We Love You So – Where The Wild Things Are – Spike Jonze

Maybe you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can definitely make a case for judging an artist by his iconography. Former graffiti-artist Jesse Hazelip’s chosen body of images includes visuals drawn from a bygone American natural landscape (buffalos, herons) as well as starker images of World War II bomber planes and weaponry. Hazelip’s juxtapositions of the two yield works equally provocative on aesthetic and political grounds.

Check out his new show, Sentimental Journey, up at White Walls in San Francisco until January 30th. (The scrupulous mixed-media pieces are realized on a larger-than-life scale, and they definitely benefit from real-life viewing.)

Worth mentioning also that the artist keeps things interesting on his blog with studio photos and snaps of pieces applied to the streets of Oakland (as well as the occasional post-buffing aftermath of such jaunts.)

With just the right amount of creative license taken, artists Ruets, Spurn and Ewsoe exacted a Wild Things mural in Los Angeles. Good work on Max’s sneer, guys!

Finally! I’ve been waiting to see one customized. We should have a contest for the best altered billboard…

I remember a few things from 6th grade science class. One, it was the first year in which we were permitted to dissect animals. The first animal we dissected was an earthworm. The next was a frog. The third was a fish. My fish–or rather, the fish assigned to my partner and me–turned out to be afflicted with a disease that turned its insides into spinach-colored mush. I quietly put down my scalpel, walked to the girl’s bathroom, and barfed. The teacher allowed me to sit out future dissections.

The second thing I remember is learning about Carl Linnaeus, also known as the father of taxonomy. Linnaeus was the country-born scientist responsible for constructing the foundations of modern taxonomy. His innovations allowed future scientists to classify the natural world with greater ease and efficiency. Jean-Jacques Rousseau considered Linnaeus the greatest man on earth.

From Linnaeus comes many things: our system of binomial nomenclature, the fact that we call ourselves “homo sapiens”, and now, this: an exhaustive taxonomy of graffiti courtesy of the Fondation Cartier. Explore the exhibition online and make your own conjectures about how the graffiti alphabet came to be– the compilation provides a fascinating account of public art and private mischief.

From our costume designer Casey Storm