Two pieces I put up last weekend. The second one is fairly new. 

The idea behind it relates to the emotions that we feel require permission to experience. Happiness being the most obvious. Too often we assume there are a constant series of prerequisites to feel happy or content. This is probably because advertisers have spent most of the last two centuries convincing us of this myth. Buy these products and WE PROMISE you'll stop feeling so empty. WE PROMISE you won't feel ugly anymore. WE PROMISE you'll feel special. Happiness is not a product to be purchased and you don't need anyone's permission to embrace it. See also faith. See also change. See also a voice that makes a difference.

...Even if the song is by Maroon 5.

 (click image to enlarge)

“We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

(I've posted this quote in the past but damn if it's not one of the greatest series of words ever written.)

On Saturday I went out with Greg from Melrose&Fairfax and a pair of super cool documentarians that filmed me putting up a posters. A great time was had by all despite the fact that by the end of the day I was worried that blood would start dripping from their ears from hearing me yammer on endlessly. M&F is working with Blue Bunny Productions to do a series of videos following various artists around town. It sounds like a great project and I look forward to following it. I will of course post the video here once it's live. 

This was actually the last piece I put up that day. By this point we'd driven all the way to Santa Monica. I don't put up a ton of these Cut Out pasters but thought it'd be a fitting way to end the video. 

Thanks for showing me a good time guys! And I mean that in the John Travolta Massage Parlor kinda way.

No I don't.

The gratification one derives from knowing that someone who rejected them in some way regrets it is one of the more potent sensations in life. This led me to fantasize about a formal organization made up of every person who ever rejected you, and their collective regret being communicated in something resembling a government correspondence. 

I mailed 50 of these letters to addresses picked randomly from the phonebook.

The Latin phrase written across the flag in the eagle’s mouth is OCCIDERE SOMNIUM, which translates to “Killing the Dream”, a phrase that felt apropos for an organization built on rejection. Also, the address of the society is actually the address of my old high school. This also seemed appropriate.

For Maurice. (R.I.P.)

My cat Nelson is wondering if this is the arc of the covenant.

Silly Nelson, it's just my new set of prints, signed and shipped off to England for sale with The Outsiders in the coming months. I can't show them off to you guys but suffice it to say, they're the best ones yet. 

I'll let you know when they are going to be on sale. 

Posted this at an out of business fast food joint in Culver City. A homeless man slept about five feet away from where the shot ends. I often wonder how homeless people respond to my work. I'm unsure if this will mean much to the man but you never know.

It's been a while since I've posted anything on the Melrose strip but I wanted to make my presence known again.

For those who can't see, that's a map of Los Angeles in the background of this one.

I've written about this poster in the past but one of the things it makes me think of is what Alcoholics Anonymous calls "A Geographical Cure". I'm not a member of AA but I have friends that are and as they've explained this to me, it's something that I think can actually apply to a lot of people (regardless of their predilection for alcohol). 

A Geographical Cure is the erroneous notion that moving to a new environment will magically solve your problems. This isn't an ignorant logic so much as an intentionally naive one (which I guess is pretty much the same thing, but it sounds less judgmental). We tell ourselves that all we need to finally start living the life free of the mistakes we seem to perpetually make. Eventually though, no matter how far you run, the person to blame for those mistakes will show up. It won't be your friends, it won't be your girlfriend/boyfriend, it won't be your family- it will be you. As they say: no matter where you go, there you are.

Now, this is not to say that I think people should be relegated to the rut they've dug themselves and just stay in the same place all their lives. People are allowed to move and often, it's exactly what they need to do to move on with their lives. It's not the action, it's the motivation that should be questioned. Confronting the aspects about ourselves that we need to change to be a more happy and productive person is the only way to solve our problems. A new zip code is like a band-aid in the shower, it can only conceal your wounds for so long.

This sentiment only kind of relates to this poster, the real meaning behind it relates more to the sense that so many of us have in LA. That nagging worry that we're wasting our lives in a city that seemingly exists for the sole purpose of crushing our dreams in as tourture-porny a way as possible.

For those who may need someone to reassure them that they shouldn't give up and move back to the Mid-West OR for those who wonder how far it they'd have to run to escape themselves- this poster is for you.