Slow Living and an Icelandic Illusion

A scene from the hills of Northern Italy.

"There's something about the pace of life that makes it difficult to really slow down and assess where we're going and how we're doing on this journey called life."
~ Ed Young

The Ed Young quote above is how I opened my 2015 blog post about Slow Living. We think we can experience more by going faster, but the truth is quite the contrary. When we're moving fast we miss so much.

Here's another blog post on the same subject from a historian in Italy who introduced me to the concept of slow living. When we eat fast we fail to savor our food, and the friends whom we share meals with. Poetry is best appreciated in a slow, reflective frame of mind as we absorb the imagery language paints for us.

So, here's a story about a small town in Iceland that created a levitating crosswalk for the purpose of slowing down traffic. The trick of the eye induces a reaction because... well, you can see why here in this video.

The artist was Gautur Ívar Halldórsson, co-owner of a pavement marking company. You can read the full story here. I'm sure this has caused more than one driver to put on the brakes.

If you're out tonight, watch for trick-or-treaters. It's halloween. Drive slow, especially at dusk.

Meantime life goes on all around you. Stop and smell the roses.

Takin' It to the Streets: Chor Boogie Colors Our World

I first noticed Chor Boogie's art four years ago when I was in San Francisco. I didn't know who the artist was at the time. It was simply a striking display of street art on a wall in the Tenderloin District. Last year I found out that it wasn't just any street artist. The artist had a name: Chor Boogie. He also had built something of a following and was doing work all over the world. In September I shared some of his amazing creations here at Ennyman's Territory.

A few weeks ago I learned that Chor had been sidetracked by heroin at one point in his career. This caught my attention because I'm concerned about the widespread problems we're seeing here in the U.S. at this time, in both large cities and small ones like Duluth, due to a spreading wave of heroin use. According to this BBC story a half million Americans are addicted to heroin.

Chor agreed to answer a few questions on this topic as well as provide more information about himself and his real passion, which is bathed in color.

EN: How long have you been making a living as an artist?
Chor Boogie: I have been living my LOVE since I was born... but technically speaking I have been making a living off my work for about 10 to 15 years.

EN: What was your path from young creative person to international commissions?
CB: To have fun with what I love to do, that was my path… just love what I do and everything else fell into place with a little of Making-things-happen.

EN: How did drugs side-track you from your work?
CB: They just side track you period… and consume your heart mind body and soul.

EN: When did you first realize that drugs were getting in the way of what you really wanted to do?
CB: When I was on them... I felt I was disrespecting my talent that I was blessed with so I just would not create or paint.

EN: How did you kick your heroin habit?
CB: LOVE saved my life... www.ibogahouse.com my participation with the medicine Iboga and retraining my heart, mind, body and soul on a daily basis.

EN: Who handles the business end of your creative life? Are you flying solo or do you have an agent or manager?
CB: Me and my team. The players on my team help handle and work with me… my family, which consists of friends... loved ones that love me and my work and I love them and their work... my wife, agent, PR team, graphic designers, web designers, photographer/video, production, apparel, and toys, collectors and investors. Iboga consists of my team.. love them so much.

EN: Where can we see more of your work?
CB: www.chorboogie.com for more up to date... Instagram, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.. all @chorboogie... stay tuned.

EN: We will.

Chor Boogie: Ushering Color to the World

This is part of a wall I saw in San Francisco 3 years ago on Market Street.

Street art is a pretty exciting phenomenon in many respects. Some of it is quite spectacular. With the exception of Banksy, most of it is unassociated with any specific artist. It's just out there being shared with the world.

A couple weeks ago I had an email forwarded to me about a street artist named Chor Boogie. His work looked interesting, but became moreso when I noticed a certain similarity between the pattern on this elephant's trunk and some pictures I took of a wall in San Francisco in the Tenderloin District. A little digging and I found his website, Modern Hieroglyphics of Chor Boogie. Sure enough, he was a west coast guy and did some time in San Francisco.

He was born Jason Hailey, and first held a paint brush at age five, a nice early age to get acquainted with the medium. When you think "street artist" you don't immediately connect this person to the formal study of art history, but in Chor Boogie's case he states that his inspiration has come from Da Vinci, Michaelangelo and Rembrandt as much as Van Gogh, Dali and the moderns. He then went on to take this sensibility into his encounter with the street arts, learning enough from his mentors Phase2 and Vulcan that he has been able now to make a name for himself.

His resume includes doing work for the China Olympics among other things. In addition to many locations in the U.S., his commissioned murals include locations in Mexico, Dubai, Australia, Brazil and Canada. He's produced work for a variety of high profile people including Jay-Z and Rage Against The Machine, among others.

He appears to be a young man on the move. And it's apparent from the image (above right) that he's interested in sticking around awhile. I used to wear a gas mask like that for certain jobs when I painted apartments years ago. Those paint fumes can fry brain cells.

It was this picture of a Singapore elephant that confirmed for me the connection between the wall in San Francisco I'd taken pictures of and Chor Boogie. Note the pattern at the wide part of the elephant's trunk. Note the Escheresque manner in which the various patterns morph. Keep it going, Chor.  

To see more of Chor Boogie's work, visit www.chorboogie.com

Street Art In the Bay Area and Big Apple

This building in SF caught my attention a few years back.

Last week when I shared examples of L.A. street art it brought to mind some of my San Francisco meanderings a couple years back and the street art I saw there. The building at the right here was striking because I'd never seen anything like it. Instead of graffiti or bright murals, it was a living sculpture with furniture falling out from all the windows.

What triggered my memories of SF was an article at ARTINFO.com on the 20 Best Spots to See Street Art in New York City. As the slide show demonstrates, the New York street arts community is quite talented, and busy. Personally I hate most articles that claim to designate ten or twenty things as the best of everything else, like the best actors of all time and top ten Dylan songs of all time. Usually it's just a person speaking authoritatively about his or her own opinion. Nevertheless, these kinds of articles do cause buzz or a bit of chatter amongst friends who get a chance to say, "Well, what about...?"

It used to be that graffiti artists worked on walls beneath underpasses and other out-of-the-way spaces because the work was unsanctioned. (i.e. illegal) Today's graffiti artist is now a street artist and their work is receiving a much higher level of recognition. Certainly building lathered with color are more interesting than abandoned structures that have been condemned but are yet to be dismantled.

I went to a Vegas auto show party once in which two dozen graffiti artists had been flown in from Detroit to create a wall of art during the course of the evening while suited executives sipped cocktails and talked about the industry. It seemed an odd juxtaposition.

For what it's worth, we have some really exceptional walls in Duluth and Superior, and I'm looking forward to seeing more in 2013.

The images below are from a wall in SF circa 2010. I wake earlier than everyone else so I walked the streets with my camera. How many times I've wished my eyeball were a camera, but there are a lot of fairy tale wishes in life that just ain't gonna happen.

Will Graffiti Artist Leave His Mark at Riker's?

Basquiat is to art as Sammy Sosa to baseball. Both knew well the meaning of poverty. Each managed to find and follow a passion that led them to the top of their respective fields. Each became worth millions to their fans. Each became embroiled in controversy. And, each has inspired others to follow their paths out of poverty to a better life. In Basquiat's case, that path was the art of graffiti.

So it is that Angel Ortiz found a measure of success following the same path. His street art is on display as part of an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in L.A. His street name is LA II with his tag line Laroc.

According to Reuters. Ortiz was unfortunately nailed for practicing his street art in New York where such things are both appreciated and frowned upon. Appreciated by fans and frowned upon by police. He was out walking his dog with a spray can in hand, not your typical dog walking artist, but hey, this is New York. There are stranger sights on those streets.

It was Ortiz's third arrest, and this time he was put behind the bars of Riker's Island, the famous 413 acre complex that sits in the East River between Queens and the Bronx.

What's interesting to me is that Ortiz has achieved a measure of success now as an artist, his paintings selling for thousands of dollars. Is making graffiti some form of addiction then? Is there neurological thrill involved with crossing the line and doing illegal art?

According to the Reuters story he told the police that he knew "sooner or later I was going to get grabbed." The bummer is that he missed his art opening in L.A. On the positive side, maybe he will leave some artwork behind in the prison. I personally think the authorities would be just to bring him as much paint as he wants. It's got to be a dreary world in there, although there is a Salvador Dali drawing hanging there. Dali was once given an opportunity to speak to the prisoners but being unable to make it sent the drawing instead. Might even be worth going to Riker's for. Nah. I don't think so.

San Francisco Street Art

Over Christmas Susie and I flew to California to see our kids who are currently living in Santa Rosa. We spent four days there before heading down to The City to spend a couple days in San Francisco. It really is a unique city.

Years ago, when we lived at the top of Duluth's Central Hillside, I came home from work one day to find an artist seated in front of an easel painting a landscape through the trees there. He was from Hungary I believe, and I asked what he was doing there. He said Duluth was one fo the three most beautiful cities in the world for artists because of the way the city steeply sloped to a body of water and how the light played off that setting. The other two cities were one in Switzerland and, of course, San Francisco.

Perhaps the beauty of the setting is what attracted so many artists, for there is art everywhere here. It seemed fitting to share a few of the images that I discovered on the walls and in the streets of San Francisco last weekend. This first was taken from a sidewalk while looking up at the corner of Sixth and Howard.

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE