Art Basel has descended on myself, and my team for the 7th time now and I have several quick words to describe it. Exhausting, colorful, energetic, amazing. As the years passed the heart of Basel in Miami has changed, well actually I can only speak
Welcome one and welcome all to my newly, revamped, reworked and re-imagined 2016 EVLworld and all things Erni newsletter! (mild applause haha).
The theme for this newsletter is procrastination, since I have been putting it off for years, it seems, but no longer will I deprive my friends of important, well maybe in the scheme of things in life not that important, but as far as my career goes, fairly important news, info and progress on the myriad of creative chapters in my life today. And the will be discounts for those daring enough to read this thing entirely, honor system completely of course.
Around 8 years ago I began this artistic adventure, first in Wynwood (Miami’s Art District for those that still haven’t heard of Wynwood) and I’m proud to announce our first growth beyond there. Jaco, Costa Rica will be the 2nd home of EVLworld.
How does a thing like this happen you may ask? Or probably didn’t ask but I will ramble upon it regardless.
It started oddly enough several decades ago when I was doing murals in Boca Raton, for reals, I love when life does these strange and bizarre surf circles around your head. In Boca, I painted many a club and one of the places was a sushi restaurant attached to a club called Boca Rock and Sushi and I met the dude in charge, Adam. A very cool and honest guy swimming in a sea of sharks and as the murals came to life I couldn’t almost feel bad knowing his enthusiasm would be destroyed by the dirty business around him.
My Spray Can Tour part 1. with Stern Rockwell
March.2016
A.S.I.A.
Hong Kong was the “business” side of my Asian adventure trip 2016. 4 weeks of travel, 3 major destinations with 3 others slipped in for kicks and fucket list scratch offs.
Having grown up in Chinatown NYC I have a strong fondness to many things Asian, the foods, the cultures, the ladies so having this opportunity to visit the (Asian) mother-land was very exciting. I had been researching the burgeoning urban arts scene prior to my trip and was eager to see it in action. Not many cities in the world can boast a thriving spray paint culture but Hong Kong has that and more!
I want to apologize for my delay in this follow up. I have been traveling a bunch and haven’t had the time to really get into this until now. When I last left off, I believe I was accusing Annie Preece AKA Love Annie, a street artist from LA, and her cohort Justin Bua of basically stealing, or as I’m used to saying, outright biting my style for their own profit.
My dear sweet Wynwood, what can i say, you’ve come such a long way. I barely recognize you now. Just 2 years ago we were hanging out and you barely had a change of wardrobe, your streets were dirty, you never shaved, and somehow, you always managed to keep me safe – you had a simple coffee shop where I often found myself writing about you, and a simple bar, where all of your friends came together to play.
I think I have been doing CoLab for over 1 year I’d say, in my gallery in Miami but since my downsizing in January I had to bid a silent farewell to Colab. CoLab needs space, a lot of space and when I hosted it in Miami I was able to run a seamless sheet of white paper, about 5’ tall across my wall which ran about 40’ long. Then I would invite friends, friends with kids, artists, and non-artists to come draw on this stream of white paper. Afterwards I would paint over the collage of drawings, cut the sheet apart into many smaller pieces and then sell those for mostly local charities. It has always been a fun event and I was saddened by the thought that I wouldn’t have any more CoLabs.
“I love the smell of aerosol in the morning!”
I remember when I moved to Wynwood in winter, 2010, winter being a very loose term in Miami. Stints in LA, Chicago and the start of a recession that forced me from NYC were the main catalysts of my southern migration.
Miami, for me really became the Magic city in all aspects of the term. I had been searching for a place with energy, excitement and an overall appreciation for urban arts and I found all that and more there.
First of all, let me just say, yes, I am the originator of the popular 3D style of graffiti. Graffiti artists were always trying to get their pieces to literally “bounce” from the walls. Most every piece ever done up until mine in 1993 had similar formulas. The fill or fill-in, an outline and then some type of either frame, or framing background color. Shadow, usually a directional drop shadow that would give the outline of the piece more weight to appear more dominant and lastly a 3D which would also be a directional, usually 45 or 90 or 180 degree angles. These 3Ds were usually in another color from the actual piece, meaning they made the piece take more paint as well as time to do but all still were to give the entire piece the feeling of more weight.
I was raised in lower Manhattan, semi catholic, semi Puerto Rican, and from my meager upbringings I now know I was destined to become someone very semi to super boring. Little did I know I was on a course for a creative adventure of a lifetime! I was to become a graffiti artist, professionally where there really was none before!
And in the decades to follow I have painted many miles of color that would surely reach the moon and back several times (I’m not terribly sure that’s true but it sure feels that way judging from my daily aches and pains). I have been blessed with an amazing talent, without it I would be someone very regular.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if all the worlds conflict could be settled through passion. Can you imagine a world where one nation, who is so angry at another nation that they want to murder its children just stopped for a moment, and took a second to try the food, to see the art, to hear their music and, OMG forbid to take 1 more step to learn about how their food, art, music and so forth became to be? I see on the news and on Facebook and other so called social blah blahs how easy it has become for a human to take the life of another, so scarily easy but I believe that if people stepped outside their own comfort zone, their own boundaries and came to regard their “so called” enemies as human, like themselves, like their own families, like their own children then maybe, maybe someone in some conflict would yell at the top of their lungs “ENOUGH!” I forgive!
Only in America folks, only in America.
For years now i have been noticing that, mostly on American cars, not so much the foriegn ones but definitely on American that when yo open the trunk you would fing this little moniker.
Its actually a glow in the dark pull release that opens the trunk from the inside, i want you to take a moment and really think this through with me, so if you happen to out and about and find yourself, oh, lets say locked in the trunk of your, or possibly a friends car, well no longer need you have a fear about this because all cars now come with this handy escape latch.
Recently I have had the misfortune to having to re-assess some of my friendships that I thought had already stood the test of time, some more than several decades old, relationships that I really believed to be completely solid but seems I was mistaken and what I thought was deep, mature relationships was in reality myself holding on to the nostalgia of the memories shared with these people.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by the one and only Susana Baker on the fabulous ARTTALK program. Enjoy!
Two of my favorite little clients are surprised with custom graffiti names, done by yours truly! Now, THOSE TWO are some future connoisseurs!
