The Emerald City.

I had the opportunity to visit Seattle, Washington a couple of weeks ago. The primary reason for the trip was to watch the San Diego Chargers play the Seattle Seahawks, but Seattle has always been a place I have wanted to visit. The trip was a lot of fun, especially since it was a big group of us that went up together for the game. Unfortunately, we lost to the Seahawks so I will not be talking about that because it is still too soon and the wound is still fresh.

couple.


ready for kickoff.



Rivers.

The city of Seattle is beautiful. I believe that is the best way to sum it up. A friend of mine put it well by saying, “It’s like San Francisco, but cleaner.” S.F. is also a very nice city, but it had it’s share of griminess that I did not see while I was in Seattle.

The first day I was there was Saturday the 25^th. Arrived there around noon and the weather was perfect. Sunny with no clouds really. As soon as I dropped everything off at the hotel we headed down to Pike’s Place. Downtown Seattle itself is a cool place to walk around. On the way to Pike’s I recognized the members of the band ‘The xx’ just kickin’ it on a street corner. I stopped and spoke to Oliver (vocals & bass), who was a super chill dude. He told me they were playing a show that night at the Paramount and I was also able to get a picture with him. That alone was enough to give high praise to the trip itself.

It was a neat experience to walk through Pike’s after seeing it many times on television or in print. The market is set up with plenty of walking space for everyone and the street itself was shut down to accommodate the crowd. Got the chance to see the 1^st Starbucks, which didn’t do much for me due to the fact that I don’t drink coffee. After Pike’s we hit up The Brooklyn seafood restaurant and then headed back to the hotel to relax for a few.

Sunday ended up being all about football. Started off with a morning meet up with a large contingent of Charger fans at a Gordon Biersch before the game. The day started off full of excitement, but unfortunately it ended with a near fight, disappointment, anger, frustration, and exhaustion. I got the chance to take some decent shots of Seattle as we made our way to the stadium and of the stadium itself, which was cool, but a win would have made everything better.

O Canada.

fish eye.

Monday morning I woke up and headed out by myself to snap as many shots of whatever caught my eye. I wasn’t able to take any shots of Pike’s or anything else for that matter on Saturday because I had a massive brain fart and left my camera in the hotel room. So Monday was all about the city, my camera, and I. As soon as I was out the door I turned on the iPod, walked, and snapped whenever I got the brain impulse to do so.

The weather, in my opinion, was great. Sunny on Saturday, drizzling on Sunday, drizzling and then mostly sunny on Monday. My flight left @ 4 on Monday and I was not looking forward to returning to 108 degree weather in San Diego. Seattle (except for the fans, who were major douches) left a great impression on me. It is a city that I will surely return to, hopefully sooner than later.

San Diego Super Chargers.

It's that time of year again. Football practices are starting nation wide; from high school to college and to the National Football League. If you now me personally, you know that I LOVE sports. From baseball to soccer to basketball and of course football. All my life I have loved the San Diego Chargers. They are my team and will always be my team. Practices open to the general public started last Sunday and of course I had to be there. To start getting ready for what of course will be our year.

Here are some photos I snapped as I watched the team practice.


Q.



Sprolsey.



the future.



FLOYD.



defense.



LEGADU.

Zombieland.

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to once again attend Comic Con (thanks to tickets from the homie Zacarias). It was a lot of fun, as it always is. I was able to check out some cool stuff and of course received many of the freebies being given away. What really got my attention was that I had heard about a "Zombie Walk". I'm a fan of zombie things, whether it be movies or video games. It's entertaining.

When I heard about this walk I really wanted to make it out and snap some photographs. I have had some ideas behind a "end of days"/"zombie"/"apocalypse" type photo shoot. I'm more of a "shoot what is happening around me" type of guy, so this would be a lot different. It would be something totally planned/scripted/"movie lot" type feel to it. I am not sure when this might happen, but hopefully sooner than later.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the photographs I liked from the "Zombie Walk".



Zombie Drive.



1 zombie, 1 cup.



don't look back.



bolthead.



no shirt. no service.



hijo de zombie.



smoking zombie kills.



zombie daughter.



kill bill?



zombie stare.



the zombie killer.


There were some very good zombie make-up jobs, but I was actually hoping there would have been a lot of more zombies participating in the walk. Maybe next year.

Viva la Revolucion

As some of you know, there is a big installation currently at the Contemporary Museum of Art in Downtown by the name of "Viva la Revolucion." It is the first of it's kind here in San Diego. It is all street artists' work being shown. Everyone from Shepard Fairey[U.S.] to Space Invader[France] to Blu[Italy] to JR[France] to Os Gemeos[Brazil] and even Banksy[U.K.] are being shown here in our own backyard. I was amazed at the names that would be showing when the information was being released. Having watched "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (definitely a must watch) I was really looking forward to seeing these street artists' work in person.










































As a part of opening weekend, some of the participating artists were given the go ahead to hit the city up; some through pre-arranged sites and others wherever they saw fit. I found out about Mr. Obey himself and a piece he was doing in Hillcrest on the side of the Urban Outfitters building and I could not pass up an opportunity to see his work in progress and of course the opportunity to snap some photos. It was a great experience seeing it go up piece by piece. This first one was all paste ups. When I left, I had thought he was finished. When I returned the next day I saw that he did the WHOLE wall. It is an epic piece. If you do get a chance make sure to stop by and see this work of art.


















































A few days later I heard that he was doing a monk piece, this time in South Park. Of course I had to go check it out. This time it was a stencil piece on the side of an office building on 30th St. I got there and watched as they finished painting the background. It starts off in black at the bottom of the wall, then dark red as it fades into a light red and then a pinkish color. The next day I showed up to watch them start stenciling the wall. They finished the overlapping gold stencil designs and started on the monk. It was not finished that day and it also started raining so I was not able to get shots of the finished product. I have since returned and seen the piece, it is beautiful. If you get a chance stop by and check it out, it's on 30th St. behind Whistle Stop and Velo Cult.











I have not had the chance yet to check out "Viva la Revolucion", but I will hopefully be stopping by this weekend to check it out, as I hope you too will swing by MCASD.







There too you should be able to see a map of the other pieces around town like; JR on the corner of 5th and C (an awesome piece, can't miss the giant eye), Os Gemeos on the back side of the Horton Plaza parking structure, Space Invader who had multiple pieces throughout San Diego. Unfortunately I haven't heard or seen any Banksy pieces around town and from what I heard he has a few prints at the MCASD.


And just for the hell of it, this is one of my favorite Shepard Fairey videos (it's in an earlier blog post).

New stuff.

It has been a long time since I last posted anything on here. Not too much new, working on some new pieces and I finally got word on some photographs I took for a local author Shawn Rohrbach. I shot photos earlier this year and he selected one of them to use in his latest book that will be released in September. He was nice enough to give me an advanced readers copy.

Chicano Park Day 2010

I had to put this as the first thing on the blog.




So I had the opportunity to check out Chicano Park Day this year with a couple of friends and I am glad I did. I was suppose to go last year but I was not able to make it. It was a lot of fun to go down to Chicano Park and walk around with everything that was going on. They had a lot of food, musical acts, dancers, cars, and many stands selling locally produced products.


musica.



canta.


I was especially looking forward to photographing the lowriders and classic cars. I love old cars and I dream of owning a 1961 Chevrolet Impala.



negro modelo.

My friend I went with is starting his own production company and went down to film the event for his site. He got a lot of good footage and I am proud & excited to say that I am collaborating with him on some projects. We will be bringing out some good artistic and local projects out in the near future. That's in the works right now, so stay tuned.


footage.



honor.



focus.


raise.



do not enter.



switch.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

I have to start off by saying that I have never been an overly political person. I have been intrigued by it, but have never immersed myself past a certain point. I feel that it is a persons opinion to support who or what they want to support and therefore do not like to discuss politics with many people because of the emotions that it can bring out.

(Warning: this video is a little violent and shows a dead protester. Unfortunately, this is reality.)


As an artist I can say that I have only created about 3 pieces that could be considered to have political connotations. For my latest painting I set out to make it a direct statement when it came to current/political events. On January 1st, as I sat at home, I was looking around on YouTube when I came across a video that disturbed me greatly. It was a video that was uploaded by a protester in Iran. The video showed a man dying in the streets. People were trying to carry him over to the side and trying to do anything they could, but one could obviously tell he was passing away as the camera rolled. It seemed from the video that this man had been shot in the face. And for what? Because he felt the need to show his displeasure with his government. Because he decided to join the thousands protesting the way the government had been cutting lines of communication coming in and going out of the country. This after widespread rumors that the government itself had committed voter fraud in order for President Ahmadinejad to stay in power. No matter what the problems might be that have infuriated the people of Iran enough to stand up and let their voices be heard; what hit me was the fact that still in 2010 there are governments who try to control what their people can hear, watch, and say. To have a government shutdown internet and lines of communication is disturbing to me.



While watching the video I scrolled down and read some of the comments that had been left by viewers. After watching the video and reading the comments, the idea for this painting developed. I was going to embed the actual video I had seen into this blog, but out of respect to that person and out of respect to you, the reader, I will not especially due to the feeling I got after watching it. The video was way too bloody. I did not and still do not like the feeling that I felt throughout my body, and basically my soul, after watching that video and because of that feeling I decided to create something that demonstrates my displeasure.


Technically, this painting is not finished, but will be soon.

top 5.

Hi. This will be a quick post. I was checking out the GrnAppleTree website a couple of days ago and was pleased to see that the t-shirt featuring my photograph is one of the top 5 selling items on their website.

So, go for it. Check out the site & if you feel the need, buy a shirt or two. They restocked on the silver shirt which looks ill.