I did these paintings to trade for some amazing tattoo work I received on the television series “Tattoo Wars”. I was the fortunate victim of these two tattoo overlords. I was elated during the forty hours of consecutive tattooing, excluding my swollen, football sized hand. The show aired on TLC network about a year ago. Unfortunately the network took all footage off the internet, so I have no link or footage of the drilling sessions.

These two paintings are a product of my friendship and admiration for Aaron and Guy. These artists are considered the best and their work speaks for itself. The intensity of these paintings are a reflection of their own personal traits. They are painted a certain way because of their energy and personality as well as an interpretation on their styles. I hope that makes some sense, but when you look at the paintings you can gauge your own reactions. I see the interaction between myself and these epic tattooers as a small bridge between the graffiti and tattoo worlds.

These two paintings are part of a triptych. The third is with the ever prolific and my good friend Grime in SF. Maybe one day I’ll get all three of the paintings together for an instillation. I’m always glad to be a human canvas for such talent.

Painting for Aaron Cain

Painting for Guy Aitchison

Painting for Grime

www.aaroncain.com/

www.hyperspacestudios.com/

www.grimemonster.com/tattoos.html

This poor guy was freezing so he made himself a fire with what ever was near him on the street, trash, newspaper, etc. Drunk as hell, all he saying was “Beer, Beer!”, sounded more like a chirp. He sort of reminded me of a little boy, mischievous yet simply cold. Then some touchy neighborhood asshole calls the police. From around the corner the fire trucks come, lights and sirens blazing. They jump out, yell at him for a minute, stomp out his measly fire, and move on, leaving him alone cold and quiet.

Another of my photographs. This is my native Los Angelino friend. He’s been creepin around at night, but I don’t mind and it seems the street cats don’t either.

I recently visited Mexico for the event “Estilo Libre”. The
event begins in Santiago de Queretaro, continues in Mexico
City, and ends in Monterrey. Unfortunately I could only
attend Queretaro.

We flew into Mexico City and then drove 3 hours north to
Santiago de Queretaro.

Downtown Queretaro is a beautiful old, well-preserved,
Spanish colonial town. With cobble stone streets,
beautifully hand-carved large wood doors, court yards in
almost every building, and interesting street vendors on
every corner. We stayed in a two hundred year old hotel
called the Hotel Hidalgo that was a history professor’s
dream with all the notable people that had stayed there.

Queretaro was a very important city during the Mexican
Independence movement and has many statues,
monuments, and historically preserved buildings
commemorating that. Today it is becoming the
international business capitol of the country.

But obviously I was there to paint and meet other like
minds. I spent four days straight painting two different
pieces in two different locations. I decided to use buff paint
primarily, instead of all spray to show people to some new
techniques.

Everywhere we went there seemed to be some sort of
painting project in process. All over the city there are new
community centers being built, from small neighborhood
spaces to huge community centers that can accommodate
the entire city. It was very impressive, and you can sense
there is more importance placed on introducing and
including youth into art projects like murals.

Throughout the years I’ve visited Mexico many times and
these kids are getting better and better. There is endless
wall space and the writers are very focused. I would say
that in the near future Mexico will become an important
painting destination for the rest of the world.

I met some genuine people and some strong writers in
Mexico. Queretaro is a mellow place and I love how
important the history is to citizens. Most of my experiences
on this trip were positive, (minus the five-animal meat
torta).

Thank you to No Limit, SF Crew. Mibe, Humo, Baht, Seta,
Borra, Chino, Aliaz, and anyone else I forgot.

Cathedral In Downtown Queretaro

Cathedral Ceiling

Altar For Mary

Cathedral At Night

Statue For Memorial To One Of The Saviors Of Mexican Independence

Eagles At The Base Of Josefa Statue

Statue Outside Cathedral

Hill Top View Of Los Arcos Aqueduct. It Was Built By The Wealthiest Man In Queretaro Because Of His Love For A Nun

“Pyramid Of El Pueblito”, Toltec Pyramid With Spanish Fort On Top In Queretaro

After All Day Painting, Nothing Like A Nice Little Fire

Mucho Mas Graffiti!

This Kid Painted This After His Lung Collapsed!

Through Upper Playground, I was one of a bunch of artists who where asked to be part of an interesting collaboration with Roland Sands Designs.

Basically Sam Flores, Nate Van Dyke, Estvon Oriol, Jonas, Roland and friends, painted the backdrops for up and coming motorcycle conventions. These are the sickest bikes I’ve seen, and the goal was to create themes that went with each bike. Everyone put in long nights, and it turned into a paint menagerie.

Each artists mural was unique to they’re own style. This is what makes this project interesting. Each piece was great and different by itself, then put those amazing bikes in front of them, it couldn’t get any better.

I was very excited to work on this project because I appreciate the constant contortion of motorcycle design, especially Roland’s approach to style. When I see those sexy lines on a bike, I want to push my artistic style even further.

Futuristic, powerful, hyper, sleek, sharp, dangerous, wicked, complex, these are the perfect attributes that translate well into my painting style.

The bike in front of my wall was a one of a kind Ducati, red, silver, and black. I wanted to match the color pallet with fast-moving, sharp biomechanical bits, mixed with digital racing stripes.

I think this could be one of the first contemporary collaborations with street artist and the motorcycle culture. I’m definitely looking forward to more projects with Roland. Maybe one day soon there will be a sick Saber/Roland bike collaboration.

My Wall, but this is NOT my bike.

Estevon Oriol, hard at work…..

Sam and the girls…….

Nate Van Dyke’s Wall….

Roland Sands’ Wall

Sam Flores’s Wall…..

This is a sketch I did for a friend I haven’t seen in awhile.

Jersey Joe and myself were invited to come speak to a group of students at Art Center College in Pasadena.

I was very excited about the prospect because even though I didn’t go to school there, Art Center has played a role in my early life.

My mother graduated there in 68 and later taught a few classes and became the first female president of the alumni. In other words I spent a lot of time running around the school grounds as a kid and got my first introduction to design there. To be asked to speak there years later, and especially about my part in graffiti and my paintings, was an honor.

Basically Joe and I each created a slide show of some of our work, and took turns going through images and talking about out experiences as artists.

After both Joe and I spoke, we took questions. Most of them seemed to be centered on the business side of what we do, how we deal with corporations etc. The bottom line is this, the more education you have about business, finance, contracts, taxes, the better off you’ll be. People like to take advantage of creative people. Your only defense is information, education, and confidence. Don’t be afraid of being smart. Its time for our generation to wake up to its potential.

As far as Art Center goes, it’s always a pleasure to walk through the halls and see what the students are up to. And it would be awesome to collaborate with the school again in the future.

Saber. spray paint, acrylic, oil stick, charcoal, 22kt gold leaf on canvass

I just went to the clothing trade show Magic, held in Las Vegas.

It was the typical magic experience, everyone competing to be noticed. Definitely no shortage of characters walking around, fake tits and bad tattoos.

The Seventh Letter “Royal Art Show” was strategically placed by the entrance, so anyone who walked into the convention passed by our display. This was the first year Magic has ever hosted any type of art exhibition.

Over the years I’ve seen graffiti art influence and be taken advantage of by the street wear industry. This exhibition was a great way for us to show people where its source is.

The “Royal Art Show” consisted of two beautiful hand-crafted motorcycle and canvass by Rime, Push, Revok, Retna, Zes, Ewok, Reyes, and myself.

Eklips’s custom bike

Ewok

Push

Retna

Reyes

Rime

Zes

Revok

This is a screen print I did for Linkin Park for one of the cities in their US ’08 tour.