Way before there ever was a SAGE, back in 10/07, I got a call from RAIN to paint with the VS Crew at the World Trade Center in Inc. Magazine's Headquarters. My can controll was admitedly not on point at this point, but the magazine folks loved it! I had a great time, getting my pizza and beer on with the Viciousez. This was my first time painting indoors with spray paint and I learned a valueable lesson that night...use a resperator! I think I bought one the next day lol. You can even see me stumble getting off the ladder in the video below, I was dizzy and all messed up by the time I left. Another thing I remember is security was unbelieveable in that place. It was by far the most heavily secure place I have ever been in.
*Ironic interesting fact, I got that call to paint, I believe, because a member of VS, now member of SAGE, PLAN aka DELVE, couldn't make it.
here's a snippet of mine...
KASSO in progess...
and a video RAS made, for TerraCycle (who hooked us up with the gig. Thanks Tom!)
KASSO and DELVE..along with 13 other artist from the east and west coast were apart of an aersol artists tour called CONCRETE ALCHEMY sponsored by "Albus Cavus". For two weeks in the spring of 2008, these artists painted 4 large scale murals in 6 days...coinsiding with 3 gallery shows, which spread from NY to Maryland. All of the artwork for the gallery shows was also done on tour.
The integrated methods of S.A.G.E. Collective were seeded on this tour. All the walls were fully integrated and multi layered. SAGE collective philosophy about the intuitive creative process also was founded within "Concrete Alchemy". For more info about the tour, follow these links and check out the video:
This past sunday, Luv-One and myself took a trek threw the woods of rural New Jersey to..drumroll...PAINT ROCKS! I know..sounds a bit weird. Luv contacted me earlier within that week to ask if I would like to join him on his nature adventure. At first I was like...paint a rock?! We should rock a wall! Then he told me that some of the rocks were as big as five feet wide! When I heard that...I was like "Yooooo, this can be great!" Lets do it!" If I cant paint a wall...then a wall size rock sounds pretty interesting!
Luv paints these quirky lil' characters. He's been doing them for years on canvas and other materials. I believe he said most of the inspiration for these characters comes from his son's drawings and that the two of them do this all the time simply because it's fun! So thats was the idea for the day; to paint a rock or two and keep it fun...like a child would. While we were out there painting, I at first thought this was a bit juvenile, but once u do your first one it becomes an instant addiction...u want to do more!
You want to find the rock with the most character...the most personality...and bring it to life! What I thought would at first be a waste of time, became a time I would never forget! What we were doing was reliving our childhood. Taking nature and turning it into art! Using what's there to create something new! I swear, it was like being 10 years old again. We were adding "character" to nature; giving it a personality..and making it our own. It made you wanna seek out new "rocky" terrane, while at the same time taking in the beauty of the breathtaking country side. In doing what we did, it made us appreciate the beauty of nature even more so than before. We both agreed that this day was something epic..even if just for us. It literally planted the seed of new ideas and possibilities! It made me see that sometimes you have to strip layers away and revile whats inside to find something new. It showed me not to judge a situation buy what's only on the surface, and if you want something of value, you have to seek it and dig for it. We sought and found....and who would have thought a rock in a hard place would move creative mountains! You cant spell "nature" without A....R....T!
This wall was produced in early February, 2009. S. A. G. E. was still in its infancy as a crew...pretty much just consisting of myself and LUV1. LUV contacted me that morning asking if I was willing to come out and paint. It was an unusual day for the middle of the winter. We had a freak 70 degree day! We decided to jam out at Terracycle and do something small and non ambitious.
What started out as something with the intentions on being light heart quickly grew into a full blown mini-mural jam session. LUV had some references from newspapers and one in particular stuck out to me. It was an image of a young woman holding her son during "Hurricane Katrina".
I choose to do a representation of it while LUV painted an image of Hip Hop icon "Lauren Hill".
As usual, we jammed out the background with our abstract works...which at the time we were still developing. We also had very lil paint to work with due to it being the off season. This wall was literally done with scraps of paint.
Half way threw LUV had to leave to pick up his kid from school, so I decided to stay to finish up the wall. While I was finishing up, the rap song "Smile" by Tupac and Scarface kept playing in my head. Ever since I saw that pic from the hurricane, I couldn't get it out of my mind. So i went back to the beginning of the wall and put a quote up from that record....part of Tupac's verse which reads "Born with less but your still precious". I figured it summed up the feeling of what the image(the mother and child) conveys.
After the quote went up, it started to rain, so i broke out and went home. It was good times none the less.
For those who havent heard the song SMILE...check out the video below.
Get an audio education in Funk & Soul at Trenton Social!
DJ Tangency spins a musical history lesson of the best Funk and Soul. Find out where those fresh and funky samples you hear in today's Pop and R&B songs originated! The night also features live painting by WILL KASSO!
