JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

On our last trip to NYC we got up a bit runnin’ around with some of the homies. One of my littles pieces, spot-jocked alongside GAIA made it up on streetsy.com yesterday. It was a dope spot and I couldn’t help myself. So in that vain, here’s the first install of street art pics we shot while runnin’ around SOHO. Word.

streetsy.com

As I posted a couple days back, my favorite Denver wall got went over by some bad guys. The original piece wasn’t up for very long at all before getting crossed out, and neither was the poop stain that went over the original. A couple days later a whole new production was in the works by some of the same cats that did their thing a week or so before. I was pretty excited to see how fast something new was under way. Same fresh ass style and super bright colors with a bit of a Euro steez in action. Take a peek.

I arrived back in Colorado two nights ago from an eleven day trip to Italy. My room mate and I flew into Milan, rented a car and headed out. We hit up Lake Como, Verona, Venice / Lido, Rimini, Florence, Lucca and Genova. I’ll be sharing my photos of the local street art scenes.

We’ll be traveling in chronological order, so first we’re off to Lake Como. Keep in mind that the majority of these pictures were taken while riding a bike, so I apologize for any blurriness and what not.

“Well, I’m back to good ol Colorado (been about a week and a half now). But before I settle in, a few more tales must be told. First of all… SF is fucking dope. Straight up, I had an god damn blast out there. Definitely dealing with some post-vacaction trauma sydrome right now! (or something like that). During my last few days in the city.. I pretty much lurked and shopped. I picked up a really rad Mike Giant T and his Skullz Press Compendium book I’d been looking for, an irresistible Grotesk “Mike Tyson” hoodie and a framed Morning Breath print from Upper Playground. Yup, place is super fresh.. no mystery there. Down at Giant Robot I picked up a Mars 1 Observer (a B-day present for Todd), a Flores T (a belated B-day present for Alex). Most notably, I ran into a real cool cat named Ben who works there and had a good time rapping with him about art during my hour of looking through the dope ass shit they have in there. Over at Lower Hater I rapped with the owner, Corey, for a minute or so and he gave me some insight into the dope work he’s got in the shop. Aside from having that super big Doze piece outside, there is also great murals from Ferris Plock and Andrea Galvango, who is currently the showcased artist, and some great stencil work by the popular SF artist Romanowski. I picked up a pair of fresh earings there for my lady and I come to find out they are hand made and threaded from Alpaca wool from a real organic Alpaca farm! They were made by Bruaux, they make all sorts of really cool stuff. Couldn’t find much about them on the internet, but if you are in SF, go to Lower Hater and check it all out. Real cool shop they got there for sure. During another lap down Haight I ran into this super big AMAZE throwup. This wasn’t there the day before so it was super shocking to see. I was pretty stoked about it and immediately had to find out if it was illegal or not. I found out it was legal and supposedly is a teaser of sorts for a new RVCA shop moving in. It would be pretty hard to run this on the illegal tip, but regardless, it pretty fucking large and in charge. Other highlights were this sneaky Grey piece and some real nice work in the Stussy shop. My last night in SF was full of drinking and “stoopin” which was super fun. After many drinks, I set out on a little solo mission of wheatepasting. It was really fun to walk around really late in SF. It was peaceful and calm and I caught some epic views of the city just lurking around different neighborhoods. A good last night in town for sure! My last day consisted of even more “stoopin” with the family and even more burritos. Fuck, the burrittos there are so damn good, YUM! Anyway, I wasn’t exactly too convinced I wanted to leave and didn’t really take my upcoming plane departure very seriously. I totally missed my plane. Not even by a little bit, I wasn’t even close! I had to stay in hotel that night in San Bruno and at first it was a bummer, but it ended up being for the better because the trip back was during the daytime and it was clear skies all the way back to CO. I snapped some great airial photos from the plane and it was probably the most enjoyable planeride I’ve ever had. Well. that’s that. If you’ve never been to San Francisco before, I highly recomend that you do so. Cheers to Eric and Sarah (and baby Mica!) for having me and to a great city!” - Scot Lefavor

Our buddy HYP just got back from Berlin on a little recon/product design & development mission. Here’s what he had to say about the scene, “Just got back from Berlin - retail is going off there, mhi Maharishi was in just about every store and still killing it with the all over prints. Actually saw Jill Sanders pieces and vintage Hermes scarves being sold next to the MADVILLIAN vinyl (both green and dark blue color variants) and the Arktip book done by José Parla with the brush included, all in one shop. Fukin strange mixup, eh?” Yeah Mike, I’d say, but super dope for sure.

HYP put together a little street art package of pics for us to share. We’re not name droppin’ on these. You think you’re into street art? Well, test your knowledge. Name the artists that produced these pieces, send it to us and we’ll put together a tight little care package for ya. Frist one to name all 11 (don’t worry about the wheels) gets the goods. Email info@joyengine.com to submit your artist list. Thanks HYP.

NOTE: HYP’s gonna be showin’ at the Engine in December. He’s puttin’ together a seriously ill body of work, we’ve seen bits of pieces and it’s gonna be hot. More on that shit later.

“Sup Y’all… Lefavor here with another SF update! First off, things have been dope, I’m having a really good time out here. The weather has been blue-sky half hoodie/half t all week. I’ve definitely been clocking in alot of time lurking around the city, and getting stoked on tasty food all over the place. I’ve been trying to make it to a bunch of galleries but it’s tough. Alot of galleries are in between shows or just hard to catch open (sound familiar?). But honestly, the real galleries here can be found in the alleys or on rooftops. Some seriously world class graf action here. Whether it be folks coming up from out of town or local heroes, the place is swelling with murals, productions, paste-ups, stickers, tags and big roller pieces. Some highlights here are some big fame walls on upper haight (like this gem wall next to ameoba) and big alleys between Valencia and Mission. I’ve been definitely keeping my eyes out for early all star works from Twist, Kinsey, and one of my all time personal favorites, the late Margaret Kilgallen. Even though The Lab was in between shows it was great to just see this gem she did for thier signage. She had also done a piece in front of the Luggage Store Gallery as well (not pictured). I haven’t seen too many fresh stencils, but this exacto stencil I saw on Haight was a real treat. Their is a extra dope lineup of fresh street art right around the Upper Playground area (like, duh) like this one just above Lower Hater (a dope gallery/store that opened about a year ago and also commisioned that Doze piece around the corner I posted last time) and this beautiful Swoon piece tucked away (also on Haight) and the first I’ve ever seen in the flesh. Other notes is that PAZT goes huge (pictured) with roller pieces all around and BORED tags everywhere. TUNKS and TKO crews are reppin it hard in SF too. Aside from street art/graf I made it down to the SFMOMA yesterday and it was fuckin fantastic! Thier permanent modern art collection was astounding and thier photography collection was also very impressive. Highlight exhibits were the Munkacsi retrospective and the CCA at 100 show. Both a must see if you are here in the next couple of months. Oh, and that guy Matisse is pretty good too! Sorry, no cameras in museums yo. On Saturday night I made a solo trip down the Juxtapoz/UP/ party at 111 Minna Gallery. They are doing this contest thing where you bring down a CD of a few samples of your work in hopes of being showcased in a upcoming Juxtapoz mag. So, the idea is, you drop off your CD and get down to some beats and shmooze with other arty folks. The place was pretty fresh, kind of a bar/gallery. They currently have a abstract expressionist group show that is real dope and a fresh mural in the back. I met Ert O’Hara from Juxt that night and it was a treat to rap with her.. hopefully I’ll catch up with her one more time before I head out. Other than arty things, we all went bowling by the beach in Pacifico over the weekend which was super fun and we also celebrated Eric and Sarah’s 2nd wedding anniversary at Eiji sushi restaurant in the Castro which was super tasty (best saki I’ve ever had too). After that we got desert at Sweet Inspirations. Mocha Cheesecake.. like whoa! Another happy anniversary to E & S… Nice work out there guys! On Sunday, believe it or not you folks at home, I went climbing. I actually enjoyed it and am looking forward to maybe (maybe!) doing a little climbing in the super elite scene that is Boulder, CO. Yeah, yeah, I can only do a 5.9… get over yourself you climbing freaks! Well, to top it all off, I’ve got a couple of photos of me dorking out in SF (cable car, yay!) and another pic of baby Mica cause she is just so darn cute and adorable. Peace from SF.” - Scot

After crushing his “For a Limited Time Only” show, our boy, art super hero, Scot Lefavor, headed out to S.F. for a much needed reprieve. Scot’s cookin’ some shit up out there, makin’ some art, and just kickin’ with his homey, Eric. Scot sent us an upate today full of freshy, fresh pics and some Lefavor insight. We’re gonna share it, cuz Scot’s cool like that. Here goes…

“Attached is round 1 of my photo journal of my trip to SF. Damn, I’ve been having a dope ass time. I got off the plane at around 11:30PM on Monday night and my good old pal Eric swooped me up and we got to his swank apartment just before 12. I got to see a sneak peek of his beautiful 6mo old baby girl Mica sleeping, his wife and another one of my dear friends; Sarah and of course their doggy Blue. We exchanged gifts (apple juice and mechanical pencils… word!) and we were off to the bar for a few drinks. So, on my way there (they live just a few blocks from Upper Playground) I was immediately bombarded by visual goodness, nearly making my head explode. Literally, the first corner I turned I saw this tasty Doze Green mural and was totally floored. Their backyard is a hidden gem in the city; an array of different plants and flowers and a ridiculous collection of vintage hand painted signage, street signs, and flourescent signs that glow all night long…a sign garden if you will. Later that night we took a little arty tour to find pieces from Swoon, Miss Van, Zeph & Revolt, Sam Flores, David Choe among others new to me. Damn. I could hardly sleep, totally pumped on the following day’s adventures. Aside from just walking around this exceptionally art embracing city and endulging in yummy meals all day, I’ve been on a number of radical field trips since I’ve arrived. On Tuesday, we checked out the Manga show at the Asian Art Museum. The exhibit was real fresh but the real showstopper in the museum was the Yoshitoshi woodblock prints… unfucking believable! Sorry no photos, you’ll have to do the recon on that one. Yesterday evening Eric and I attended the Red Sox and A’s game out in Oakland. Aside from having an outrageuos time (I got pretty drunk!), the train there was a showcase of real Oakland/SF writers going HUGE up on the side of the tracks. Today we headed out over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin County to check out Muir Woods as well as Muir Beach. It had been years since I had seen the ocean and it was an unbelievable scene that was long overdue. We hiked around, ate sandwiches and played in the sand just before the tide. The water was deceivingly inviting… running in only to be running right back out. We picked up some fresh cherries on the way out and I’m eating them as I am writing this. And yup, they are pretty damn tasty! Cheers from another warm San Francisco night (well, not really, but it’s perfect).” - Scot

A couple weeks back I mentioned that I wanted to start cataloging some of the graf work I found in Denver and keep in sight throughout the month. This of course is the second volume of images for the “Aerosol” posts. I hope to get to the point to where I can give the artists shout outs and props for their fresh work. If anyone wants to shoot me an email with info I might leave out about the artists or their work, please send it to: . Enjoy!!

Cruisin’ allies and catchin’ up on new graf work, I came across a small Scribe piece. He must have done when he was here for his show at Andenken last month. The spot where I snapped these pics is one of my favorite places to catch new work every month or so. Capital Hill doesn’t have many of these spots so the ones I find are very “special.” Because of how important these little details are to myself and many others, I think Im going to make a habit out getting new flicks every month of new work I find in Denver and post them on the site.

So with out further ado, here are the first pics in what I hope to be many in a series.

We stopped by Randall Scott’s opening today. The show room looks great, super modern and clean. The 80s gear came out fresh and I snapped some pictures of the dressing room in it’s finished state. We hope to work more with the Randall Scott crew, it was a great experience - and who doesn’t love the 80s and graffiti?

rscycle.com

We just got done killin’ the dressing room at Randall Scott’s Cycle Shop. It’s nasty… pics comin’ soon.

Lots of paint in one very little room. It’s not everyday you get a job like this one, eh?

Bench graffiti mag - a Colorado x California writer collab. just dropped thanks to one our close homies to be left anonymous. If you want some sick freight inspiration, some serious f’n graff - Bench is your mag. Check it: benchgraffitmagazine.

Yo, we’re reppin’ Bench hard, it’s produced by writers for writers. There’s a pile of issue #1 in the shop, so if you’re in the hood, pop in and pick one up… sucka.

benchgraffitmagazine