On the Street

Fun Friday 06.17.11

June 17, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, California, Events, Los Angeles, NYC, On the Street, Opening, Performance

How YOU Doin’ ?

North of Grand Street – that’s how you know it’s NORTHSIDE. Shooting for SXSW status soon, Northside Festival already has tons of live free music in bars, clubs, and on the street – including ticketed gigs like BEIRUT tonight in McCarren Park. Did we mention there will be approximately 270 bands?

Now L Magazine is extending the offerings with a huge visual art component, replete with open studios and panel discussions and, this is where we come in, art in the streets.

This weekend the streets of Williamsburg will be alive and buzzing with an array of all sorts of visual and musical exhibitions and shows to mark NorthSide Open Studios and the very popular annual event CrestFest which includes the famous Crest Hardware Art Show, now pushing a decade.

This festival includes 175 events and participating galleries and artists’ studios. For additional information regarding the complete list of events, schedules and locations click on the link below:

http://www.northsideopenstudios.org/

“Sick” photographer Jim Kiernan Solo Show at 17 Frost Tonight

A combination of Brooklyn Street Art and Brooklyn Street photography, Jim is having his first show tonight. Stop by and say hi and have some refreshments.

17 Frost Gallery Here

“Last Exit to Skewville”

Skewville, the revered Street Art duo, are going LARGE this weekend on a 100′ long wall across from the Brooklyn Brewery and around the corner from the Brooklyn Bowl. Can’t get more Brooklyn than that, baby. The progress all week has been promising.

Skewville will be painting live on Saturday beginning at Noon to complete the 100 feet long mural on the corner of N. 11 and Wythe Streets. Special thanks to Crest Hardware and Montana Colors for their generous help. Read more about the project here.

Skewville mural in progress (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crest Fest 2011

A neighborhood favorite, this art show in a hardware store has grown into a festival of it’s own, with bands and food and crafts. You have to see it to believe it, so put it on your list. Street Artists are well represented in the collection too with Olek crocheting covers for some garden equipment and Aakash doing some installations in the actual garden out back. Our short list includes Skewville, Jon Burgerman, Olek, Aakash Nilhalani, Haze, General Howe, Royce Bannon, Celso, and Laura Lee Guilledge.

For more a complete list of events and schedules click on the link below:

http://cresthardwareartshow.com/wordpress/

“Racing Lines” : Jon Burgerman Scrawls on a Car (Which is Usually Not Allowed)

CrestFest and BSA invited internationally renowned artist Jon Burgerman to do his trade mark doodling and drawing on a ZipCar right in front of Crest on the sidewalk, and with arms full of Posca markers at the ready, he’s going to be out there doodling LIVE!. A little more about it here.

Brooklyn Street Art and Crest Fest invite you to attend the Launch Party for NorthSide Open Studios

After Jon mucks up the car, we’re piling a bunch of monkeys in it and taking it for a drive around the hood, probably fighting over who gets to control the radio. We’re hoping to entice people on the street to go to the afterparty we’re co-hosting with Crest for the Northside Open Studios Launch party. We’ll drink a toast to Skewville and Jon and all the artists who make this gorgeously ugly borough a hotbed of creative activity. All sales benefit Northside Open Studios.

BOX HOCKEY at Pandemic Saturday

Pandemic Gallery invites you to come and play BOXHOCKEY!!!
The greatest game you probably haven’t played yet! We’ve been lucky enough to play it, and nearly poked an eye out, but that’s just because we have very little athletic skill. You’ll probably ace it like a pro.

Plus it has custom art based on the Box Hockey game by some of the kool kids on the Street Art scene among the list of participating artists;

AV
Dirty Deeks
Don Pablo Pedro
Keely
Matt Siren
Scott Chasse
Stikman
Tony Bones
Vor138
Wrona

Los Angeles based visual artist Patrick Martinez and his dialogue with the Streets of Los Angeles.

Public Interventions: Swings and Hammocks Make People Really Happy

June 16, 2011 Artists, California, Features, London, Los Angeles, Manchester, On the Street, U.K.

Summertime, and the Swinging is Easy

Screenshot of swing installation project ( © Jeff Waldman)

Swinging over to the topics of public art and public engagement for a minute, here are two artists doing the heavy labor of providing a place to relax, to access the reverie of the sky and leaves and a moment of solitude. Appearing to be gorilla actions acting independently of one another on two different continents, artists Jeff Waldman and Narcelio Grud were inspired to ask friends help them place swings and hammocks in public places for people to enjoy. The process and results are here in some screen shots of the videos.

Screenshot of swing installation project ( © Jeff Waldman)

Swings: Los Angeles, by Jeff Waldman

The L.A. chapter of something called The Awesome Foundation awarded a grant to install $1000 worth of swings throughout Los Angeles. In spots all over the city conceptual artist Jeff Waldman installed a series of illegal swings and, judging from this video, Los Angelinos loved them.

Screenshot of Jeff Waldman and friends doing their swing installation project ( © Jeff Waldman)

Narcelio Grud: Brazilian Hammock Interventions

In another Urban “intervention” created by Brazilian artist Narcelio Grud with the traditional Braxilian hammock, displayed in public spaces in European cities for the free interaction with the population.

Screenshot of hammock installation project ( © Narcelio Grud)

Alternating between tentative to full body immersion in the simple movement, it looks like it is a lot of fun for people to interact with this installation.

Screenshot of hammock installation project ( © Narcelio Grud)

Here we see hammocks installed in the Manchester Town Centre in England. Lindenberg Munroe captured the experiences on this video.

Screenshot of hammock installation project ( © Narcelio Grud)

“Last Exit to Skewville” Emerges on a Brooklyn Wall

June 15, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, NYC, On the Street

Brooklyn Street Artist Skewville, one of this city’s original sons, has been coaxing from his imagination a cityscape of intrigue and sly humor. With a bluntly cockeyed optimism tempered by the reality of kooks and freaks and madmen who run the streets and boardrooms in this city, over the past four days Ad Deville has been climbing and spraying and blocking out the giant chess game that is always at play.

After weeks of talking about where to take this piece called “Last Exit to Skewville”, the dude shows up with a piece of paper folded in half and a loose line sketch of the span of a bridge, chewing on the end of a pen. An amalgam of the bridges spanning the glittering and stormy East River, the pylons are two opposing chess players using the buildings of New York as chess pieces. As perspective is clarified above the river, a clunky cityscape emerges; a color punched rumbling blinking playground that calls you to jump across it’s rooftops and avoid falling.

Skewville; Saturday. At the begining there was a big red empty wall, a pen, and a folded piece of paper with the span of a bridge drawn on it. This photo literally captures the instant Ad Deville stepped off the curb to begin marking out the piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Saturday. The first line gets rolled out. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With his hands and arms and buckets and and rollers and cans he paces the length, climbing up and down ladders, blocking out the sound of traffic cacophony behind him and stepping aside for rain bouts; hour by hour the shape of the cubist and blocky abstractions that make a vibrant and shadowed city start to pop from this bricked Brooklyn wall.

Skewville. Sunday. The blueprint emerges with Brooklyn’s iconic water towers above. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Sunday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

At this rate, Skewvilles’ finer graphic elements will arrive right on time as the week ends. Coming soon – marauding crowds of cleverly dressed, smart and sinuous music and art fans will swarm like honey bees in the streets of Brooklyn’s Northside. With maps and photo snapping cellphones in hand, they’ll see the installations in the streets, the artists in their studios, and Beirut in McCarren Park.

Skewville. Monday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Northside Open Studios, The Crest Fest 2011, and the Northside Music Festival – This is the new Brooklyn, much like the old Brooklyn, where neighbors coalesce and celebrate and intermingle and where Saturday Adam Deville of Skewville will commander a scissor lift lofted high above heads to put the finishing touches on this ode to Brooklyn and New York and (dare we say it) his masterpiece.

Skewville. Monday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Tuesday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Tuesday is for color (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Like any artist who knows that stretching is necessary for growth, Tuesday is the day Skewville extends his vocabulary with new untried color – an unusual addition carefully approached. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Blue Tuesday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville scales bricks in this neighborhood now jolted with scaffolding and high-rising blocks of glass (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Uniform waves lapping up the East River can easily be mistaken as the fins of sharks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Last Exit to Skewville” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Tuesday is for color (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. The city pops. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With the generous support from local family owned Crest Hardware Store (home of Crest Fest 2011) and Montana Colors, this project is possible.

Please come to the launch party too – BSA AND CREST FEST host the Northside Open Studios Launch Party Saturday Night

at The END in Greenpoint! Bands, Installations, and a Bikini Reading Series on the Roof.

Date: 18 Jun 2011
Time: 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Where: The End, Brooklyn
Event Details:
Co-celebrated with Crest Fest and Brooklyn Street Art, NOS Launch Party brings together an art exhibition of participating artists including a confessional box by Eva Navon, Rooftop Bikini Reading Series by Boomslang, video screening curated by Sasha Summer, and an interactive rocking chair video & sound installation by Sara Sun. Music performances include Snowmine, Balun, Merrikans, Dinowalrus and Walrus Ghost.

MORE INFO AND MAP TO LAUNCH PARTY HERE
All proceeds benefit Northside Open Studios.

More info on “Last Exit to Skewville” HERE

Ad Hoc Arts Presents: Welling Court 2011 (Queens, NY)

June 14, 2011 Art Fair, Artists, Events, NYC, On the Street, Queens

Wellng Court

Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Coney Island’s New Attractions: Ephameron, Veng, Overunder, ND’A and Radical!

June 14, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, NYC, On the Street

Arts impresario Keith Schweitzer gives famed and storied Coney Island in Brooklyn a boost of carney charm with his newly curated construction wall collection painted by colorful characters Over Under, N’DA, Radical!, Veng, and Ephemeron.

Overunder’s welcoming sign on Bowery St. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As Coney Island undergoes a slick redevelopment that some worry will zap it’s old world quixotic quirkiness, this motley crew of Street Artists regale the area with a sense of the fantastical unreality that has always permeated this salaciously savory and seedy amusement park.

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With thoughts of curvaceous mermaids, scream-inducing rides, fun house mirrors, obnoxious winking barkers, and a hot sweaty kiss behind a tent curtain all swirling through your mind, one can easily appreciate this new free associating imagery that jumps and undulates along oceanic walls.

ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Under the Boardwalk” – N’DA makes reference here to lyrics from the song made famous by The Drifters, released in June 1964. Here’s the original for you to listen to as you scroll through the rest of these images from the boardwalk.

Overunder and Veng of Robots Will Kill painted this 211 foot wall on Stillwell Avenue (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of RWK. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of RWK ‘s 211 foot wall on Stillwell avenue (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of RWK. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of RWK . (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder sets the windows and bird-planes free (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ephameron’s wall on Surf Avenue (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Refreshing drinks and reveries of schools of fish swimming through your memories on Surf Avenue. Ephameron. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Before a wall of blue, men in blue keep a watchful eye on Surf Avenue. Ephameron. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ephameron’s wall on Surf Avenue (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Images of the Week 06.12.11

June 12, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, BSA Images Of The Week, California, L.A., Los Angeles, NYC, On the Street, Week in Images

Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 130, BAST, Dark Clouds, David Flores, Enzo & Nio, Mare 139, Skewville, Twenty, and Veng.

Skewville and Bast did this new Brooklyn boom box for Bushwick Open Studios last week (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And this week Skewville was picked as a clue for the “Great Urban Race” a marathon-cum-treasure-hunt dress up in a costume and jog through New York event. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Speaking of Skewville, if you are in Brooklyn next weekend for Northside Open Studios and the Crest Fest 2011 and the Northside Music Festival be sure to see the brand new giant 100 foot Skewville wall unveiling in Williamsburg and come to the afterparty thrown by NOS, Crest and BSA in Greepoint. We’ll be sending out a big announcement about all the street artists involved this year (including some surprises) – so get on our newsletter and we’ll be sure to send you an invite. Great Street Art in Brooklyn!

Skewville and Bast from a slightly different angle. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looks like Bast tried his hand with the fire extinguisher (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Well known graffiti artist Mare 139 created this sculpture for El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 2011 at El Museo del Barrio. This window installation is right across the street from MOMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mare 139 entry for El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 2011 at El Museo del Barrio. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dark Clouds (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Flores work in progress in Los Angeles. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

David Flores in LA just completed this piece paying homage to a rebel. With good cause. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

130 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This sticker reminds us of Kara Walker work. We are not sure if the MEMO tag was an original part of the work (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Enzo & Nio continue with their series of Girls and Guns (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pardon me, I seem to have something stuck in my eye. Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An unknown artist tried to fend the mini heat wave this week by process of sublimation (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An angry Mr. Potato head type. Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A teaming mass of people during the one-day sale at Macy’s? Constituents at Representative Anthony Weiner’s office getting ready to give him a piece of their minds about his Sexting? The crowd getting off the roller coaster at Coney Island? This unknown street artist hand draws dozens of faces on steno pads and then wheat paste them together on walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist 2wenty in Los Angeles at night thanks to Carlos Gonzales. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Hey, why the long face? Veng of RWK continues to work on the Vandevoort Place wall in Bushwick. More photos of the work still in progress below (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Photo © Jaime Rojo

Brooklyn Street Art and CrestFest Invite you to the Launch Party for NorthSide Open Studios (Brooklyn, NY)

June 9, 2011 Art Fair, Artists, Brooklyn, Events, NYC, On the Street, Opening, Performance

NorthSide Open Studios

For more information about BSA “Last Exit to Skewville” for NorthSide Open Studios click on the link below”

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=21707

For more NorthSide Open Studios information on events, schedules and participating studios click on the link below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=21754

For more information about CrestFest and Crest Hardware Art Show click on the link below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=21765

Crest Hardware Art Show Presents: CrestFest 11 (Brooklyn, NY)

June 9, 2011 Art Fair, Artists, Brooklyn, Events, NYC, On the Street, Opening, Performance

CrestFest

On June 18th, Crest Fest 2011 will act as the official launch party for the Crest Hardware Art Show (C.H.A.S.). As a means to give back to the community, Crest Fest is structured as a civic-minded, volunteer based event. Proceeds from Crest Fest 2011will benefit The City Reliquary Museum and Civic Organization. This year’s program will include a live music stage, two DJ booths, local, creative art & food vendors and additional involvement from surrounding businesses and community organizations.
Estimated attendance throughout the day is 4000+. All ages are welcome. Time Out New York named Crest Fest one of the top “Cool Free Events” of the summer.

The group art show will include 100+ works from various artists of different mediums. The art will be installed contextually throughout 10,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, including a 5,000 sq ft urban garden. Work will be on display from June 18th, 2011 until July 31st, 2011. All art is about/made with/or inspired by hardware.

Click on the link below for more info about the participating artists, schedule of events and location:

http://cresthardwareartshow.com

GOS Presents: NorthSide Open Studios (Brooklyn, NY)

June 9, 2011 Art Fair, Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, NYC, On the Street, Opening

NorthSide Open Studios
Greenpoint Open Studios is teaming up with L magazine this year to bring you NORTHSIDE OPEN STUDIOS, a four day event celebrating a burgeoning art scene in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. NOS is a collaborative effort between artists, organizations, businesses and volunteers to build a creative platform in which all members of the community can foster and contribute to a support system that encourages the sharing of ideas and relationships. As artists’ studios and exhibition spaces continue to emerge in the neighborhood, we hope to facilitate the growth of a thriving art community.

Click on the link below for a full list of events, participants, schedules and locations:

http://www.northsideopenstudios.org/

Jetsonorama on the Rez, ROA in Mexico (Video)

June 9, 2011 Arizona, Artists, Guanajuato, Mexico, On the Street

On the Navajo Reservation the built environment tends more toward the horizontal than say, Manhattan. The similarity is that the man made structures for both are constructed on soil first belonging to the proud tribes of people we now call “Native Americans”.

Arizona based Street Artist Jetsonorama calls the Navajo Rez home and it is here where he plans most of his installations of wheat-pastes. The flat lands and sun parched structures, sometimes crumbling back into the dust, provide a suitable open-air gallery for his photos. The images are not somber, rather they are pulsing with life and possessing some urgency as if to remind you that these places are very alive and life stories are unfolding here.

These recent pieces are at the Cow Springs Trading Post. Judging from the scene, not much trading takes place there nowadays but Jetsonorama enlists its walls one more time to display the inhabitants of the area.

“Deshaun”, Jetsonorama. (photo © courtesy of the artist). “While installing at cow springs, we met a local youth named Deshaun. His skateboard broke while he was showing us a trick. We’re going to get him another one but he doesn’t know that yet. Thanks for the love Deshaun” Jetsonorama

ROA EN MEXICO : Un Video Nuevo

Belgian Street Artist ROA visited Mexico in January (see “ROA’s Magic Naturalism”) and now we have a video of his large installation in Mexico City. Whether in the detritus of the big metropolis or the bucolic country landscape, his unique and now iconic images of dead and alive animals rendered in perfect monochrome palette are never out of tune with their surroundings. Perhaps one key element in achieving this sense of context is ROA’s insistence on using as subjects the animals native to the land where he is painting.

ROA was invited by the art promoter MAMUTT ARTE in collaboration with the Antique Toy Museum Mexico (MUJAM). In the country for 3 weeks, ROA left about 15 murals in various locations like Mexico City, Guanajuato and Puebla and also collaborated with Mexican artists Saner & Sego.

BSA Outside Presents: Skewville “Last Exit to Skewville” (Brooklyn, NY)

June 8, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, NYC, On the Street

Skewville

**Brooklyn Street Art Presents nearly legendary Skewville live in action creating a BRAND NEW artwork on a GIANT Brooklyn wall called “Last Exit to Skewville” for Northside Open Studios!**

As part of the Northside Festival and Northside Open Studios June 16-19, 2011, New York’s famous Street Art high rollers Skewville will create a huge new street art cityscape installation on Williamsburgs’ North Side.

With the generous support from local family owned Crest Hardware Store (home of Crest Fest) and Montana Colors, this project is not a dream, but a reality.

To celebrate the 150 studios, galleries, and organizations involved in NOS and to mark the completion of “Last Exit To Skewville” you are invited to the Northside Open Studios Launch Party Hosted by Crest Fest and Brooklyn Street Art at THE END, 13 Greenpoint Avenue in Greenpoint.

Date: 18 Jun 2011
Time: 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Where: The End, Brooklyn

Event Details:
Co-celebrated with Crest Fest and Brooklyn Street Art, NOS Launch Party brings together an art exhibition of participating artists including a confessional box by Eva Navon, Rooftop Bikini Reading Series by Boomslang, video screening curated by Sasha Summer, and an interactive rocking chair video & sound installation by Sara Sun. Music performances include Snowmine, Balun, Merrikans, Dinowalrus and Walrus Ghost. Launch Party: June 18th, 6 – 11pm.

The 100 foot long wall called “Last Exit to Skewville” pays tribute to the cityscapes of industrial and everyday blue collar Brooklyn and calls on the smart alecky humor and graphic finesse of one of NYC Street Art’s Finest, the near legendary Skewville.

Presented by Brooklyn Street Art as part of it’s curated walls project called BSA Outside, “Last Exit To Skewville” will appear on North 11th Street directly across from the famous Brooklyn Brewery and right around the corner from Brooklyn Bowl, two solid neighborhood institutions serving thousands of adventurous fun lovers every weekend.

THE LOCATION OF THE WALL:
82 North 11th Street, Between Berry and Wythe

ARTISTS BIO

Skewville is an art collective consisting of twin brothers born and raised in Queens, NY who are known world wide for the thousands of hand made fake wooden sneakers they silkscreened, hand cut, drilled, laced, and tossed over telephone lines around the globe since 1999. Known for their warped crooked sense of irony and humor, Ad and Droo have established Skewville with a specific style of lettering, abstract figures and cityscapes that are instantly recognizable by Street Art fans everywhere.

For nearly 10 years Ad Deville and his partner Ali Ha have shown Street Artists in their two galleries, The Orchard Street Art Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side (2002-08) and Factory Fresh, arguably the centerpiece for the Street Art scene in the quickly booming art scene unfolding today in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

In addition to being Street Artists with a sarcastic running commentary on the hypocrisy and chicanery on the Street Art scene and gentrification of artist neighborhoods, Skewville has continued to stretch creatively with sculptural installations of industrial materials like wire, plastic orange mesh, and found building materials fished out of dumpsters. On the community tip, they created a mural for local North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition to revive part of the Greenpoint neighborhood, and built a miniature golf “Putting Lot” in an abandoned lot as partners with an artist/environmental group educating neighbors about sustainability. In recent years they have developed their fine art practice using their blocky lo-fi labor-intensive vocabulary and have participated in galleries and festivals around the world including London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Norway, Dublin, and Los Angeles, among others.

Skewville http://www.skewville.org/

Factory Fresh http://www.factoryfresh.net/

Seeing Baltimore With Martha Cooper

June 8, 2011 Artists, Baltimore, On the Street

The Photographer Takes You On a Tour Through Sowebo

Walking in the street with Martha Cooper is part anthropology, part history, part celebrity, and always discovery. Known for 40 years of documenting with a clear eye the emergence of graffiti and hip hop culture and for introducing it to a world audience, Ms. Cooper will tell you that her primary interest has always been to simply observe closely and let the images speak for themselves.

With a gentle frankness she repels your impulse to canonize her and her work and prefers to talk about the people she meets and her beloved hometown Baltimore, the site of her six-year photography project in the neighborhood of Sowebo. In much the same way her journalistic intuition led her to Brooklyn to meet graffiti king Dondi in the mid seventies, she has slowly earned the trust and friendship of many people in this neighborhood challenged by dire economics and the influence of drugs and guns.

White Mike talks to Martha about the mural and some neighborhood news. Mural by Rams, Doke, Soviet and Arik (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tailing Martha, and that’s what you do in an effort to keep up with the photographer with yellow shoelaces, you soon hear young voices calling “Picture Lady!”, “It’s Picture Lady!”. Across the street, up the block, on the stoops, clusters of folk cooling themselves turn their collective heads to see Martha with her heaving backpack clipping up the sidewalk toward them. The littlest among them come right up and bob back and forth talking with animation to her and she answers each question and inquiry about her camera and what she’s been up to.

Setting the backpack on the pavement under a tree, she unzips compartments and produces printed photos of the neighbors that she made since the last time she came by. With thanks and some storytelling and maybe another pose for the camera, Ms. Cooper smoothly departs up the block, scanning all sides of the street for more photo opportunities. Here we stop for a tour of a garden, there we see an abandoned lot converted to a grassy lawn-chaired community barbeque, and finally we are upon a large graffiti wall installation. “Welcome to Baltimore!” it cries and within moments some passersby greet her to talk about the piece and pose in front of their names on the rollcall – a tribute to some of the folks in the community.

Your day includes a street fair with crafts and bands and crabcakes and lemonade that Martha thinks is too watery and skateboarders with tattoos and piercings doing a double take and figuring out how to approach this familiar lady with a giant camera and chat for a moment with her. Many times. Graciously. Finally a small crowd gathers as she shoots a new box truck being painted on this leafy street, with youth piled up on stoops and even sitting on the black pavement of the street for a front row seat while a skateboarder does tricks for just the right flick. It’s community. It’s creativity. It’s Cooper.

Martha and her cousin Sally take us on a hike over the railroad tracks to a skatepark. One of the riders falls, and Sally digs through her purse to find a band-aid, which he’s too cool to accept. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An unusual site that is normal for Sowebo; A stable with this beloved cart pony owned by an “Arab”, the old-custom name for local street vendors who sell produce from horse-drawn carts. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia in downtown Baltimore pays tribute to Martha Cooper by interpreting a photo of hers and pasting it on the street. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia pays tribute to important people in the history of Baltimore’s downtown with a retro version of work similar to that of French Street Artist JR. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As soon as artist Adam Stab got the news that Martha was in town he procured a small truck to paint, and waited until she arrived to begin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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How YOU Doin’ ?

“Sick” photographer Jim Kiernan Solo Show at 17 Frost Tonight

“Last Exit to Skewville”

Skewville mural in progress (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crest Fest 2011

“Racing Lines” : Jon Burgerman Scrawls on a Car (Which is Usually Not Allowed)

Brooklyn Street Art and Crest Fest invite you to attend the Launch Party for NorthSide Open Studios

BOX HOCKEY at Pandemic Saturday

Los Angeles based visual artist Patrick Martinez and his dialogue with the Streets of Los Angeles.

Summertime, and the Swinging is Easy

Screenshot of swing installation project ( © Jeff Waldman)

Screenshot of swing installation project ( © Jeff Waldman)

Screenshot of Jeff Waldman and friends doing their swing installation project ( © Jeff Waldman)

Screenshot of hammock installation project ( © Narcelio Grud)

Screenshot of hammock installation project ( © Narcelio Grud)

Screenshot of hammock installation project ( © Narcelio Grud)

Skewville; Saturday. At the begining there was a big red empty wall, a pen, and a folded piece of paper with the span of a bridge drawn on it. This photo literally captures the instant Ad Deville stepped off the curb to begin marking out the piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Saturday. The first line gets rolled out. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Sunday. The blueprint emerges with Brooklyn’s iconic water towers above. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Sunday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Monday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Monday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Monday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Tuesday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Tuesday is for color (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Like any artist who knows that stretching is necessary for growth, Tuesday is the day Skewville extends his vocabulary with new untried color – an unusual addition carefully approached. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Blue Tuesday (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville scales bricks in this neighborhood now jolted with scaffolding and high-rising blocks of glass (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Uniform waves lapping up the East River can easily be mistaken as the fins of sharks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Last Exit to Skewville” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Tuesday is for color (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. The city pops. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder’s welcoming sign on Bowery St. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of Robots Will Kill painted this 211 foot wall on Stillwell Avenue (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of RWK. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of RWK ‘s 211 foot wall on Stillwell avenue (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of RWK. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of RWK. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng of RWK . (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder sets the windows and bird-planes free (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and Veng. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ephameron’s wall on Surf Avenue (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Refreshing drinks and reveries of schools of fish swimming through your memories on Surf Avenue. Ephameron. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Before a wall of blue, men in blue keep a watchful eye on Surf Avenue. Ephameron. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ephameron’s wall on Surf Avenue (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville and Bast did this new Brooklyn boom box for Bushwick Open Studios last week (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And this week Skewville was picked as a clue for the “Great Urban Race” a marathon-cum-treasure-hunt dress up in a costume and jog through New York event. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville and Bast from a slightly different angle. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looks like Bast tried his hand with the fire extinguisher (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Well known graffiti artist Mare 139 created this sculpture for El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 2011 at El Museo del Barrio. This window installation is right across the street from MOMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mare 139 entry for El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 2011 at El Museo del Barrio. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dark Clouds (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Flores work in progress in Los Angeles. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

David Flores in LA just completed this piece paying homage to a rebel. With good cause. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

130 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This sticker reminds us of Kara Walker work. We are not sure if the MEMO tag was an original part of the work (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Enzo & Nio continue with their series of Girls and Guns (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pardon me, I seem to have something stuck in my eye. Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An unknown artist tried to fend the mini heat wave this week by process of sublimation (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An angry Mr. Potato head type. Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist 2wenty in Los Angeles at night thanks to Carlos Gonzales. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

Hey, why the long face? Veng of RWK continues to work on the Vandevoort Place wall in Bushwick. More photos of the work still in progress below (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Photo © Jaime Rojo

Mary Reese, by Jetsonorama (photo © courtesy of the artist)

Bryson with his nephew Owen. Jetsonorama (photo © courtesy of the artist)

ROA EN MEXICO : Un Video Nuevo

Brooklyn Street Art Presents nearly legendary Skewville live in action creating a BRAND NEW artwork on a GIANT Brooklyn wall called “Last Exit to Skewville” for Northside Open Studios!

As part of the Northside Festival and Northside Open Studios June 16-19, 2011, New York’s famous Street Art high rollers Skewville will create a huge new street art cityscape installation on Williamsburgs’ North Side.

The Photographer Takes You On a Tour Through Sowebo

Mama Kat and White Mike welcome you to B-More. Mural by Rams, Doke, Soviet and Arik (photo © Jaime Rojo)

White Mike talks to Martha about the mural and some neighborhood news. Mural by Rams, Doke, Soviet and Arik (photo © Jaime Rojo)

**Brooklyn Street Art Presents nearly legendary Skewville live in action creating a BRAND NEW artwork on a GIANT Brooklyn wall called “Last Exit to Skewville” for Northside Open Studios!**