Graphic Art, Tortillas, Comics, and Troublemaking

23rd & Capp in the Mission District. I’m working on some new aesthetics for a project with Mission Loc@l. The blue and orange match the colors of their page layout. More to come soon.

Peace,

Rio

Zoe the Atomic 20-Something by Chris Jordan

On a sunny Friday morning in 2002 I wandered into Comix Experience on Divisadero street and bought the first (and only) issue of Babyhead Magazine. Babyhead was an anthology of work by writer/artist Chris Jordan. To this day it’s still the best individual issue of any comic book that I’ve picked up in the last decade.

Aside from Jordan’s beautiful black and white layouts and illustrations there were many elements of Babyhead that spoke to me. The first was the subtle diversity of every story in the comic. African-American, Asian, and Latino characters all get great representation in Jordan’s stories without necessarily calling attention to their race. I’ve always felt that Babyhead struck that rare perfect balance of race and representation in media.

Another element of Babyhead that attracted me was its homage to 90’s era slang and fashion. Check out the example below. It’s like my entire teenage years flashing before my eyes.

Babyhead Magazine also got me hooked on saying the phrase “Alright Burger King! Have it your way” so if you’ve known me in the past 8 years and wondered where it came from, there’s the culprit for that one.

I was really excited to recently discover that someone has scanned and hosted two Zoe the Atomic 20-Something stories from Babyhead. You can find them here:

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1323539.html

http://www.digitalfemme.com/journal/ormes.php?itemid=1230

Ex-Votos by Jayson Musson

I’ve been a HUGE fan and follower of Jayson’s artwork, writing, and music since I first heard Plastic Little’s Crambodia back in ’06. I highly recommend checking out his Too Black for B.E.T. collection and his other writings online.

I’ve been fascinated by Musson’s two recent concurrent series of paintings: Barack vs. the Pink Robots and P&P. Both series of works mimic the narrative and visual aesthetics of traditional Ex-Voto retablo paintings. When I first saw the telekinetic pimp piece above I was shocked, at first glance it looked like every other Ex-Voto paintings on tin I’ve seen hanging in the homes and businesses of countless Latinos that I know. I don’t know if the Ex-Voto was an intentional visual reference by Musson but the connection is undeniable.

You can see more art from Jayson Musson from both series of his works at the following links:

http://www.maddecent.com/features/column/p-p

http://www.jaysonmusson.com/Pink_Robots.html

The Situation in Haiti by Zulma Aguiar

My favorite Chicana artist and troublemaker Zulma Aguiar is at it again, broadcasting her genius Chicana thoughts from the state of Hawaii. Her latest work is a photo-collage of Jersey Shore’s The Situation presenting his body as anonymous Haitians in the background attempt to repair and reconstruct their lives and belongings.

According to Zulma’s artist statement on the Situation in Haiti

“My mind is so influenced by American mass media that this image of Mike the Situation from the Jersey shore always comes to mind when I hear the news about Haiti or any situation around the world. CNN tends to use the term “the situation” quite a bit and I hate to say that I’m so overloaded with information.”

Within days of posting this image, an earthquake occurred in Chile and J-Woww outed Snooki as being Chilean. I wonder what Zulma will bring out next in her examination of media and popular culture.

Raptor Vision by Ariana Richards

When I was 11 and 12 years old I was obsessed with Jurassic Park. Before the movie was even announced I had read Michael Chrichton’s book twice over. When I saw the movie it was an eye opener. Not only was my mind blown by the special effects but also I stumbled upon my first celebrity crush in Ariana Richards who played Lex in the film.

Richards was about a year older than me at the time and ushered me into puberty as she fled from dinosaurs and hacked computers. That awkward moment of my childhood in now enshrined forever thanks to Richards herself.

You see, shortly after the first two Jurassic Park films, Ariana Richards only made a scant few movies then retired from acting. She took up painting and is now a professional artist. Her most recent work is a self-portrait of herself as Lex from the first Jurassic Park film. It made my day to discover it on her website. It may be a simple painting but it is an incredible piece of personal meta-nostalgia for me.

You can find out more about the piece by following this link:

http://www.arianarichards.net/jplithograph.html

Peace,

Rio

just a quick reminder that my work is up at Galeria de la Raza right now. If you can’t make it into the city then please check it out below. Click on each image for a larger view.

Since it’s such a small detail of the Chicano Visual Almanac I thought that I’d separate out my portrait of Morrissey and post it.

Peace,

Rio

In the run-up to the release of the new A-Team movie there’s a new promotional game for it that has recently been released. The game uses the Google Earth engine to allow you drive the A-Team van around various cities and attempt various stunts and feats. The default city for the game is San Francisco.

The interesting (and political) aspect of the A-Team game is being able to tour the city and see which areas of the city are rendered in better detail than others. The Downtown/North Beach area that the game starts you in is very well rendered and detailed with plenty of three-dimensional objects used to represent the various buildings and landmarks of the neighborhood. As you venture further into San Francisco the experience is hit-or-miss. Some areas are VERY meticulous in their presentation and three-dimensional representations while others are just flat surfaces with overhead images from Google-Earth mapped onto them.

My first stop in the game was my place of employment SomArts (pictured above). It’s not entirely accurate but it was a nice surprise to see it rendered in so much detail. You can see even see Rene’s black car parked out in front of the building.

Encouraged by my findings I drove down Potrero Street on my way to the Mission District to see what I could discover. Turning onto 24^th street I was shocked to see a flat wasteland with 3 dimensional buildings sparsely placed throughout. Here is the A-Team tour of the Mission:

The A-Team is parked at the intersection of 24^th and Bryant. That blotchy gathering of green trees and gray squares to the left is Galeria de la Raza. Damn, what’s up with the love?

Here’s the view of 24^th Street looking down the other way from 24^th and Mission. For all of its iconic status 24^th and Mission is barely recognizable. At least Chinese Food and Donuts gets some proper respect.

Next the A-Team drove down Cesar Chavez and crashed the fences and parked in the back yard of Mariela’s childhood home on 26^th street.

Then they swung by my apartment on San Jose Ave. and enjoyed a view of St. Luke’s Hospital.

Hannibal wanted to see a mural and this is the best one (and one of the only) the rest of the A-Team could find in the game.

Driving down Mission Street the A-Team came across Foreign Cinema but not the New Mission Theater. “I pity the fool that doesn’t render the New Mission in three-dimensions!” yelled BA.

Heading over to Valencia Street the A-Team passed the CCSF Mission Campus and its giant Aztec calendar.

Further down the road the A-Team came across Cherin’s for some old-school Mission flava.

Next stop was Good Vibrations on 17^th and Valencia where Faceman picked up a Hitachi Magic Wand.

Wanting to see something more impressive, the A-Team cruised by Mission Dolores and was wowed by its architecture.

Murdock pulled some amazing stunt jumps at Dolores Park but tragically crushed scores of sunbathers beneath the wheels of the A-Team van.

At the end of their long journey, the A-Team pulled up in front of the Mission Loc@l offices on 17^th street. “I read Mission Loc@l at least twice a day, fool!” remarked BA.

There you have it: The A-Team’s Mission District adventure. Driving around the Mission it was clear to see that areas of the neighborhood utilized and populated by working class Latino families received little or no 3D rendered buildings. Conversely, Valencia Street had more rendered buildings than the rest of the Mission District combined. I highly recommend you take your own tour of the city using the game and draw your own conclusions. You can do so by visiting http://www.youtube.com/drivetheateamvan (if you don’t have it already, the game will prompt you to download the Google Earth plug-in).

Peace, fool!

Rio

Me, on 24th and Mission.