I made this stencil using a font called Skullphabet #2, which is available for free under a creative commons license on Noah Scalin’s awesome site, Skull-A-Day.

I thought it was very appropriate for my dead astro…

Maybe I should have called “Blade Diary” “Streetart-A-Weekday”. It does spell out what Blade Diary is about in plainer language.

I’ve never mentioned this on the site before, but I was originally going to call the site “Daily Bread” or “Daily Bread: Fresh Slices” or maybe “Daily Bread: Fresh Cuts” but I wasn’t completely sure about it… I liked how “Daily” talked to my update schedule and how “fresh” implied that my work was good ( fresh = good, in hip-hop slang mom! ) as well as how all that slicing and cutting suggested the act of stenciling- PLUS I LOVE BREAD! …but the religious reference? What was that about.

So I ran “Daily Bread” through an anagram generator just to see what I might get, and voila, like magic- I got “Blade Diary”, which suggests the stenciling and the daily updates, but without the god-fearing overtone. I decided I liked it much better.

That’s my story.

This’ll be covered up when they put another huge friggn’ ad back up.

But it’ll be back when they change the ads again!

I’ll be lurking underneath… just.. waiting.

Posterchild Players Proudly Present

Property Damage!!

An Internet Drama in Two Parts

Cast: Property Owner, Posterchild, God (OS).

Scene: Morning rises on Spadina, a street that runs through the very heart of the largest Chinatown that Toronto, Ontario, Canada can offer.

The morning sun casts light on the fruits of last nights labours.

Property Owner, surprised, upset:

“OH sssssssssssSHIT!”

“What are all those cracks? Is that a goddamn giant hole in the side of my building!?! What could cause so much property damage? Did a friggin’ Pterodactyl fly into the wall?”


“Wait, wait. It’s just painted on! It’s only paint! Phew!”

Posterchild, arty, pretentious:

EXACTLY.

IT’S ONLY PAINT.

See, people are always trying to convince you that painting on walls damages property.

This is my oh-so-clever riposte.

Legally, there is no argument- it’s not open to debate. Graffiti is typically considered “Property Damage”, like window smashing or satellite-dish frisbee.

But it’s just paint. Paint changes the colour of walls- It doesn’t hurt the wall. You can paint the flimsiest wall hundreds of times without it crumbling from the strain. Indeed, paint actually seals and protects walls.

BUT, the corrosive chemical baths and sandblasting techniques used to REMOVE graffiti do indeed damage walls.

Maybe it’s time we “teamed-up” and targeted the real threat here, GRAFFITI REMOVAL.

Property Owner consoled, resolved:

“I’ll never waste a single cent on graffiti removal again!”

END OF PART ONE

God, threatening, god-like:

Pretty sure nobody better write nothing on any of my buildings.

Posterchild, still pretentious, handsome:

Churches? Ok, sure, I’ll never paint on churches. I try and respect all buildings with outstanding architecture- or unusually high emotional investment- and most churches tend to have bot-

God, angry, smotey:

ALL THE BUILDINGS ARE MY BUILDINGS.

Laughter, applause.

THE END.

Here’s the first large window.

A woman reading!

Speaking of which.. I think it’s time for the first-ever Posterchild Book Review!

The Adventures of Darius and Downey (And other true tales of Street Art as told to Ed Zipco)

I was very excited for this book. VERBS (Darius) and Downey are two artists whose work I respect a great deal. They came up around the same time as I did, and then (Like now) I marvel in awe at the scale and audacity of the work that they were doing. I was able to stop myself from ordering this book online, but once it was in my hands, it completely seduced me.

The Adventures of Darius and Downey has a lovely pulp-inspired cover which features the artists public-worker costumes; their reflective vests and hard hats. And you know how I feel about costumes and all that. I had to pick it up. A quick flip through the pages assured me of a rich content- It was full of colour pictures of their great work, but moreover, it also had pages and pages of text. This book promised to do more than show me the work, it was going to tell me the story of the work- and the story of the artists who made it. This is the key element missing from most image-heavy street art books. I suppose we street artists are used to letting the work live or die alone, and that’s fine, but I won’t buy a book full of images I can see, or have already seen online. I might later, when I need cool picture books to cover the many coffee tables of my mansion- but not now. This book was different, it going to give me more insight than I could find online. And it was tactile and sexy too. The Adventures of Darius and Downey comes in hard cover ONLY and has a good heft and feel, with a smooth dust jacket.

Like I said above, I was excited for this book. So much so that I spent the 40 bucks that I didn’t have on it. I was able to justify the splurge to myself as “research” or as “inspiration”, but I got a call from Mr. Visa yesterday- He wanted his missed minimum payment of 53 dollars, and I’m not sure I made the right call anymore.

The book was quite disappointing.

The main problem with this book is that it was written by Ed Zipco. Ed is a college buddy of Darius and Downey’s- as is revealed in the book, they all met while at Pratt, in NYC.

Ed took the job of immortalizing his buddies adventures very seriously. He writes less like he’s been charged with relaying their story, and more like he’s putting down the creation myth of a new religion, whispered in his ear by angels.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that it’s an easy thing to write, and I don’t think that street art is an easy thing to write about, but Zipco’s breathless style makes it hard to sympathize with the difficulty of his task. The first challenge is finding a way to involve both graff-heads and non graff-heads alike, without pages of history or exposition. Then you have to find a way to describe the experience of street art without being boring, which is tricky, because so much of the practical side of it is so similar- “We went to a spot, it was sketchy, it was cold, we got scared, someone almost got hurt, the plan got fucked up, but we pulled it off- mostly.” Sure, I’ll read through all that every time, but I live for this stuff, and even I found it ponderous and repetitive in The Adventures of Darius and Downey . I can’t see a non-head making headway through this book.

See, Zipco writes like he’s in high school. His writing is the sort of thing you wrote in High School, look back at later- and feel that deep, physical embarrassment in your gut at. You know the feeling. The one that makes you palm your face and groan “uhhhhhh….” Like the feeling you get when you remember the first time you got drunk and peed your pants.

I think this particular passage epitomizes what I’m getting at here:

“Leon’s life was going well enough and so like most things hitting their stride, it was due for a strong hiccup. With graduation coming fast, there were major changes on the horizon, no matter how hard he would fight the tide. But bigger, unseen clouds were gathering.


Spring in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, is a tense season. Pratt Institute’s graduating class, oblivious to the weather report, is suddenly thrust out into the real world and everything suddenly goes through a severe disconnect. The people you see day-to-day move, get on with their lives, disappear completely. Even the people you are closest to are compelled to do the same. It’s a point of departure, a transition only slightly less traumatic than birth itself.”

only slightly less traumatic than birth itself?!

Dude, you’re GRADUATING COLLEGE. Have a sing-along to this, have a cry, and then grow a pair.

blagrh.

The style of his writing makes me feel like Zipco’s not convinced that the subject matter is EPIC enough. It’s a shame, because the stories could be interesting, ARE interesting, but Zipco’s trying too hard the whole time to convince readers that he and his college buddies are just soooooooo cool- making even the most interesting stories in the book difficult to read.

It doesn’t help that Ed mentions himself in the book in third person:

“While in Spain, Leon and Quenell meet with another friend of theirs from Brooklyn, Ed Zipco.*”

and then dedicates a footnote to how friggin sweet he is.

“* Ed had recently come into some money by bankrupting a short film with his signing fee, and with the collapse of said film, had plenty of time on his hands to travel. Hearing about the Bull Run, and missing his friends Brad, Leon, and Quenell, Ed quickly sold all his worldly possessions and bought a plane ticket. Following a stop in Japan for a few weeks of whiskey and peyote, he made his way to Spain via Paris. After several days spent living in a public park, he eventually found his long-lost friends, and soon they were all happily in harm’s way.”

All this effort to impress diminishes the stories, rather than enhance them.

So was The Adventures of Darius and Downey totally not worth the money? Maybe not… the book includes a mention about how Shepard Fairey revealed the secret ingredient that prevents paste from freezing in cold weather to the two young artists- SALT. How have I never heard about this/figured this out before? If true, this little tip was more than worth the cover price for me. However, since I’ve just shared it with you, you may want to skip The Adventures of Darius and Downey – or maybe try and find it in your local library. (If you already love street art, it’s worth a read. I’m a bit harsh on the book, but it’s not gawdawful.)

Two dead astros out of Five!

]]> http://www.bladediary.com/silhouettes-and-shadows-2/feed/ 2 http://www.bladediary.com/sexy-native-female-doctor-2/ http://www.bladediary.com/sexy-native-female-doctor-2/#comments Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:32:03 +0000 post http://www.bladediary.com/?p=1895

Here is the last one of the series.

So, whaddya think?

Hey, my buddy Jason wrote me about the Lockdown project, he wrote:


Loved the lock project. Reminds me of a bridge in Ekaterinburg.
Whenever a couple gets married, they inscribe their names on a lock and
attach it to this bridge over the main river in the city. Wish I’d
snapped a few more close ups, but you can see the effect here:

http://flickr.com/photos/jasoneppink/2881736359/

http://flickr.com/photos/jasoneppink/2882572552/

Also, jacek commented on the post:

Gasp! They are like love padlocks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_padlocks

Thanks Guys! This is super-cool. It seems that, starting in Europe, spreading to Japan and Korea and further around the globe from there- is an interesting culture of “Lovers Locks”! I wish I could say I knew about this when I planning my locks, especially since I choose the theme of Love!

Check out this incredible fence. The locks are like barnacles! Or Zebra Mussels.

What fence in Toronto would make a good lovers fence? Toronto is notoriously void of romance… I’d like to bring the culture here.

]]>

Here is the next one,

It is the result of a combination of a sexy doctor costume with a sexy native costume.

In this case, the sexy doctor in question, is the very famous Dr. Anita Lay.

Haha, so while looking for the many incarnations of Dr. Lay, I’ve found 2 other female doctors costumes, bringing the total count to 5. Meet Dr. Anita Hardwon (”You will be coming back for more and more refills after visiting this Naughty Pharmacist.”) and Dr. Anita Vibrata. (a sex therapist and a “pulsating professional” that “always leaves her patient with a smile.”)

Paging Dr’s Lay, Hardwon, and Vibrata! Your hundreds of nameless, sexy nurses await you in the Operating Room, ready to assist you in your sexy operations!

A short while ago I got a message from a young lady who would prefer to remain anonymous. I think her email explains the above image better than I can- she wrote:

Hey Post,

I watched your talk with some art students recently and I really enjoyed it. I go to your site because you show me some things I can’t find in Winnipeg. I like to ‘watch’ graffiti and yours is pretty interesting. I always liked your series of astronauts and especially the Native American ones. I even got the hoody and I think I sent you an e-mail about how pleased I was with it. Anyways, while I thought the series was awesome I never really knew there were as much to them as you described in your lecture. I figured you had some meaning behind them but you talked about it exceptionally well in this instance. I guess what you had to say revealed a few insights of my own and now I have a deeper connection with the series. As a Métis person who aspires to be a doctor, I feel about as ridiculous as your native astronaut. In fact, I don’t talk about this goal with people I know anymore because they feel the same way and feel I’m wasting my time. Maybe thankfully, I’m very fair despite being Chilean and native. In a sense, I’m granted a sort of anonymity so long as people aren’t aware of my heritage. I could be Italian… Some people think I’m Asian. I’m still confused as to if I should stop representing myself as my heritage couldn’t and let people assume or if I should stay firm. In any event, I have a new way to approach this. So, there is my personal connection to this. I was hoping to send something to you though. I work in a perfumery where we make a blend of sacred essential oils called Ishi. It’s inspired by the last Indian named Ishi and I would say it is like the rain that takes off my helmet. I was hoping to share it with you and send you a vial as thanks for giving me this realization.

My work has a website here if you want to check it out.

www.nothingperfume.com

Is there a place I could send this?

Thank-you, if you’ve read this far. I’m sure you get a lot of messages.

I responded:

Hello!

Thank you for the lovely email! I would love a vial of Ishi! You can send it to:

=====

I’m very glad you connected to the astronaut images and the talk I gave about them. For what it’s worth, I found your story inspiring. I do get alot of emails, and I rarely answer quickly, but I try to answer them all, and I read them all right away.

As soon as I read your email a few days ago, I began thinking of images! I decided on combining the “native” costumes available with the doctor costumes I could find. Not surprisingly, I only found 3 doctors costumes for women! The rest were nurses.

So I’m going to make all three. I’ve attached a photo of the drawing (on the left, the one on the right is something else) of the only female doctor costume that wasn’t “sexy”. I haven’t yet had time to draw or cut the others. But with your blessing, I’d like to publish your great email on my site when I do put these up.

I hope your willing, and I hope your well!

Best of luck with your goal!

Post

As I’m sure you’ve realized- she’s allowed me to publish her email! She’s also told me that she’s going for her MCATS in July! So lets wish her luck! This stencil is dedicated to her, and it is the first of the three. Because it is a costume from a theatrical costuming shop, it is pretty much actual, basic scrubs. This makes it the most similar of the three to the Native Astronaut series, which weren’t based off of costumes, but off of actual natives and actual astronauts.

I think I like this one the best.

The next three are based off of costumes, so they are ideas of nativeness and doctorness after they’ve been passed through heavy cultural interpretations. So they’re interesting, they reflect very intriguing things about our culture (Like how, in the whole Internet, I was only able to find 3 doctors costumes for women) but they are more challenging… and after discussing these images with friends, and my reasons for making them, and why they should or shouldn’t be on the street, I’m not sure how I feel about them…

You can see what you think for yourself over the next few days.

Here’s a progress pic:

I dunno about you,

but I feel much more like smiling when I’m not on camera.

I really like this piece.

Friends,

I have exciting news!

The next few updates will be slow in coming….

BUT

When the updates arrive, they will come with a brand-new, mega-exciting Blade Diary!

Lots of great changes,

ETA: One Week!

Last one!
I thought this woman was kinda reminiscent of cave drawings, so I put it up with my handprints.
Hey, if you ever wondered what my work space looks like- AND MAYBE YOU HAVE- check this out!
ALSO,
EVERBODY, LISTEN- HARPER MAKES ME SO STEAMED.
He is a transparent and conniving sonnofa’bully, who ignored his party’s mandate to govern MY country responsibly and in good faith WITH the majority of democratically elected members of the house of commons- and instead attempted to have his party govern unilaterally by steamrolling and financially crippling all other parties. (Other parties rely heavily on public funds- the conservatives were going to cut these public funds off- and since they have lots of friends, like hollywood, with deep pockets who need favors, they would be fine. Privatly funded “democracy”. Makes me sick.)
Now that he’s realized that his bind for power was overreaching- and finally sealed his party’s fate with it’s own hubris- (My democracy’s checks and safeguards kinda work! Hurrah!) He’s wasting MY money by stalling MY government for 2 MONTHS while launching a smear campaign against what he calls an “Undemocratic” and ” Unconstitutional” coalition of “Socialists and Separatists”.
Barf. I just dropped a barf.
I know most people visiting my site are American, and this may all be gibberish. Check out this article if you care to be brought up to speed.
Ugh.

SO GOOD.
also,
Joey sent me this very interesting article about Damien Hirst.