Horse’s rendition of the famous 1940 Woody Guthrie song known to every school-aged child in America, This Land Is Your Land, written in response to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, Fairey has depicted the hopeful face of a youth, set against a dramatic Western Landscape. Three rows of sharp, barbed wire cross the boy’s path with the text “NO TRESSPASSING / THIS LAND IS MY LAND.” The text is derived from a variant verse Guthrie added as a social commentary during a 1944 recording session. Fairey’s paintings are mixed media on canvas, including techniques such as stenciling, collage, and screen-printing. All of the paintings measure closely to the 30 x 44 inch dimension, which is one of Fairey’s standard choices of size. “Americana” is Neil Young with Crazy Horse’s first album together in nine years and is being released on June 5 on Reprise Records.

Our good friend and all around good dude Steve Harrington has a solo show at Known Gallery in Los Angeles this weekend. If you're in the area we highly suggest you stop by. I'll be there so come say hello, I'll be the guy in the pink Speedo and mesh tank top.

Steve Harrington

INSIDE OUT

Known Gallery

441 North Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA

Opening Reception Aug 18 8pm - 11pm

http://www.facebook.com/events/327902603967219/

Honor the Treaties is a documentary short directed by Eric Becker about photographer Aaron Huey’s work on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  Charting his movement from journalist to advocate, the film details Aaron’s recent collaboration with artist Shepard Fairey.  Ultimately, the film questions outsider’s abilities to tell accurate stories about poverty, exploitation and history.  Aaron’s work on Pine Ridge appears as this month’s cover story in National Geographic magazine.  Check it out HERE.  Photography by Aaron Huey

Freckles. Photographer Reto Caduff has always had an affinity for them — even dated a few freckle-faced girls — and noticed how the spots would often get covered up with make up or be retouched in post-production. Caduff decided to react and "celebrate freckles instead of erasing them". He started shooting girls covered in the beauty marks that "make a face unique" and found that the models posing for him were excited about showing off their natural faces. Most of the girls shared similar stories with Caduff of how they were made fun of at school and had to learn to love their freckles. "I think for girls it must be especially hard since there is so much pressure as to what is beautiful and what not" the photographer tells me but "there are a few models who really are proud of them now." As they should be. Some of my closest girl friends have freckles, one of which was photographed for this very book and I agree with Reto: Freckles really are beautiful!

Reto Caduff is a multi disciplinary artist who has successfully dabbled in areas ranging from graphic design and typography over journalism and radio to film making and photography. But first and foremost he is a story teller. Over the past two years he shot about 100 girls, half of which made it into the resulting coffee-table book entitled "FRECKLES", a beautiful collection of black and white portraits. It is a labor of love, financed and produced by the photographer himself. It is available at selected photo book stores as well as through amazon.com as a numbered edition of 500.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984820205

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/beauty-marks-reto-caduffs-freckles/

I say: get a copy while they last..

Love,
Blanda