I think that, as usual, I’ve over-complicated everything. I know I’ve said it’s all about punk and feminism (and, of course, it is) but I feel like what I’ve been missing is this:
It’s about music and art which passionately reflects and challenges the world around us.
So I figure as we’ve reached the half way point of this project, it’s time for an update. The most recent progression that I’ve made has been spray painting the shit out of my sketchbooks. I got two of my stencils laser cut and I’ve also been using lace in the same way, which is really haunting and awesome. I’ll get some pictures on here when I next get a chance, but I think you’ll like them! And I’m so excited because tomorrow I’ll be experimenting with my blue and green spray paints (HELL TO THE YEAH)!
Anyway, in other news, I wrote some harmonies for my song ‘Beautiful Veins and Faithless Minds’ today! I’m actually really happy with them - it gives the entire piece much more depth, which was definitely needed. So soon I’ll be able to post a demo on here so you guys can see how it’s coming along, and hopefully you can help me to improve it. Anyway I’ll be back on here soon to complain about how few hours there are in a day, and all that jazz.
I’m drowning in a sea of lyrics, but the song is finally taking shape.
Damn song writing is hard. Everything I write just sounds so fucking sappy. Goddamnit, I have the heart of a rocker but the voice of an angel. XD
—Stevo, SLC Punk!
In a society dictated by stereotypes and prejudice, maybe the most significant act of rebellion is to be yourself.
SWOON, Thalassa (Pink Seahorse), Screenprint on mylar with coffee stain and hand painting, 2012, 74 x 65 in.
Group Exhibition at Joshua Liner, Group Exhibition, Direct Address: An Inaugural Group Exhibition, March 21 to April 21, 2013
I am so in love with Swoon right now. This piece is just so beautiful and it really blurs the lines between street art and illustration. I’m really interested in the wheat-paste technique for street art (also used by Shepard Fairey) because it allows the artist to create the work in a studio, rather than painting straight onto walls, etc.
Okay, after a good amount of consideration, I have concluded that this is my absolute favorite movie ever. But it’s not just a great movie, it’s this fucking awesome giant philosophical and sociological debate, not just about the meaning of punk, but the meaning of life, love and pretty much everything else that matters. It’s like this massive poignant life lesson, but at the same time it’s completely insane and absolutely hilarious. Somehow, in a film built mainly on drugs and violence, develop the most lovable and inspirational characters I have ever met.
I’m not just telling you this for the sake of it, this movie has shown me what it really means to be punk. That it doesn’t need to be defined with boundaries and criteria, and we shouldn’t be divided by arguments over who started it or who is and isn’t punk. As Brandy says, “Rebellion happens in the mind - you can’t create it, you just are that way.” So this got me thinking. Maybe the most ‘punk’ thing you can do is to be yourself. I’m sure I’m philosophize more about this later, but for now just watch it.
This project is confusing the hell out of me. I’m considering the ‘making something out of nothing’ idea (linking to punk as well as dadaism) or turning something that appears worthless into something of value. But, of course, this leaves me thinking, is it possible for something to exist without any value at all? I think maybe everything is worth something, you just can’t always see it. Then, how do you know if something has a value? This sort of relates to street art and the idea that the actual art in itself may have no physical cost but the concept portrayed through it could be of infinite value. Damn, my head aches.
“No matter how much I love art, or try to convince myself of its relevance in society, the fact remains that music is a lot cooler and way more able to reach people’s hearts and minds… but I’m a populist and I look at this way: I may not play an instrument, but I’m gonna rock it hard as nails anyway. REVOLUTIONS is a celebration of all the great music and accompanying art that has inspired me over the years.”
Manuel: So Shepard, first off tell me how did a kid with a father who was a football captain, and mother who was the head cheerleader grow up to be a dirty skate punk?
Shepard: (laughs) I grew up in South Carolina and around 1983 a bunch of my friends got skateboards. In Charleston, surfing was in and skateboarding was becoming more in the peripheral of that. I think people were just starting to get skateboards as toys with the trend. None of them took it too seriously. I was like “ah, I’m not going to get in on that. It’s just dumb.” Until a friend left his board over at my house and I just started tick tacking around and really enjoyed it. Prior to that I had really been into tennis and football and soccer and all the usual sports. I hated having to always have someone to go play these sports with, and when I started skateboarding it was just something that I could totally just go do by myself. It was totally creative, and it was like “fuck having to call people.” Then for my 14th birthday February 14th, 1984 I got a skateboard. My mom would not out-rite buy me a skateboard, but she said if I paid for half she would pay for the other half. My parents thought skateboards were for hoodlums and I guess they were right. So that day I drove out to the surf shop and it was the same day they had got Skate Visions’, the very first Vision Skate video. With the soundtrack by Agent Orange playing in the shop as I was picking out my board. It really made me want to skate more because of all these tricks I had never seen. Plus with the punk rock sound track. I was like oh, and I gotta get all the music too. So pretty much in that one day the rest of my life was starting to take form. Which is pretty crazy, right? If my friend had not left his skateboard at my house I probably would not be the person I am today.
Manuel: How do you think skateboarding and punk rock influenced you in the art sense?
Shepard: From that day on, skateboarding and punk rock became all I cared about, and my parents hated it. I once broke into the school to get into a friend’s locker because he said he had a Thrasher Magazine in there. It was a huge influence all around. It was not some huge thing back then the way it is today, so if you managed to get your hands on Sex Pistols tape or Black Flag or whatever, you really had to work for it, and you really took a lot of pride in it. Plus skateboarding in the mid 80’s was super do it yourself. That was what got me into making t-shirts and screen printing. At first I just cut stencils and spray painted shirts. Then I realized my art teacher had a real primitive screen print rig in the back room that no one was using. Then I started screen printing some shirts for myself and couple extra for friends. You could see that in a short time in 1984-1985 my whole career was beginning to form based on that stuff.
My ideas for this project are mainly based around the themes of PUNK and FEMINISM, but I would also like to include aspects relating to fashion and wearable art, which have very iconic styles and motives within both movements.
