FINALLY! Another "Special Art Post"! The last one was ages ago, so I thought it was about time to write a new one, and as I wanted this comeback to be special, I've chosen none other than master of desaster, king of graffiti, legend of the aerosol and one who's pretty high on my neverending list of favourite artists - RISK!
In a career spanning 27 years, RISK has impacted the evolution of graffiti as an art form in Los Angeles and worldwide. RISK gained major notoriety for his unique style and pushed the limits of graffiti further than any writer in L.A. had before: He was one of the first writers in Southern California to paint freight trains, and he pioneered writing on “heavens,” or freeway overpasses. At the peak of his career he took graffiti from the streets and into the gallery with the launch of the Third Rail series of art shows, and later parlayed the name into the first authentic line of graffiti-inspired clothing. ...
Just one week after revealing her diagnosis with the autoimmune disorder, Graves' Disease, rapper Missy Elliott has opened up about her troubled childhood, including that she was the victim of sexual abuse. [Via AOL]
In her episode of VH1's Behind the Music, which debuted earlier this week -- and can be streamed in full below -- Missy said that she was abused by her 16-year-old cousin when she was only eight years old. "Each day he wanted me to come to the house after school," she explained. "It became sexual, which, for me at eight years old, I had no clue what that was, but I knew something was wrong."
"Being molested ... it don't disappear," she added. "You remember it as if it was yesterday." She explained that the abuse took place over the course of a year, but that she had never told anyone before.
Missy, who turns 40 on July 1, also talked about witnessing her mother being abused by her father, including an incident when she was 14, in which she saw her father pull out a loaded pistol. Missy's mother, Patricia Elliott, also appeared on the TV special. "Missy saw that the fight was just beyond measures," Patricia said. "My husband said, 'This is it, I'm gonna kill you. It's over!' I was so tired of being beaten over and over I just said, 'Fine, just do it.'"...
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As Adele's "21" enjoys its tenth non-consecutive week atop the Billboard 200 -- though it's projected to be knocked out this week by the "Hell: The Sequel" debut by Bad Meets Evil (Eminem and Royce da 5'9") -- Rick Rubin says he doesn't think the British singer and songwriter's sophomore album has peaked yet.
"Really, we are just on our first single ('Rolling in the Deep,' with 'Someone Like You' just coming out in the U.S.) and we think there are probably five, so I think it's just the beginning," Rubin, who produced five tracks on "21" -- including Adele's remake of the Cure's "Lovesong" -- and is also co-chairman of Columbia Records, Adele's label, tells Billboard.com. "And she's barely toured at all, so really it's in the baby stages. I think it's a beautiful album that we're all really proud of, and it's amazing that it's connecting with people in the way that it is and we just hope it continues to do so."
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Multi-platinum rock band Evanescence is currently recording in Nashville and intends to finish (except for mixing) its next album by the end of June, singer/pianist Amy Lee tells Billboard.com. The target date to release the album on Wind-up Records is Oct. 4.
"After finishing touring [behind 2006 album "The Open Door"], I just sort of took off and didn't know what I was going to do next and wasn't sure if the Evanescence thing would happen again or when it would," Lee says, adding that she took about 18 months off before she got the urge to start writing music again. "I ended up falling back in love with Evanescence again and wanted to work with the guys, and it became more of a group project."...
Born and raised in North Carolina, designer/illustrator Josh Vanover has established a dense and foreboding visual language. Often working in black and white, Vanover masterfully fuses hand-drawn elements with stark photographic source materials. He is an unfettered manipulator of original and found imagery; his style informed by an encyclopedic knowledge of visual sources ranging from cult film footage, erotica and video stills to cartoons, war photography and even psychedelia. Vanover’s signature style and workman-like approach have attracted the attention of clients such as Nike, Stussy and Hennessy, and mostly recently having done album artwork for the likes of Linkin Park.
Picture in courtesy of Spin
This past Fall, Juxtapoz spent an afternoon at the Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco, and put a camera in the face of the most anticipated performers of the 2-day festival, South Africa's art-hip-hop group, Die Antwoord....
Sorry for posting old stuff, but Luke Chueh is one of my most favourite artists and I just stumbled upon this great interview from February on dailyDuJour. If you don't know Luke, you should definitely check out his website cause his art work is incredible!
[On the eve of Luke Chueh’s ‘Contemptorary Art’ opening @ Corey Helford, we’re pleased to bring you Amanda Erlanson’s insightful interview with Luke, done as part of the Heroes and Villains project. It’s an excellent read which delves into the complexities of the man behind ‘the bear’.] Amanda Erlanson: You’ve described growing up in Fresno, California as a kind of hell on earth. Tell me a bit about your family and your upbringing. Was there anywhere you could go that served as a refuge from your isolation, fear and confusion? ...
A week before the Grammys, Mumford & Sons had no idea they'd be sharing a stage with Bob Dylan. "It was surreal," says the folk-rock quartet's singer, Marcus Mumford, 24. "I was staying with my friend in California, and every night, we'd stay up until three listening to Dylan. Then I get a call: 'You're playing the Grammys with Bob Dylan.'" The British crew — whose breakout debut disc, Sigh No More, just went platinum — ended up stealing the show with a passionate rendition of their tune "The Cave," driving their album back up to Number Two. Mumford, taking a cigarette break from a writing session for the band's second album, checks in from London.
Were you excited to back Dylan on "Maggie's Farm"?
The initial idea was that we'd play the Grammys with the Avett Brothers — one of our favorite bands in the world — and "a legend of music." When our manager said, "It's Bob Dylan," I got out of bed and ran outside and jumped around like a madman! You can imagine the reaction of someone who probably wouldn't be playing music at all if it wasn't for Dylan....