Hey guys its been a while since I've posted on here, so long that I have to split recap into several posts. First off I am currently working hard for my first solo show in my career which will take place at the young but heavy hitting White Walls SF (Shout out to Justin and the crew). The shows opening will be on Saturday November 6th 2010. Check them out at whitewallssf.com
Here are a couple sneak peeks of some of the pieces Im working on for this show. On another note I am happy to announce that I am now an officially sponsored artist by MONTANA COLORS. Since Ive been working on these newer pieces I have been using MTN 94 which is flat paint in a low pressure can which comes in a ton of dope colors. The biggest plus is that it sands really nice and since its low pressure you could really control the density of the spray. PS I love HARDCORE too but 94 is my S***. A BIG shout out to Derek from destroyalldesign.com , Neon and the rest of the MTN US crew.
As some of you may know the HCG crew (JLG, Abraham) including myself have been knee deep in the Immigration Reform issue since our boys Zack De La Rocha and Marco Amador first brought us out to Maricopa County to see first hand what was going down and to protest in solidarity with our people from the area against the Injustices of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. If you don't know what Joe's been up to play a little catch up at Stephen Lemons blog: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/
This past January 16 the crew and I went out there for about a week and went to work, cutting stencils, making signs, helping out with press, holding workshops with the youth, and finally the icing on the cake was the PROTEST. The protest was amazing because prior to this march the largest amount of people in attendance in past demonstrations where roughly around 10K and this time even though the media down played our numbers we where about 20,000 people deep, and in every color, age, political party, etc. Within these numbers where some influential people that shared their spotlight in solidarity with the movement which include Zack De La Rocha, Linda Ronstadt, Lil Joe y La Famila, and the powerful Dolores Huerta. Alot of you may not know this but Dolores is the actual person behind Si Se Puede (Yes We Can) that the great Cesar Chavez is known for.
A big shout out to La Carmencita for housing us and Art Felix for rolling with me and being a great roadie.
Also a HUGE shout out and thank you to Sandra Casto Solis, Orlando (dude on the shirt), Jojo, Diane, Erika, Bryant, Chandra, Billy, Evie, Tupac, Sal, Caleb, Gigantico, Rafa, Xochitl, Axan and anyone else I forgot to mention, Thank you for all your enlightenment, good vibes, and making Phoenix my third home even in a police state.
Please check out Marco Amador's site: http://cimarrones.org/
Below are some images of the protest. All photos below are courtesy of my good friend Andrew Grove unless specified otherwise. Dolores Huerta and myself. Orlando Familiar? Sandra "La Big Time" Castro We Are Human Posters. Photo By MUNDO Our boy Todd Mazer putting in work. Joe Arpaio Newest Collaboration between myself and Shepard. Its our way to help Re-Elect our favorite Sheriff. Printed by master printer Joe Alpuche at the legendary Chicano print shop Self Help Graphics in beautiful East LA. Large format print available soon. Stay Tuned. While on the subject of the movement and prints. Here is a image that I rocked for Self Help Graphics so they could gift these prints to volunteers that helped out at this past years Day of The Dead Celebration. These are not for sale and are not available. So if you want to stay TRUCHA I suggest you volunteer next year and maybe you could come up on a cool print or McDonalds gift certificates (that was Joe's joke). And yes another Cesar print... I know...Im a proud Chicano I can't help it. SHAOOO. I also posted a image titled Aqui Estoy Y No Me Voy/ I Am Here and I Wont Leave this is another SHG print which was part of a Consejo Graphico Atelier.
A BIG and important part of this HCG project is friends and family and within the HCG crew we all support one another in our endeavors and being a family that dabble quite a bit we all end up getting our hands dirty with all kinds of opportunities. So far the crew consists of Juan Luis Garcia (Photographer/ Cinematographer / Designer), Abraham Manuel Calderon (Videographer/ Writer/ Idea Generator), Philip Lumbang (Artist/ Comedian), Todd Mazer (Videographer/ Photographer/ Writer), Omar Bustos (Director / Editor / Videographer), Savanah (my Maine Girl/ Support System) and last but not least Matt Roberts (The Bizness). Here are a couple updates of what some of the crew members have been up to:
Recently Juan got to work on Voto Latino Census 2010 Be Counted Campaign art directed by Steve Alfarao ( http://stevealfaro.com/ ).
Check out the video below to see Juan working with many latino celebrities including the beautiful Rosario Dawson. Video by Abraham Manuel Calderon.
Here is a video that Todd Mazer worked on of Phil Lumbang. check him out at: http://www.philiplumbang.com/
