Magnolia at the Modern

Kevin Clash: The voice and hand behind Elmo.

 Last night I went to the Modern in Fort Worth to see one of many films and documentaries they show every month.  Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey was playing.  The film was about a man named Kevin Clash. He is the puppeteer and voice actor of not only Elmo, but a slew of other puppets.  His journey started with a love for the Sesame Street and the Muppet Show which led to his own puppet creations.  He started having his own shows in his parents back yard for neighborhood kids which later turned into bigger shows at the local park.  He was fortunate enough to meet Kermit Love, a puppet builder for Sesame Street. Kermit showed Kevin a great number of technical building skills and pointers with puppeteering.  After that point, his career took off with shows including Captain Kangaroo and The Great Space Coaster.  This later led to a career with Jim Hensen and Frank Oz on the set of Sesame Street.  He also was in such shows/movies as The Labyrinth, TMNT, Dog City, Dinosaurs and tons more.  Something that stuck with me about the film was the story behind Elmo.  The puppet had already existed and was used by another puppeteer who did not care for it.  Elmo had a raspy voice and not a lot of personality.  One day in a break room, Elmo was tossed over to Kevin and said "here, see if you can figure something out."  He took the puppet home and thought about the purpose Elmo would have; it's story.  He finally came up with the idea that Elmo represented love.  He would hug and kiss everyone all the time.  Since no other muppet had that over caring personality, Jim let him try it out.  It was a huge success.  Now Elmo is the loving and popular character we all know today.  I'm sure each puppet is some kind of extension from the actual puppeteer which says a lot about Kevin.  He seems like a very caring and artistic person, just like Jim Hensen.  I'm sure Jim would be very proud of what Kevin has become and represents.    

2.22.2012

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Mid February California Trip

I just got back in from a week's trip to California.  I mainly visited parts of L.A, Santa Monica, Culver City, Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, Redondo and Hermosa Beach.  No, I didn't loose wallet in El Segundo, I did that in Fort Worth the day before I left town.  Luckily I had a passport to be able to hop on the plane.  
Unfortunately a lot of the galleries were closed because of President's Day, but I checked out quite a few of my favorite brand shops: The Hundreds, Johnny Cupcake, Kidrobot, Toki Doki, Stussy, Vans, Diamond Supply, Undefeated, Active and multi shops like Fred Segal's, shoe and record shops.  One of the most exciting surprises was at the Stussy shop on La Brea.  It sported murals by two of my favorites: Brain Donnelly aka KAWS and Todd James aka REAS.

KAWS in LA @ Stussy on La Brea

KAWS in LA @ Stussy on La Brea

REAS in LA @ Stussy on La Brea

And of course I had to take a few pictures of the Shepard aka OBEY mural wrapping the parking garage near bye.  It was a busy day so I had to climb a tree to get a decent photo of the front over traffic.  Plus the nice box truck driver who stopped for a few seconds to let me snap a few shots.  thanks!

OBEY in LA mural on La Brea

OBEY in LA mural on La Brea

Local OBEY upkeep in LA

When I walked in the alley to photograph some details, there was a man cleaning up his home where some graff writers had tagged.  He was covering up a small obey stencil with newspaper to paint over the black graffiti next to it.  I stopped and talked with the man and he explained how he met Shepard while he painted the huge mural on the neighboring parking garage.  He told me how he invited Shep into his home and as a gift, Shepard painted a small stencil on his home facing the parking garage.  Phillip, the man painting, said how Shepard used to graffiti this parking garage for years time and time again in the past and how the garage was deteriorating and becoming an eyesore until Shepard came in and made it pleasing again with the mural.  (I still laugh when I hear stories like this.  Artists invited in and/or getting paid to come paint on a venue where they have been throwing up illegal street art for years)

Overall it was a great trip and will definitely go back to Cali soon.

 

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Shepard Fairey (OBEY) takes to the streets of Dallas

Shepard and I on the streets in Big D

Obey mural in progress

Shepard dj-ing the Neon party in Dallas

Earlier this month Shepard cruised into town on a mission.  The Dallas Contemporary commissioned Shep to install several large murals, mainly along Singleton located just northwest of the I30-I35 junction in West Dallas.  The murals took Shepard and his crew about a week to accomplish.  I was lucky enough to take some time out and meet Shepard not only at the Contemporary to help celebrate his murals, but also in the streets while he worked.  From the few conversations we had, I could tell he was a caring guy, and definitely passionate about his work.  The murals all turned out great and hopefully will last for years to come.
Hopefully the city will also back it's own local artists for such murals in the future.

Shepard started his art career in the 1989-90 era when he began his sticker campaign of Phenomenology.  The sticker campaign was meant to awaken the viewer from normal every day propaganda and question the large numbers of Obey stickers emerging into the surrounding environment.  The sticker campaign then grew into other mediums such as larger screen prints, paste ups and stencil collages as well as t-shirts.  Working both legally and illegally, Shepard was on a mission to get his name out.  Many of his images were figures representing equality, peace and love.  With his love of music he also began making pieces of important musicians and singers.  Over the years his fan base grew, but in the election time of Bush vs. Obama his name became internationally known.  Shepard designed the widely used Obama Hope posters used for his election campaign which I believe helped in the election win.  With a huge portfolio of prints and billions of stickers later, he is what you now know today.

Obey icon poster

Obama Hope campaign poster by Obey

I have mainly been following his work since the early 2000's and have collected several prints, books, stickers, etc.  One of my prize possessions is a skateboard deck prototype made by Monkey with the vintage Powell Peralta rip bones logo.  I took my deck to the book signing to have him throw his John Hancock on it.  Unfortunately, this became a huge ordeal with the Contemporary as they only wanted him to sign books. (since they were selling books $$$)  It got to the point where all the employees had me under surveillance and kept telling me he can't sign that.  I figured I would stay in line and try anyways.  I figured worst case scenario they'll ask me to leave, though I didn't really believe they would stoop so low.  I guessed they wouldn't snatch anything out of Shepard's hand, so my goal was to get the deck into his hands, game over.  When it was my turn, the usher asked where my book was and again stated he can't sign my deck.  I replied, "ok, I don't have a book" and just stood there.  As she didn't know what to say next, I then just stepped up past her and handed the deck to Shep and he grabbed it as we began to talk a bit about how long he stayed the night before working on one of the murals.  As he then looked down at the deck and recognized what it was, he looked slightly disgusted, leaned back and said, "Those people never paid me!" (as he pointed to the Monkey manufacturing logo)  Then quickly followed that response with, "Well, I never paid Powell for the rip bones image either, eh."  He laughed and signed it.  Since the ushers were speechless and didn't know what to do since he signed it, I figured I would hand him a few other "non book" items to sign including a large obey giant face sticker and my blackbook.  Took a photo, and let him finish autographing books for the folks behind me so he could get to the talk he was supposed to be giving.  I just thought how small and futile the entire situation was, but how big of a deal the ushers turned it into.  Ironic situation as the title of Shepard's book they were selling: SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

Shepard Fairey aka Obey signing my Ripper deck.  image taken from http://obeyclothing.com/blog/