December 2009

Images of The Week 12.20.09

Brooklyn-Street-Art-IMAGES-OF-THE-WEEK_1009Our Weekly Interview with the streets

Avoid for Sale
It’s official. Avoid Pi is for Sale (© Jaime Rojo)

5003 DADA
5003  & Hobby Horse (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast
The never bashful Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Deeker
Honey, why do you still go with that man?  You know he’s just trash! (Deeker) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Imminent Disaster
Imminent Disaster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe
Kosbe is rocking it  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe (detail)
Kosbe is a detailed mess of color (detail) (© Jaime Rojo)

Horse Imminent Disaster (detail)
Horse Imminent Disaster (detail) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Imminent Disaster (detail)

Imminent Disaster (detail) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Imminent Disaster (detail)

Horse Imminent Disaster (detail) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Police
New technology aids the crime fighters. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paper Monster
Paper Monster made this hot babe in a fur trimmed winter coat to keep her warm. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon
Swoon is chained to the gate.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (detail)
Swoon (detail) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peru Ana Ana Peru
See no evil, see no evil (Peru Ana Ana Peru) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We Are Coming
Simultaneously? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO 907
UFO 907 is blasting off in all kinds of directions these days; All hail the alien. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK
A very funny move toward cut outs in this piece by Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia Hand Paints a Red Roll-up

Street artist Gaia is often thought of primarily for wheat-pasted lino prints of animal/human mashups as metaphor, but it’s nice to note that adept hand-painting is also in Gaia’s quiver of skills.

It's a red-rooster rollup!  Gaia (photo ©Keith Schweitzer)
It’s a red-rooster rollup! Gaia (photo ©Keith Schweitzer)

Here’s a brief motion collage of a hand-painted installation a few weeks ago on a roll-up door in Chinatown, NYC. Photographed by Keith Schweitzer and invited by No Longer Empty, Gaia creates a rooster portrait, where the proud sitter penetrates the passerby with an intense gaze.

Or is it a blank stare? I never know.

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Fun Friday 12.18.09

“I Want My Ninja Turtles, and Turn Mommy’s Lights Back On!”

RUN DMC puts BSA in the Holiday Spirit, yo.

MOMO at Nelly Duff

A wheat-pasted fixture on construction sites (usually overhead) in Brooklyn for many years, Momo is now selling work online.
A wheat-pasted fixture on construction sites (usually overhead) in Brooklyn for many years, Momo’s bright geometric overlayed shapes are understated and mute somehow. They don’t seem to have any agenda in their cheerful modernist abstract sort of way.  Now Momo is offering some on the Nelly Duff website.- just click the pic and check them out.

New York Holiday Sightssssss 2009

If you are not from this city, you may not have an opportunity to just walk the streets and see the lights, smell the smells, get yelled at for being in my f*&king way! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, it’s the holiday spirit, peeeepul!

This guy caught NYC at an exciting time of year and made a pretty good collection of the things you’ll see if you were a tourist in ’09. It includes Rockefeller Center, Madison Square Garden, Macy’s windows, Radio City Music Hall, Lord & Taylor Windows, Saks Fifth Avenue windows and light show, Fuse, Sixth Avenue, Downtown Manhattan, Time Warner Center, Empire State Building, The UNICEF Snowflake, JAF Station Post Office, Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and the Haydenettes Skating Team.  Warning: In this video there are no street-walkers, crackheads, or homeless shelters….

TrustoCorp Sign Sighting

Someone sent us this pic from the West coast.  Looks like TrustoCorp doesn't it?  Hmmmm.
Someone sent us this pic from the West coast. Looks like TrustoCorp doesn’t it? Hmmmm. P.S. BSA doesn’t encourage vandalism. It’s totally not in the Christmas spirit.

Bells are Ringing in My Ears!

Free Print of Manhattan from Jailbreak!

Artist Karen O’Leary made this Manhattan map and married it with a barcode.
Artist Karen O’Leary made this Manhattan map and married it with a barcode. Their extending the contest for a free poster for BSA readers till Dec. 25.  Hooray!

CASIO DEATHBEAT

This isn’t holiday related, but I still feel a little warm and fuzzy at the end.

Don’t ask me who Casio is, I’ve never heard of them, but this video is strangely futuristic, low-fi, and even romantic at the end with the flocks of birds. People have been taking pictures of these birds that swarm around over certain buildings at dusk in Brooklyn for years.  It looks like it is shot around Brooklyn with a cell phone.

They say it was filmed with a vhs-c and dubbed online with a webcam.  Help me out, people, that was English right? Okay I know Casio is the synth, so don’t hit me, but the video portion, dunno. All I know is, you don’t need the latest hi-tech gadgetry to make cool things. Also, it is mercifully short for todays’ short attention spans.

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Book Thug Nation Print Show & Book Release, DEC 18

JustSeeds Collective featuring Chris Stain and Josh MacPhee

Artists Josh MacPhee and Chris Stain and the Just Seeds crew will be having an informal relaxed event in Williamsburg tonight – Chris promises new prints!

Print Show and Book Release by Just Seeds Crew

Print Show and Book Release by Just Seeds Crew

There will be new work by the Justseeds artists on display and for sale, free snacks and drinks.

Friday, Dec. 18th
8-11pm
at Book Thug Nation
100 N.3rd St.
Brooklyn, NY

Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative is a decentralized community of artists who have banded together to both sell their work , to collaborate with each other, and create art in support of social movements.  We believe in the power of personal expression in concert with collective action to transform society.

Outside the new Book Thugs store

Outside the new Book Thug Nation store

About the book:
Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today
Josh MacPhee (ed.) (PM Press, 2009)
Paper Politics: Socially Engaged Printmaking Today is a major collection of contemporary politically and socially engaged printmaking. This full color book showcases print art that uses themes of social justice and global equity to engage community members in political conversation. Based on an art exhibition which has traveled to a dozen cities in North America, Paper Politics features artwork by over 200 international artists; an eclectic collection of work by both activist and non-activist printmakers who have felt the need to respond to the monumental trends and events of our times.

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Tristan Eaton’s Wild Beauty at Primary Flight

Getting Up in Miami with Tristan

After partially white-washing the image, Tristan retraces and pulls the subject forward.

After partially white-washing the image, Tristan retraces and pulls the subject forward.

Tristan Eaton of New York’s Thunderdog Studios was working last week in Miami during the Primary Flight exhibition with many of his peers and yet-to-meet friends. The show was an opportunity for people to show their skills, gain appreciation from a new audience, and enjoy the pleasures of a sanctioned wall.

kj

“The background was wheat pasted, then white washed, then hand painted with enamel, brushes, markers and mop tops, ” says Tristan.

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you get this wall in Miami?
Tristan Eaton: I got it from my pal Books who organized all the artists and walls for Primary Flight. It was on Easy Street Gallery which was founded by Crome of MSG.

hl

A Wild Beauty, Indeed!  (Tristan Eaton)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about the inspiration behind the project?
Tristan Eaton: It’s gonna sound really corny, but I was inspired by something my Mother said about ‘Wild Beauty’. Before painting, I had no pictures or layouts of the wall, so I couldn’t really plan what to do in advance. I had to make it all up on the spot over the course of 3 days and hope for the best.

gv

Tristan Eaton

Brooklyn Street Art: What kind of preliminary work did you have to do before getting there?
Tristan Eaton: I normally get my giant photocopies (for background) made here in the city then cut them out by hand at my studio in LIC. We prepared about 1,000 square feet of wheat paste graphics for this mural and general bombing and stuff.

Ron English stops by to talk and pose for a pic.

Ron English stops by to talk and pose for a pic.

Brooklyn Street Art: Did you get hit by the rain or have other distractions?
Tristan Eaton: Yes! We had torrential rain on and off over 2 days. We kept having to stop and wait it out. Luckily it only rains for about an hour in Miami! On top of that you have legends like Futura and Ron English are just walking around town all week at Art Basel, so we’d stop to BS every once in a while when someone came to visit our wall.

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Brooklyn is always in the mix.  (Tristan Eaton)

Brooklyn Street Art: Are you satisfied with your final project?
Tristan Eaton: I think so. Working on that scale in that time frame, little things always go wrong. It’s not supposed to be perfect I guess, so I’m okay with a certain amount of messy mistakes. I’m most satisfied with the response from locals so far. Even if I could of done better, they love it!

Friends stop by for immoral support. Pictured are Phetus and KaNo in front, Alex of Easy Street, Tris, Den & Sket in back (photo courtesy T. Eaton)

Friends stop by for immoral support. Pictured are Phetus and KaNo in front, Alex of Easy Street, Tris, Den & Sket in back (photo courtesy T. Eaton)

All images courtesy Tristan Eaton.

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Year-End Bonus to Blow? New Gaia and Imminent Disaster + “Whack a Banker”

Still snorking around looking for something nice for a Kwanzaa Gift? Here are two nice crisp prints by two of the new-gen renaissance print masters… and one is going on sale tomorrow.

Iminent Disaster has released this silkscreen called "Laura Reclining"

Iminent Disaster has released this silkscreen called "Laura Reclining"

For more information go to HERE

For that special somebunny on your list, how about this print by Gaia?

For that special somebunny on your list, how about this print by Gaia?

The print will be available on Nelly Duff tomorrow!

***********************And for those of you who don’t have the bucks for some arty-prints…

OWW! MY HEAD! Talk about your Economic Indicators*

Based on the old children’s favorite aggression release and hand-eye coordination game Whack-a-Mole

Now there is WHACK-A-BANKER (available in the U.K. only so far)

Taxpaying adults who footed the bill for the bank bailout but yet strangely cannot get a loan or a job may really enjoy taking out some of that frustration on the

“Whack-A-Banker” game.

TOO BIG TO FAIL??? NOT ANYMORE!

I got yer Year End Bonus Right Here! Ga-Zoinks!

*Thanks to Kent at the Rachel Maddow show

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Fresh Pictures of “Fresh Geezers”, Vinny Cornelli shoots the London Police, Galo

Last Thursday Factory Fresh Gallery hosted “Fresh Geezers”, a new show by The London Police and Galo. In a departure from his regular street art job, photographer Vinny Cornelli takes Brooklyn Street Art to the opening with these shots.

Detail of a London Police canvass featuring Chaz and Bobbie running for their lives! © Vincent Cornelli
Detail of a London Police canvass featuring Chaz and Bobbie running for their lives! © Vincent Cornelli
f;aksdljf © Vincent Cornelli

Fans react to the news that The London Police are not actually police. © Vincent Cornelli

A colorful Galo piece (© Vincent Cornelli)

A colorful Galo piece (© Vincent Cornelli)

A sepia toned Galo (© Vincent Cornelli)

A sepia toned Galo (© Vincent Cornelli)

The back wall at Factory Fresh by Galo (© Vincent Cornelli)

The back wall at Factory Fresh by Galo (© Vincent Cornelli)

(© Vincent Cornelli)

Smiling is contagious! (© Vincent Cornelli)

Mid-western tourists in Times Square? No, it's the London Police! (© Vincent Cornelli)

Mid-western tourists in Times Square? No, it's the London Police! (© Vincent Cornelli)

Chaz (© Vincent Cornelli)
Chaz is wildly thrilled with the turnout. (© Vincent Cornelli)

Geezers (© Vincent Cornelli)
Geezers (The London Police) (© Vincent Cornelli)

Galo (© Vincent Cornelli)

Galo (© Vincent Cornelli)

Sailor felt that the show was a high-flying success (with dad Logan Hicks) (© Vincent Cornelli)
Sailor felt that the whole show was a high-flying success (with dad Logan Hicks) (© Vincent Cornelli)
(© Vincent Cornelli)

"So I says to her, I says, 'Haven't we met someplace before?'. She says, 'Yeah I'm the receptionist at the V.D. clinic'." (© Vincent Cornelli)

Galo made a bird shelter from some old canvasses (© Vincent Cornelli)

Galo made a bird shelter from some old canvasses (© Vincent Cornelli)

ljk

"Word son, did you see when the chic unlocked their handcuffs and dragged him into another room with her?" (© Vincent Cornelli)

Time to fly home. (© Vincent Cornelli)

Time to fly home. (© Vincent Cornelli)

See More of Vinny Cornelli’s photography HERE.

text by Brooklyn Street Art

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NOHJColey Video Premiere of “Sprayed N Stone”, by Director Lou Auguste

NOHJColey Video Premiere of “Sprayed N Stone”, by Director Lou Auguste

Plus NohJ’s remarks on his
Personal Primary Flight in Miami last week.

NYC street artist NohJColey has been steadfast and focused in his determination to do his homework, refine his skills, and challenge himself artistically. In turn his art and the ideas behind them continue to surprise, perplex, and provide brain candy to the viewer. NYC video artist and director Lou Auguste started documenting art on the streets of New York in 2004, and this fall he approached NohJColey to capture the young artist’s new series, “Sprayed N Stone”, a wheat-pasted trio of graff writers who have passed.

Here’s the gorgeous and lyrical result that captures the influences and tempo of NohJ’s approach in only two minutes. The Thelonius Monk tune not only nails it, that’s exactly what you’ll hear in NohJ’s studio all day. Special Thanks to Lou for sharing it with BSA readers first.

Lou remembers the experience, “NohJ had been calling me all week, he kept reminding me we had to go film. I told him I’d be there no matter what on Friday, but it rained. So instead we met up around 6AM on Sunday morning to make this video.  The light in his apartment was quite yellow I remember.”

“I started focusing on the small things; a pack of cigarettes, discarded paper, details of the work lying there on the table waiting. All of it was telling the story of the artist and his new Sprayed N Stone without words. Hope you enjoy it.”

Auguste has been documenting with video regularly since releasing his first work Open Air in 2006, which gave viewers an inside-look at studio life and the creative spirit while profiling Brooklyn street artists Faile, Dan Witz, and Skewville, as well as Espo, Mike DeFeo and Tiki Jay One.  The artistic process is what drives the narrative for this life-long devotee of art and Lou broadened his scope to shoot his first feature length documentary, Day in the Life released two years later in November 2008.  In addition to developing an “evolving canvas” project known as Concious Cycle, Auguste currently spends his time between London and New York, where he is gearing up to produce his first feature film.

NohJColey

Mere days after the installation, the owner decided he didn’t like the new mural and it was being literally torched by a couple of guys. They paused momentarily while photographer Jaime Rojo got some shots. (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey

That may look like a hair dryer, which could be why he aimed it at their heads first?  (NohJColey) (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey

NohJColey (Detail) (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

 

NohJColey (detail)

Hand cut gates and chains (NohJColey) (detail) (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

Just last week NohJ reprised the Sprayed N Stone series inside a gallery setting for the BKMIA show in Miami Beach (part of Art Basel).  In the full wall installation, NohJ very nearly re-created the New York City disarray that accompanies blighted parts of the city with found wood, metal, and disgarded street signs.

A more literal example of the street coming inside than one may usually expect from an Ad Hoc curated show, and that' saying a lot! (photo ©Jim Kiernan)

A more literal example of the street coming inside than one may usually expect from an Ad Hoc curated show, and that’ saying a lot! (photo ©Jim Kiernan)

In addition to the BKMIA show indoors he managed to pull off 3 murals outside too.  In the artist’s tradition, street art veteran Logan Hicks reached out to the promising new dude and hooked him up with a very cool Primary Flight location surrounded by overgrowth and vines.  NohJ killed it with portrait of a reflective musician holding her violin.

kjhg

“Logan referred me to Slow and Slow gave me and amazing spot,” says NohJ. The piece is called “Th3 Violinist annd h3r Window of Opportunity” (NohJColey)

“Then Gaia gave me a call (with an offer) while I was working on an installation.  I really wanted to paint this picture I had read an article about, so I dropped eveything and went to paint! ”

sdfg

When you work on the street, you can expect to meet just about anybody.  This guy insisted that NohJ take his portrait. ” He was just walking around and noticed the camera and became adamant about being in the shot,” says NohJ.  This painting for the “Art Whino” show is called “3y3’ll l3ad you”, by NohJColey

Finally, a guy named Max, owner of AE District, approached NohJ to do a mural for him, so of course the hungry artist obliged by doing this piece of an older lady and a church.

fghj

The contrast between more formal subject matter and the dripping graff-inspired running of paint somehow makes my head hurt with hard thoughts.  Where are the damn academics when I need them?? This one is called “o!p!p!”, which does not help matters, in all honesty.

Finally when he got back to NYC 7 lbs. slimmer (I told you he was hungry), NohJ told Brooklyn Street Art a little more about his Miami experience;

Brooklyn Street Art: These images – are they people you have known, or just people in your imagination?
NohJColey:
These images are not of anyone I have known in this lifetime. All the murals I painted in Miami are all images that visually grab me.

Brooklyn Street Art: How many days did you spend painting these?
NohJColey:
I did a little bit of each mural over the course of three days.

Brooklyn Street Art: Did people come up and talk to you, and what did they say?
NohJColey:
For the most part everyone wanted to know where I was from. Some people actually want to know what the piece is about or who is the person that I was painting.

Brooklyn Street Art: How would you describe the vibe on the street in that part of Miami?
NohJColey:
Miami in general is a great place to work. Everyone is pretty much supportive of the whole beautifying public space idea.


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“A Cry For Help” at Thinkspace Gallery (LA)

‘A Cry For Help’
A benefit show for the endangered species of the world presented by Born Free USA & the Animal Protection Institute

Opening Reception: Fri, Jan. 8th 7-11PM

January 8th – February 5th, 2010

20% of all proceeds will be donated to Born Free USA

This special exhibit will feature an installation from Bumblebee as well as a group show featuring the works of over 100 artists (full list is below).

(Los Angeles, CA) Thinkspace is proud to present “A Cry For Help,” a benefit exhibition with the goal of raising awareness about the plight of animals in our modern world. Featuring more than 100 artists who represent every branch of the new contemporary scene, this show has been curated with an eye to representing the unique and innovative attributes of a select group of seasoned veterans and fresh-eyed newcomers from five continents. In keeping with the benefit’s mission, each artist will explore different facets of our complicated relationship with the creatures with whom we share this planet.

Though we live in the city, animals exist all around us – they sleep in our beds, creep past our windows at night and visit us in our dreams. Symbolizing all that is free, unspoiled and elemental in the world, they also comfort us with guileless affection, amuse us with their playful abandon, and represent us metaphorically in a million works of art and literature. In every niche of the new contemporary scene, artists have employed animals to envisage concepts ranging from the wonder of childhood to the death of nature, while exploiting an ever-widening array of aesthetics, from surreal naturalism to street fables, apocalyptic visions to modern mythology, uncanny allegories to sylvan dreamscapes.

In celebration of the magnificent creatures with whom we share the planet, Thinkspace will donate 20% of the sale price of each piece of art to Born Free USA and the Animal Protection Institute, which operate jointly as a non-profit organization that advocates worldwide for the ethical treatment and protection of animals, and also maintains a large sanctuary for rescued primates. Throughout the month, the gallery will host pet adoptions, slide shows, lectures and more. The world can indeed be changed through random individual acts of kindness, so please don’t miss this opportunity to kick off the New Year with a good deed, as well as a great piece of art.

ARTISTS TAKING PART INCLUDE:

Acorn

Allison Sommers

Amy Sol

Andrea Offermann

Andrew Hem

Angry Woebots

Anthony Clarkson

Anthony Ausgang

Apak

Ashira Siegel

Ben Strawn

Bradley Delay

Buff Monster

Bumblebee

Catherine Brooks

Charlie Immer

Chet Zar

Chris Murray

Craig ‘Skibs’ Barker

Dabs Myla

Dan May

Dan Quintana

Dan-ah Kim

David MacDowell

Dennis Hayes IV

Derek Ihnat

Dolan Geiman

Edwin Ushiro

Ekundayo

ELBOW-TOE

Elisabeth Timpone

Eric Nyquist

Erik Siador

Faith 47

Gaia

Genevive Zacconi

Germs

Ghostpatrol

Guy McKinley

Heiko Mueller

Imminent Disaster

J. Shea (#9)

Jacub Gagnon

Janet Grey

Jason Limon

Jason Thielke

Jen Lobo

Jennybird Alcantara

Jesse Hotchkiss

Jim Darling

Joao Ruas

Joseph McSween (aka 2H)

John Park

Joshua Mays

Josie Morway

Katelyn Alain

Kathleen Lolley

Kelly McKernan

Kelly Vivanco

Kevin Earl Taylor

Kevin Titzer

KMNDZ

Kris Lewis

Leontine Greenberg

Lesley Reppeteaux

Liz Brizzi

Liz McGrath

Luke Kopycinski

Mari Inukai

Martin Wittfooth

Mear One

Michael Pukac

Mike Brown

Moki

Molly Crabapple

Nathan DeYoung

Nimit Malavia

Nouar

Paul Barnes

Peter Taylor

Raquel Aparicio

Rebecca Hahn

Renee French

Rob Sato

Rory Kurtz

Sarah Joncas

Scott Belcastro

Scott G. Brooks

Scott Radke

Tadaomi Shibuya

Tessar Lo

Timothy Karpinski

Tina Darling

Tran Nguyen

Travis Louie

Van Arno

Wesley Burt

Yoskay Yamamoto

Yosuke Ueno

Born Free USA

http://www.bornfreeusa.org/

Born Free USA is a national animal advocacy nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, contributions to which are tax-deductible.

Born Free’s mission is to end the suffering of wild animals in captivity, rescue individual animals in need, protect wildlife — including highly endangered species — in their natural habitats, and encourage compassionate conservation globally.

Every year, millions of animals suffer in fur farms and circus cages. In our campaigns against such cruelties, we use powerful tools including legislation, public education, litigation, and grassroots networking. We also work actively with media to spread the word about challenges facing animals.

The Born Free Foundation was initiated in England in 1984 by Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, the stars of the legendary film Born Free, along with their son Will. Having been deeply influenced by their time spent in Kenya, Bill and Virginia were inspired to act after the tragic and untimely death of Pole Pole, an elephant featured in the film An Elephant Called Slowly, who was sent to the London Zoo from the Government of Kenya after the making of the film.

In the subsequent two decades, Born Free has become an international force in wildlife conservation and animal protection, campaigning to save elephants, big cats, wolves, dolphins, bears, primates, and numerous other species. Born Free upholds a dynamic presence in international animal rescues, saving animals from miserable conditions, rehabilitating them, and either providing for their lifetime care in a sanctuary or, whenever possible, rehoming them to the wild.

A companion organization was established in the United States in 2002, Born Free USA, to carry on the work of the organization, involving the American public in our compassionate conservation campaigns. Born Free USA launched with a national office in Washington, DC.

Born Free is committed to spreading its brand of compassionate conservation across America and, indeed, across the globe. Our shared institutional mission is to alleviate animal suffering, protect threatened and endangered species in the wild, and encourage everyone to treat wildlife everywhere with respect and compassion.

Animal Protection Institute

Co-founded in 1968 by Belton Mouras and Ken Guerrero, the Animal Protection Institute (API) was one of just a handful of national humane organizations in existence. The early years were lean for API and the organization made good use of free media such as radio PSAs to get the word out about its mission to protect animals. These PSAs contributed greatly to name recognition, generated an enormous amount of requests for additional information, and aided in fundraising efforts.

By 1971, API was producing what became the annual Forum conference in cities across the country that featured keynote speakers instrumental to the growth of the animal welfare movement as well as promoting and publicizing the works of fellow animal organizations.

API was a forerunner in protesting the clubbing of the harp seals in Canada. Through constant petitions, API helped bring the Canadian government to an awareness of the tremendous international outcry against this barbarity. It was obvious that API was winning when in 1977 two staff members were briefly arrested for getting near enough to the seal hunt to photograph the skinning of live seals, a practice previously disputed.

Other well-known campaigns included our work on a federal anti-trapping bill as well as our work with Velma B. (“Wild Horse Annie”) Johnston. Velma had been championing the rights of wild horses for nearly twenty years when API named her as its Advisor for Mustangs and Burros. API gladly helped finance her fight, and the early Mainstreams (as Animal Issues was then called) are filled with inspiring stories of her ongoing struggle. Velma passed away in 1977 (just when she had accepted nomination to API’s Board of Directors). API continued to fight for the kind of cause she believed in, although its focus moved to other issues.

That front-line visibility diminished somewhat in the 1980s as the API moved more discreetly into the background, choosing to focus on educating people through campaigns and publications. API did not rest on its past victories. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, the price of animal freedom is eternal vigilance. Some battles have to be fought over and over again, even after they’ve been won. And so API returned to the front lines, taking a leading role in the struggle for animal rights.

On January 1, 2000, the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary merged into the API family, to be renamed the API Primate Sanctuary in June 2003 and now called the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary. Located about 90 miles south of San Antonio, Texas, the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary provides a truly free-range environment with minimal human interference for more than 500 rescued macaques, vervets, and baboons.

Forty years of fighting animal abuse and exploitation have given us tools that work. Whether we use the courts, the legislatures, the ballot box … engage our nationwide team of grassroots activists at the community level … work closely with individual advocates … form coalitions with other national or state animal advocacy groups … or use our position as a major media resource to focus national attention on the abuse of animals anywhere and everywhere … we continue to get the job done.

About Thinkspace Gallery:

Established in November of 2005, Thinkspace exists as a catalyst for the ever expanding new contemporary art movement that is exploding forth from the streets and art schools the world over. We are here to help represent this new generation of artists, to provide them that home base and to aid them in building the right awareness and collector base necessary for long-term growth.

Our aim is to help these new talents shine and to provide them a gallery setting in which to prove themselves. It is our hope and dream that through these opportunities these individuals will prosper and continue to grow to amaze us all for years to come. With the love of and for our community, and with the talents of so many incredible artists involved, we believe that this movement will provide the necessary proving ground for the ideas and dreams of today to become the foundations of a new tomorrow.

Thinkspace Gallery is located at 4210 Santa Monica Blvd (near Sunset Junction), in the Silver Lake area, Los Angeles, CA 90029. Gallery hours are Thursday thru Sunday, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment. For more information, please call 323.913.3375, visit www.thinkspacegallery.com, or email contact@sourharvest.com.

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