Graffiti LA

This great website supports the book of the same name. There is lots of LA history online here, and it's a great read. The book is amazing and huge. You must get one. It has more than 900 pictures, including a CD-ROM. The website has additional material and commentary.

Estria's skinny cap (stencil tip) tutorial [updated]

Correct info, from the site: "In 1986 Crayone TWS and Razor KTD first introduced Estria to the Skinny Cap. Razor was the first to conceive of it." (San Francisco Bay Area)

This type of detail cap has spread to Europe and beyond over the decades.

Here's the first public tutorial on home made skinny caps.

Be forewarned: Using these can be incredibly messy. You will get paint all over yourself until you get the hang of it. Wear gloves and trashed shoes. On the upside, you'll have plenty of loose paint for those nice splatter effects.

Mission Graffiti

Some great historical photos here.

Fuzz One needs our help: Buy his book now

Sadly, Fuzz One's mother just passed away and he is trying to raise funds to cover her funeral costs. So if you were thinking about buying one of his new books, this is the best of all possible times to do that. Here's the info:

Fuzz One
The Last of the Old School
by Vincent Fedorchak

This one you have to buy directly from Fuzz because it's not available anywhere else.
Info: myspace.com/fuzzone
djfuzzone@yahoo.com

Fuzz says:
Book is 8 1/2 by 11 inches. Heavy and almost 400 pages. All raw text of hardcore NY history.

US customers: No PayPal at all. Only checks allowed from a U.S. bank. Check or money order only. For one book only and extra artwork, the total to send is $40.00. All shipments get sent with Priority Mail and include new artwork I am doing. If you want more than one book, e-mail me for prices.

Any other country: No personal checks. Only International Money Order or U.S. dollars in cash. No Euros or other currency for now. This gets you one book and Priority Mail shipping (airmail). You can send it certified mail so you know I got it, but that is an extra expense for you. It's US$ 50.00 for one book to get sent to England. I have had a few customers from there already. It should be close to that for other European countries but I ask that you e-mail me first from where you are in order to determine if it will cost more. Send inquiries to djfuzzone@yahoo.com

I will sign each book and in most cases will add my own graffiti artwork by doing something for you and include it with the book. No other authors do that.

More than one book: If you want more than one book, send me a note to tell me how many you want and where you are. New shipping prices will be given to you.

Not doing business with any bookstores or distributors. Write your name and address neatly so I can read it when sending your payment.

Send any payments here:

Vincent Fedorchak
PO Box 111
Port Jervis NY 12771
USA

The Martyring of Che Guevara

Interesting summary of Che's role in history, his assassination 40 years ago, and the absurdity of obsessing over Communists.

Happy Birthday Art Crimes

Art Crimes is 13 years old today, believe it or not.

In 1994, there were no search engines, no commercial websites, and putting images on the web was a brand new idea. The web was primarily focused then on what scientists and academics were interested in, because they were the ones with access to the Internet. Art Crimes was one of a handful of art sites, and the first website for graffiti art, although Kel1st and Mare139 had a website for their activities already by then, and Taiteiden Rajamailla (the first Finnish graffiti site) and I Can Fly crew's site were in the works even then.

Websites were so newsworthy in 1994 that Newsweek magazine did features on them, showing Art Crimes in one of its October 1994 issues. Writers started emailing me to say they read about the site at their dentist's office and decided to get online so they could see it. It was amazingly complicated to get online access then too, so kudos to everyone who made the effort.

Thanks to everyone who's been along for the ride, as well. Your enthusiasm, your purchases from our store, your generosity with your products and your photos have kept the site going. Thanks especially to everyone who helped and encouraged me over the years. I am honored by your support and awed by your talents.

Shoe interview

Shoe.CIA is a legendary stylemaster from Amsterdam. And he's having a show there this month.

September 13 - 16, 2007
BG
Oosterdokskade 3-5
Amsterdam

Press preview opening September 12 10:00-12:00
Opening party September 13 18:00-01:00

PowWows.com live webcast

Another reason I love the Web.

I'm really grateful that the Native American tribes have shared some of their traditional celebrations in this way.

Mr Wiggles on the Art of Lettering

Tutorials, alphabets and more.

Barbara Bode Falcon, RIP

Too soon, too soon. Barbara Falcon, who was known universally as "Barbara Bode," has left this life. Barbara was the former wife of the brilliant underground cartoonist Vaughn Bode and the mother of his lizard spawn--the artist Mark Bode.

The passing of this prismatic and charismatic soul is a heavy loss for those who knew her personally and to the graff community.

She was the spark for Vaughn?s "Bode Broads," his unique way of drawing pinup in a recognizable fashion. To Vaughn, Barbara represented the most idealized form of feminine beauty. The vision of Vaughn's Bode Broads is a style that's appealed to the most influential and prolific graff artists of our time. Bode Broads can be seen in graffiti art all over the universe. Barbara?s moon-like face and curvaceous body type launched a thousand walls, worldwide.

"My father did hundreds of characters based on her image and some of them really captured her spirit, she was the original inspiration for all Bode Broads to come and ever since," said Mark.

Barbara's very nature was too complex to sort out, yet paradoxically she was an open book of the most fragile kind. She possessed great physical beauty, razor wit, keen intellect, and immense empathy. Still, one never wanted to cross the Sicilian Queen; she'd cut you off quicker than a piece of salami.

She was born Barbara Hawkins, in Utica New York, in 19xx. At the age of 16, the sultry-eyed teenager began dating a square-looking Vaughn. The couple eventually married against her parents' wishes. The intensity and dysfunction of their 11-year marriage was an event that Barbara tried to process until the end of her life.

The year of Vaughn's untimely death in 1975, she met and married Rick Falcon, the brother of Vaughn's sister-in-law. Rick was always the more normal father and husband that Barbara yearned for after the bizarre and tumultuous period with Vaughn. "After meeting Rick," Mark recalls, "it seemed like Mom and I had landed gently on a peaceful earth after we had just ridden on the tail of a space cowboy comet which was Vaughn's life with us."

Rick was Barbara's ultimate care-giver and loving husband until the end.

Rest in Peace Barbara.
- written by Angela Frucci

Brad Holland's school of art history

All oxes gored.

Berlin wall section secretly removed over Easter weekend

We can hope the officials are telling the truth and that it's being restored and preserved, but the secrecy is suspicious. The Berlin wall is important world history and important graffiti history. Even if it can't remain in Berlin for some reason, it needs to be preserved as possible.