Kaws Vs. PIPO!

I’ve always been a big Kaws fan, although I couldn’t afford the vinyl toys he makes with Medicom, I recently had a chance to purchase a book he released in a small show he did in Japan a few years back.

Here is his latest work, inspired by Pipo, the mascot of the Japanese police.  Spot the difference.

The Original

The Kaws Version

On Further Cultural Studies

In the name of continuous learning, I spent the past few nights watching some classic films in the graffiti, hip-hop and b-boy scene. I started with Wild Style, then with Beat Street and finally Style Wars. Funny thing is that most of these films were released in between ‘82 to ‘84, I reckon the period looks like one of the key periods that catapulted the culture to the level it is currently. It is also the last few years of subway “bombing” as New York adopted more stricter security measures and harsher penalties to violators which lead to many graffiti artists hanging up their cans and pens.

Personally I feel that this change helped open up people to the artists themselves as they started to focus their work towards art galleries and shows, although some bombers might contest that the trains was the best medium for their work, I think art shows is something that was bound to happen when you start generating interest like they did in the 80’s. While some might coin this as selling out, I simply think that it is evolution, albeit somewhat forced. It’s funny how fast graffiti moved from being just vandalism and now it is considered to be part of modern and pop art. Artists like Keith Haring, Futura, Jean-Michel Basquiat, once the vandals of society and now their paintings probably cost more than the salary of the Mayor of New York.

It’s great to see how the vibe of New York at the time was, it was like in the infancy stages and now it’s fully grown. While I never really knew how it felt back then, watching these films at least gives me a glimpse of the culture’s past.

For me, the really interesting insight I got was how influential the 80’s were to the current generation. I can only wonder if our current generation can leave as great an impact as the past has done to us.

Futura Says

“ALWAYS resist being one-dimensional and look for other means of creative outlet. The dilemma seems to be that once you’ve established yourself, you’re locked into creating the work that people are familiar with. References to your own past by duplication. Eventually, that’s insane.”

Doodling

For as long as I can remember, as long as I have a pen or pencil on my hand and a piece of paper in front of me, I will definitely doodle. Whether this act is just a necessary impulse, or just a habit that I’ve grown into, it just happens. Anybody who has been my seatmate or has seen my notebooks and books throughout my schooling life from early elementary to college can attest that no page is safe from my doodling, sometimes it just takes up one small corner and other times it takes up whole spaces. I think it’s a sort of a release for me, a way to channel my focus into something else. I’ve always had a difficult time focusing on a certain task for long periods of time, I need something to distract and shift my attention to, I guess you could say I get bored easily.

I still doodle to this day, like I said earlier, a pen and a piece of paper, that’s all I need. I would say it’s something that became part of my life and it lead me to a path in my life which led me to where I am now. Let me further elaborate, during my early years of doodling, a lot of what I drew was influenced by comics which I read growing up. I read mostly Marvel and DC superhero stuff with some occassional manga like Dragon Ball. Of course back then I thought that I had enough talent to maybe pursue a career in drawing comics, that was before I realized that perhaps it wasn’t the best way to make a living. Money isn’t everything but growing up in a capitalist society and a family that put emphasis on business and making money, it’s not so easy to put passion over money. It’s a struggle that I have with myself until this very day, but more on this in the future.

From this dream of becoming a comicbook artist grew my love for the arts, particularly in the early years, graphic design. Now, this was something I thought I could really sink my teeth into, but at the time, I was past the midway into finishing my degree in Business Administration, and I just couldn’t push through with a resolve to shift courses and finally pursue something that I felt passionate about. I still tried to learn about it and with the help of the internet, I self-studied and actually was able to become decent with Photoshop, but the basics of art wasn’t there and it just fell apart from there.

If there was anything good that came out of learning more about design, I was exposed to a big variety of arts and it’s various mediums, and it’s something that I follow to this very day, in particular graffiti as well as pop art derived from different sources like album covers, magazine covers, promotional materials and the like.

And now I am back to where it began, I’m doing what I do best, doodling. Funny how things have come to a full circle or rectangle, whatever. I don’t regret much that I wasn’t able to pursue a career as a penciller or a graphic artists. Trying them out as possible careers, opened my mind up to so much more things and ideas, and basically a lot of who I am now and what I know myself to be now. It is the path that took me to where I am, perhaps if I took a different road earlier, I would still end up here, the most important thing is that this is who Jason is.

And with this parting, I share something I read in the Philosophy Zine which inspired this whole post. From a verse written by Naoyuki Inoue:

“The path you have taken has led you to where you are now. Who you are now creates the path from here on.“

Banksy Strikes Again!

I’ve been enamored with Banksy’s work ever since I had chanced upon his book, “Wall And Piece”, at Kinokuniya in Singapore. Usually the themes for his pieces have connotations geared towards modern society.

Here’s his latest work on a Post Office building -

Read the rest of the article here.

I’m kinda excited to see some of his actual work in an upcoming exhibition in Hong Kong. The show will be together with some other artists like Keith Haring and Damien Hirst. Should be quite a show, I will try to take pictures if I am able to.

Here is the flyer for the Banksy show, courtesy of Freshness mag -