*Mitt Romneyhas stated that he would eliminate funding for The National Endowment for the Arts, PBS, and NPR if elected. This extreme conservative has no appreciation for the arts or American culture, despite the fact that creative people are the backbone of this country. It’s time to fight back and prevent these publicly funded and uniquely American organizations from being eliminated. To do this, I’m going to use the same tactic that I used last year (http://bit.ly/pFIuFX) that successfully generated much press and attention in both the real and internet worlds: BY TAKING OVER THE SKIES.

*Donations can be made a several different amounts. Every Donation Will Receive The Two “Thank you for your participation” Gifts.

-Special, Hand Signed, “Limited Time Only” Open Edition Giclee Print On 8.5″x11″ Archival Paper Titled “#DefendTheArts”, That Will Only Be Available From Now Till Friday September 21st At Midnight

Donate $75 here

Donate $125 here

Donate $250 here

Donate $500 here

Donate $1000 here

(Just in case) donate $99,000 here

-Handmade, “#DefendTheArts” Ribbon Pin, As A Symbol Of Your Participation In The  Campaign.

*$1.00 For Shipping And Handling

*For over an hour, a fleet of skywriters will circle a major US city (or cities, depending on the amount raised), using 250 characters to create provocative statements that are visible from 20+ miles away. By incorporating social media like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, I will generate global attention and direct personal involvement from supporters of the Arts, at all levels. The more money that is generated the more I can extend this project to other cities.

*I NEED YOUR HELP to hire the fleet and document the taking over of the American skies. Don’t let Mitt Romney eliminate these programs that help define our American cultural experience and that are vital to our country’s future. #DefendTheArts

Here are just a few statistics and bullet points about  Arts impact on society.

1.Stronger communities . . . University of Pennsylvania researchers have demonstrated that a high concentration of the arts in a city leads to higher civic engagement, more social cohesion, higher child welfare, and lower poverty rates. A vibrant arts community ensures that young people are not left to be raised solely in a pop culture and tabloid marketplace.

2.Arts are an Industry . . . Arts organizations are responsible businesses, employers, and consumers. Nonprofit arts organizations generate $135 billion in economic activity annually, supporting 4.1 million jobs and generating $22.3 billion in government revenue. Investment in the arts supports jobs, generates tax revenues, promotes tourism, and advances our creativity-based economy.

3.Arts are an export industry . . . U.S. exports of arts goods (e.g., movies, paintings, jewelry) grew to $64 billion in 2010, while imports were just $23 billion—a $41 billion arts trade surplus in 2010.

http://www.artsusa.org/get_involved/advocacy/public_awareness.asp

These images are from my @Juxtapozmag #saberspick Twitter contest. The winner will be featured in print in an upcoming issue of Juxtapoz magazine. I was looking for experienced artists who haven’t been featured in Juxtapoz mag print edition yet. I like to see a detailed, intense, consistent body of work, consistent is the key word. I stumbled upon some cool painting but when investigating further on their sites or tumblers the body of work wasn’t consistent. That then affected how I felt about the original piece. Some advice: Do not put your entire body of work in your portfolio. This can be  overwhelming  to the viewer because, well, we all really sucked bad at one point! I do not want to see your dilapidated still life’s from your high school art class next to your current strongest work! Sorting through all the art tweets wasn’t easy, below is some of my thoughts on just a small portion of the art piled onto my timeline that I was attracted to, for all sorts of reasons.

Twitter has given artists a new voice. Now people can share their artwork and ideas with everyone live. The fact that I can have access to conversations and ideas from some of the great people I admire is very empowering, especially if I know they are seeing something created by me! I enjoyed watching all the artwork and comments tweeted at me live with artists and observers from all over the world. Even with a small number of followers in comparison to millions the intensity on Juxtapoz and my timeline was clear, people just want to share their art and ideas with the world. Fortunately for us this includes the good, the bad, and the extremely fugly…………..

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Winner!  @YatikaField

When I saw his abstracts passing through my Twitter timeline I couldn’t help but pause, dive in and try to deconstruct the detailed color patterns and sharp movement. Diving further into his work I discovered he lives through his passion as a decedent of the Native American Indians that reflected the specific patterns and motifs in the abstracts. I liked that I had to work for the information. He also works with his public mural crew that has a mission to bring the Native American aesthetic back to the public sphere. No doubt his art stands for something as powerful as his bloodline and the relationship with the story in history of the Native Indian and the Anglo-American conquest. I chose him as the winner because along with a detailed consistent body of work his convictions seep through the paintings. For me I can’t ignore the intensity …..

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#2 @snorvet

His figurative work is almost like visiting an alternate universe high on ketamine where the strange and distorted is the norm and routine and normality is the incurable sickness….

Great sketches and great detailed paintings.

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3. @gregoryganeles

I am always a stickler for photo realistic landscapes, especially when it documents the graffiti on the walls. Gregory has clear painting ability as well as a consistent body of work. He chooses isolated graffiti hotspots as influence, his eye for perspective and placement lends to the sense of depth that sucks you in. Great paintings!!!………

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4. @amycrehore

Is a savage painter. She sneaks by you casting a line and hook that then reels you into her innocent sexual playfulness all the while leaving you stranded as a tickled voyeur creeping in on this dreamlike island utopia where anything goes…I wouldn’t mine being stranded for a bit. Great detailed technical paintings.

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#5 @feildyart

Surfs up! Great detailed works on surfboards. Tiki, skulls, and beach ladies are usually usual, but this guy rocks it! Definitely an updated twist to an older art movement using crisp, clean, graphic style painting style on an unforgiving medium. Just playing around with surfboards takes a bit of know-how and a sense of craftsmanship.

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#6 @raskopticon

This piece is real sick, plain and simple. Rask displays a clear undeniable artistic ability mastering the airbrush with hyper-detail as well as a keen sense the figurative……..

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#7 @rickywatts

I know what it takes to keep a clean consistent pattern using spraypaint. Its not easy. These space rainbow abstracts paintings seem to please my eye. He also does detailed city sketches that show true base experience.

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#8 @liquidwerx

Great figurative illustrations with an awesome color palette, hand sketches and detailed computer work.

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#9 @june22

His work is inspired by a royal Egyptian motif. From hand crafted jewel like sculptures to painting on skateboards he is consistent in his ability to achieve detailed clean lines and patterns that give his work a quality of an ancient archeological find.

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#10 @caseykawaguchi

I like his raw painting figurative style that leaves you with a sense of eeriness.

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#11@jdekal

Clearly a very powerful and talented illustrator, with the ability to master different mediums.

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#12 @stephenhiam

What’s not to love about a home made altered leaf blower turned into a paint-blasting machine from hell. This experiment makes spraying with fire extinguishers look like a spray bottle. Can never get enough of the texture achieved with a paint super blaster!

Simple and straight to the point…Paint and texture.

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#13 @drewtoyours

Great abstract expressionism, raw, layered and leads the viewer to search for subtle hints of deeper meaning.

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#14 @chanceartworks

This work is multi-media collage on newspaper with nice depth and detail.

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#15 @mansanares23

My taste in political commentary with a clean, crisp graphic style.

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#16 @815k1

His work is deconstructed from the point of view of a construction workers day of hard work building with his hands and using the chalk-line. As these measurements and patterns of chalk line built on the work site, it conveys a sense of craftsmanship only earned by a hard day of work.

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#17@coldstudio

Nice painted illustration, I especially like the owl and bullet combo.

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#18 @jonlovesart

Jesus, guns and fast-food, this obvious commentary seemed to be very relevant in relation to the topics the day I stumbled on to this on Twitter. Unfortunately this topic seems to continue to escalate here in the good old USofA during election seasons. Jesus loves you……..

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#19 @dannymeza83

Great interpretation of Michelangelo’s Creation Of Adam…….

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#20 @motelcampbell

I can always appreciate the creative process and the struggle to search through abstraction using raw tools like charcoal.

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#21 @cynthiabsl

WE NEED MORE FEMALE ARTISTS! Cynthia is working through her creative process with detailed drawing moving towards an illustrative style.

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#22 @melikepainting

This guy art is all over the place but the spray paint abstract faces have some nice line work.

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Saber, who has been curating a special photo and video on our Twitter, and Facebook accounts respectively all month long, wrote us this morning with a piece remember the death of his friend, and fellow graffiti writer, TIE ONE, who was shot dead on March 18, 1998 in San Francisco.

REST IN PARADISE YOUNG JONATHAN SEE LIM, “TIE ONE” ….. Read More Here At Juxtapoz

Statement from the Artist:

9.19.2011

End Mural Moratorium. Art Is Not A Crime…

The reason I hired five jet planes to sky write over City Hall and downtown Los Angeles is to bring awareness to how ridiculous a moratorium on public art is.

The city states that all public murals are signage, effectively banning art from the walls of Los Angeles. And it is removed at the taxpayers’ expense. Money is given to private graffiti removal companies, who have broken onto private property to paint murals beige. The owners of small businesses where murals have been painted have been harassed and threatened with fines if they do not remove the artwork. Police officers raid homes and places of work, intimidating artists and building owners. During this time of economic crisis, “mural signs” are an easy target for the city to extract money. This moratorium is a clear violation of the first amendment right to free speech and enforcement for these unreasonable laws is a complete waste of taxpayer funds.

To put things in perspective I recently visited the beautiful set of murals inside the Terminal Annex Building on Alameda. This mural was painted in 1941-44 and was funded by the “Works Progress Administration” (WPA). Murals are just a part of the legacy of a national program that put the country to work during the Great Depression.

Fast-forward to the Great Recession, taxpayer money is now used to obliterate all traces of the artwork my generation have created. I believe this is city-funded censorship pushed by lawmakers with personal vendettas. Potential jail time is more probable for us than the opportunity of creating an artistic legacy for the next generation. In a city that used to proudly call itself the “Mural Capitol Of The World,” the officials who enforce this ban should be ashamed to call themselves “Angelinos.”

Art Is Not A Crime… End Mural Moratorium.

- SABER

Tell Mayor Villagaigosa and the L.A. City Attorney’s office to end the mural moratorium now:

Long War on Public Art in Los Angeles County

Click on the links below for more information:

* Mural Ordinance Update to the Cultural Affairs Commission

Heal the Bay House (Santa Monica – 2011) photo: saberone.com

* The ‘Heal The Bay House’ was created to by Risk and Retna raise awareness for Coastal Cleanup day.  RESTORE AND PROTECT THE WORLDS OCEANS is written in complex lettering on bands of color representing sky, pollution and water. A spokesperson for Heal the Bay called it “a powerful and beautiful way of reminding people of the value of the ocean,” but not everyone agreed. The day the artwork was unveiled, the city ordered an immediate take down and demanded a $5000 a day fine. Saber was on the scene to describe the cops initial response. While many in the upscale community wanted it to stay up longer, public pressure succeeded in keeping the artwork up through Costal Cleanup day.

* Despite the ban on murals, the Art District of downtown Los Angeles remains a “Haven for ‘Street’ Murals”

Fairfax Avenue Mural by Renta, Rime, Revok, Norm, Os Gemeos, Saber. Photo by Melrose and Fairfax

* One week before the opening of MoCA blockbuster exhibition Art in the Streets, a private contractor working for the city of Los Angeles broke into fenced private property to buff a mural by several artists featured in the upcoming controversial show. The building owner and surrounding community were furious and stopped the whitewash halfway across the mural. The contractor was forced to come back the next day remove the dull beige paint.

* A North Hollywood woman on a fixed income commissioned a 75 ft. mural  to brighten the alley next to her home, but Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety inspectors concluded that a single word included in the fanciful swirls and other spray-painted designs turned the piece into an illegal “sign.” Facing mounting fees and unable to pay $10,000 for a permit, she was forced to have it painted over. One of the young men who painted it over said “Instead of this, the city ought to be fixing potholes. Let the art survive.”

* The owner of the Studio City Car Wash had an artist paint The Great Wall of Studio City but the 64-foot-long mural is threatened with a $1,000-a-day fine for violating city codes.

* City council panel’s take on the ‘mural vs. commercial sign’ debate in June of 2010

* Private residents commissioned the artist, Phil Lumbang to paint this cheerful mural on the front wall of their home, but the city’s Building & Safety Department found the mural violated the city’s restrictions on outdoor advertisements and they were told they must paint over the illegal mural. A commenter said “I live just up the street from this house and I miss the mural every time I pass by.”

* Despite protests, as of 2009 murals continue to be outlawed.

Photo: knowngallery.com

* The SABER piece in the LA River, with reputation for being the largest graffiti piece had drawn admirers from around the world for 12 years before it was buffed by the Army Corps of Engineers and city sub-contractors.

* In 2007, the graffiti gallery Crewest, along with help from the activist group Friends of the L.A. River (FoLAR) organized “Meeting of Styles: LA.” The event brought together over 100 graffiti artists to spray paint a 10,000 square foot section of the L.A. River at the Arroyo Seco Confluence in Highland Park. Despite the fact that the organizers secured all necessary permits for the mural project, and that the event was fully licensed by the county; supervisor Gloria Molina objected to the work after the fact and introduced an emergency measure to the County Board of Supervisors that forced the mural to be whitewashed from the flood walls. A spokeswoman for Molina called the legal graffiti murals a “public nuisance and a potential safety hazard,” and justified Molina’s decision to introduce the mural’s removal by saying the county was “trying to save lives.”

* It wasn’t always like this, back in the 1970’s more than 400 mural productions were supported through the Citywide Murals Program under the Department of Recreation and Parks before the program was disbanded. The non-profit SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center) was founded in the spirit of work like The Great Wall of Los Angeles.

A view of “America Tropical,” partly whitewashed. (Credit: PBS)

* Of course, this sort of thing has a long history in Los Angeles. In 1932, David Alfaro Siqueiros painted America Tropical in a rooftop beer garden on Olvera Street. The mural’s centerpiece featured a crucified Indian, hovered over by an imperial American eagle. The part of the offending mural that could be seen from the street was covered almost immediately; the rest was whitewashed within a year.

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SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Obey, The Seventh Letter, Upper Playground, Juxtapoz Magazine , Willie T, and the amazing people at Worldwide Sky Advertising

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Radio Interviews With Saber On The Project And Petition:

KCRW Which Way, L.A.? Interview

KPCC Patt Morrison Interview

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http://www.juxtapoz.com/Features/juxtapoz-presents-saber-video