PSA: Splish Splash Rehash

I really don't even know where to begin. Seems earlier this year some really great street art got messed up by a really not-so-great person (NY Mag article). No one knew who 'the splasher' was, but suspicions arose at a Shepard Fairey opening in June when a guy was caught trying to light a stink bomb (Art Lovers NY article). After a long and diligent investigation the finger pointing landed squarely on two young men: James Cooper and Zac Dempster.

What does any of this have to do with anything you ask? Well if we look a little closer we see that both of the accused are from Toledo! Zac's Flickr account shows a home town of Toledo, and he also used to write for Clamour Magazine, while James' myspace claims that he is a 'Dick Helmut, Ohio' native, and shows that he is terrible actor.

As a public service to artists I would encourage you to keep both men away from your work. I know the one kinda looks like Harry Potter so you could be fooled into thinking he's a good guy- but he's not! I personally invite either men to contact me with their side of the story.




above photo by Nancy Smith/artloversnewyork.com

Paint the Town Red (and Orange and Blue and Purple and Yellow and Green and Red Again)

Great article in the Blade today. Jerry Gray of Quest for Fire Studios started a petition for public graffiti sites in Lucas County. The idea is that with a legal, designated area for graffiti artists to work, the amount of illegal and unwanted graffiti will decrease. Sounds good to me, and besides graffiti art is slowly gaining credibility with artists like Bansky and Dondi White. Both Basquait and Kieth Haring started on the walls and subways of New York right? Get hip, and sign the petition here.

Since the Blade article ended with 'some sour endings' (gag), I will leave you with some communities that have embraced their graffiti: Vancouver, Philadelphia, and the Sydney suburb, Newton Australia.