God knows. Doesn't he?

 Praise the lord, he has, once again, blessed me with his holy rays of inspiration!
Seriously, there is a lot I have to tell you about. This just may contain – 2 stencil ideas, 1 graffiti poem and a lot of personal crap. All in one little Boring Leaflet Of Graffiti post.

 If you follow me on twitter and flickr, you probably have already seen this. 2 completely new stencils, describing the modern world.

 The first one was finished about a week ago, but sadly, there wasn’t any free time on my busy schedule to make a proper studio flick. I’m talking about my “Capital punishments for everybody” stencil.

 There are so many things that are illegal, so many things that are considered evil and inappropriate. Everything has been put into stiff Law moulds, they prevent us from doing so much... But the human nature is a bit tricky. We all find the illegal stuff much more appealing than the crap that everybody does. We like everything that’s unusual, we try to stand out in the crowd by doing something “cool”... And here’s the perfect chance. All you have to do, is read this one line and instantly become a rebel, a fighter against corruption, warrior for freedom of thought and word.

[Any capital punishments done are none of [BLI:P]’s responsibility]

 The second piece is a bit different from my usual crap. This time, more cynical than ever, I try to point out the depression and the loss of any enthusiasm in people’s minds. Everything has lost it’s true colours, everything is boring and each little problem has become so huge, that nobody has the will or the courage to do anything. The WHOLE thing is horrible. And there is completely nothing we can do about it.

 Okay, those were my pieces, now comes the unusual content. I started trying out any poetry related stuff in October. I wrote a lot of stuff in Latvian, and surprisingly, I was delighted with most of it. A mate of mine encouraged me through the way, so I continued my journey through space and time. This is my first Graffiti poem of all time. In English. It's coming next Thursday, I don't have the required acetate right now.

And now, lets get a bit more personal. As you have read in my previous B.L.O.G. posts, last 3 weeks were really, really busy for me. It’s the end of the first semester, so I had a lot of studying to do. A lot of studying. I had to work ‘til eight o clock and then it was too dark to spray anything, so all Graffiti stuff was temporarily canceled.
Now, the problems are starting to unwrap themselves. I finally get my two weeks of complete nothingness, great 14 days to get away from it all with art. I’ll try to get a few cans of Mtn94 and a few sheets of acetate, so I could spend all of my free time on stencils.

The only problem might be the weather. Winters are considered to be cold in Latvia, the temperature often falls below zero and it’s completely normal. This year, we get -15 degrees (Celsius) every morning and about –10 degrees all day long. Not a good time to run around the city, trying to unclog your caps, that have frozen over by the time you have passed from one spot to another, so there probably wont be any city pieces this winter. It’s a bloody snowstorm and it’s freezing outside. All the time. So until February, I’ll base my work in my studio.

Ok, that’s it for today. I have to get back to my important last studies.

Farewell!

Sincerely yours,

[BLI:P]

Updates? Whe don’t want any....

Rays of Riga. It is such a pity, that I didn’t go there this year...
I know I promised you, but there are a few reasonable reasons (Is there even such a thing?).
First – The bad weather. Everything was soaked and I couldn't have posted those pieces smoothly.
And second – I didn’t find a single really good spot. There were a lot of great installations and other illusions, but nothing that would support my weird needs (The only one was on top of a bridge, that went over a canal and I found it impossible to lean over there without suspicion from the police members that are always patrolling there). There was this 3D projection for a whole bunch of stuff on the National Opera, but my piece would simply be invisible there. And it would be inappropriate.
But now, let's get to more interesting stuff. These two weeks have been great. Laziness and poetry. Yes, I have started trying out my luck in this legendary skill and I’d lie, If said, that I feel disappointment. Actually, I really enjoy it. It’s a fun thing as pinching for rhymes and meaningful lines (Intentional) gives me peace of mind. It’s a great way to put out your emotions and the best way to spend the bus-time everyday. This might be bad news for some of my international readers, as almost everything that I write is in Latvian.
And because of that, for these two weeks I have left stencils aside. I know that this is a stencil-graffiti blog and making them was what this whole thing was all about, but other real life things have overcome my mind. So don't expect anything from me for at least a week more.
But, of course, that doesn’t mean, that I’m taking a break from idea generating. It’s all up there, turning and spinning, bringing the best of my subconscious crap to you. Just wait a week, I’ll force my self to work with those stencils physically and make a lot of action shots in the snowy daylight.
The snow really has come onto us. It’s finally winter in Latvia, bringing the best things to me through emotions. I’m not promising anything, but there might be a Christmas or winter related stencil up on my gallery. I’m already begging for ideas.

I think that’s it, these were the things, that I really had to tell you, so I should better sign off, the rats are eating my acetate.

Sincerely yours,

[Bli:p]

Quite updated...

Again, nothing so big, just a plain review of the past week and other reg. stuff.

So, this week has been really inspirational, but completely lazy for me.

This is mostly because of my complete laziness and the breakdown of my only computer. I planned to finish at least 2 more stencil pieces at the city, get the new idea for stencils down, and finish the first promo for the Tees collection. Didn’t do ANY of it.  Next Tuesday, the computer is back on track. I’ll probably go get that acetate  Tuesday, and make a lot of unfinished  stencil ideas. Some of them have already appeared on Twitter and SR, so if you’ve followed me quite closely, you should’ve seen almost all of them.

If you haven’t, I  can sneak peek you right now.

Those are two poems from me, entitled „Light of speed” and  „Affection”. First graffiti poems for me, so they’re definitely going to transform into acetate.

Also, a few of text stencils, such as a work discussing banality and one pointing out the lie full speed of light and a lot more.(Yes, I know. I am slightly obsessed with Physics right now, but it helps, when generating ideas.)

The only thing I actually did this inter-blog moment, was a fresh ”Piece” at the city.

It was the 'Illusionary', sprayed it in the fountain at the local park. It was mid-day when we finished it and it was quite funny. All of people coming, looking at us, not getting why are we sitting by a dry fountain and why did I just drop a piece of paper in there.

 Of course, the fountains are off right now, It’s getting colder, so the photo time is only next march. The good news are that it won’t get cleaned off for a long, long time. Who would get into a fountain to brush off an unbrushable Mtn94?

And if we talk about the winter knocking on our doors, there are a few good news for you. Annually, this time of the year is the stencil season for me. As it’s too cold to ride the board outside, I usually stay inside generating and completing ideas, so this winter, there are going to be a lot of new and completely different updates. (Including those tees.)

But the main, main news today, are a completely wonderful opportunity for me this winter. Every single year, there is a pretty huge ‘exhibition’ in the city. It’s called – Rays of Riga. (I don’t even have a clue, what could the title be in English) The whole point are the installations of different light illusions, light beams and rays shooting out of impossible places. It’s actually pretty good, as it’s throughout the whole city and completely free.

But here’s the good part. This year, the main theme of the whole thing is „Optical illusions”. Now how lucky is that?

It wasn’t intentional. My idea of ‘Illusionary’ stencil came to me related with a completely different thing and when it did, the main theme of ‘Rays of Riga’ wasn’t  announced yet.

But it doesn’t really matter. The thing is, that in the October 27th(..? I don’t really know the actual date) I’ll be going around the city, looking like an average artist fixing his installation, just spraying Life’s an optical illusion on some ‘beamed’ spots.

A lot of action shots from that place, I promise you!

So, stay tuned, get ready for some new flickr’s (Maybe an action shot, as next Wednesday is a ‘city’ day) and don’t forget to follow me right here, on twitter and friend (meant as a Verb ;) me on SR!

Cheers,
[Bli:p]

New idea package (#2 + #3)

The 2 new package of tee designs are here. Similar AND different.
It could be completely destructive, as well as encouraging for all of you. It could easily lead to depression and sleepless nights.
Some people say, that it’s necessary for an achievement of any kind. Some people say, that it only destroys.
It may be “public acceptance” or “people’s reaction” for some, but deep down it is still this banal, over-used word.
Now on 2 (more coming soon) tees!

Tee #2!

Tee #3!

Just a sidenote on the third tee - Tired of Ironing your clothes? Now you have a proper reason.

More tees coming soon!

Cheers.

The Tee design-athlon has begun + The idea Number 1!

 The new Tee design is here! As promised, first of the many, this one has come pretty early... The marathon should have started only next week, but a completely astonishing idea struck my mind. Enjoy!

The biggest problem of most clothes shops in world, is inacceptance. They don’t care about people, who are smaller than the reagular S, really smaller than the regular S or just a part of the almost extinct community of punks... So, I decided to finally change the social attitude and design a t-shirt just for them!

The new Shirt design consists of 6 cutting lines, that determine how small you want your tee to be.

 XS, XXS, XXXS, Punks not dead, Baby Small and a special add-on Wife-beater, that you can add to any size selected.

Confused? Check out the October post "Week ful o' ideas" for a proper explanation here.

Stay tuned for many more, 

Cheers, [BLI:P]

Week full o' ideas!

This time, I just want to give a quick update on what has happened over the past week, what new works I have made and the new Web features I have added to my Net-Persona a.k.a. Mr. [BLI:P].

First – I have opened a Flickr page. From now on, there’s going to be a new package of photos every week. I’ll try to include a new studio work and a new artwork on the street + an action shot of me pasting it. So, if you want to get that almost every 7 days, you should follow me on twitter right here. It is the fastest way to receive quick updates from me.

Second – there’s a new stencil on my Flickr page. If you haven’t seen it yet, feel free to do that here. It’s one of my “old” stencils, that has been renovated in a different design.  If you ask me about the meaning of these 4 lines, I have to quote the first artist, that saw it as a sketch - “These days art is all about counting pixels? Is that what you’re saying?” But feel completely free to judge the meaning yourself.

Third -  There’s a new idea coming tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. It’s a simple message using opposites. This time, closer than ever.

The idea consists of two stencils.

The first one can be seen at the upper left corner of this main page. The second part – Boring’s the new interesting.

They’re going to be sprayed in the city during this or the following week, so stay tuned.

And finally, Fourth – I have decided to design Tees. It’s just an idea right now, there’s still a lot of thinking, buying, testing, painting and sketching to do, but I promise, that there are going to be three new designs posted here, by the end of November.

I haven’t decided exactly what I’m pasting on the Tees... It might be an old stencil idea, it might be a completely new one or even a picture of some sort.

All of the funny, catchy and interesting ideas, that’ll burst into my mind for the next week are going to be pasted here, allowing You to see the action extra close.

The three best ones are going on my shirts. I’ll wear them for a week, deciding which is the most comfortable. ;)
I’m really eager to see, how this turns out.

So that’s it for this time, hope you enjoyed the latest reviews from [Bli:p]...

Cheers.

Eureka of Creativity

Every now and then, every artist or somebody who has a profession of somehow being creative, stumbles over this one problem.

The creation of ideas.

Of course, I, as a stand-up graffiti artist, get affected by this problem all the time. As I haven’t found the grip for my works, I can’t base my ideas ib one direction. Every time I generate ideas, I have to find something completely new, that satisfies myself and might somehow relate to everybody.

Lucky for me, one late September night, I managed to find the key of Creativity and the key for completely  astonishing ideas every time.

And lucky for you, I’m here to share it with you.

 So, you start off by learning this. Every single thing, that’s somehow catchy or original comes from being an opposite. It’s something, that’s not usual, something that you don’t get exposed to every day, or something that is completely impossible.
 And here is what you have to do, to achieve astonishing ideas.

 Pick something that’s completely random. A tree, a chair, a cup, a paper sheet, anything will do.

Then, you have to relate it with the action or thing that you usually see it with. Like, a person sitting on a chair, a cup with tea, person writing on a paper sheet, etc.

So, once you’ve got that, opposite it. For instance, replace the person with a monkey, or  fill the cup with acid. (It’s completely abstract, please don’t fill your cups with acid.) That’s the base you’ll be changing and re-arranging for quite some time.

Now, you have to change the whole idea, so it could be attractive to people. (Change the action or the thing that you opposite-ed)

You don’t wan’t it to be usual, so don’t make it really close a normal action or thing, but don’t go too far, or it’ll just look silly. Try to find the right thing, that might somehow attract everybody, or just a certain group of people.

If you stumble at this part, let me suggest a few things.

If it’s a urban, usual society, try such wide themes as Life, Art, Death, something Global, like Homelessness or global warming etc. etc. Try to talk in general terms. Don’t go too detailed, or it’ll be too hard to understand.

If it’s a general group of people, go exactly the same, just try to use something, that’s close to them. For example, if it’s a group of musicians, just try to do something, that’s related with musical instruments and so on. It’ll make them feel special, while still being interested in the whole thing.

And that’s it! By now, you should be finished with a good idea, just go out there and complete it visually.

Hope this helps!

Cheers, [Bli:p]

False Pursuit

Last night, I went out with a few of my mates to paint some suburbian bus stops.

 It was about ten o’clock, when we finally got out of the house. Pretty early for a casual painting trip, but the location seemed to be harmless, so we had no fear of some local citizens or other casualties. This time, I picked my “Attentional” stencil, as I like to call it.

Check out the pictures of the final piece and the Studio work in the links below.

As almost always, Word based, and as almost always, a message using the opposites. (I think I’ll be posting a topic about this eureka of mine.)

So, when we got in the first stop it was about thirty to 11 .

It was based near a small forest and a 3 line  “highway”. I started to paste, my mates looking for any buses or cops showing up.

Went completely fine, although some guys walked by us when i started to paste, but they didn’t seem to care.

So, next stop was pretty near by, just a hundred meters on the other side of the road. Great spot, there were always tourists trying to hitchike cars.

I started pasting, my idea was to paint the 4 base stencils first, then adding the smaller tags. I finished the 4th base, when a bus appeared. We all ran into the forest and waited for a few seconds ‘til the bus would leave.

It left and I busted out my Tag, so it could be finished.

It was the 3rd tag, when one of my mates shouted: “Police”!

And really, there it was. Just on the opposite lane, stopped at a junction, trying to turn around.

In my mind I took my chances. I finished the 4th tag and ran.

My mates were already lost in the dark, I ran right by the road for a hundred meters, then got, that I could easily hide in the forest.

I took a hard right and ran over a hill. Then, ducked and listened.

The Police car had dissapeared. I had no idea why, maybe they didn’t spot us, maybe they just understood, that there’s no way of catching us. (Luckily for us, the street lights had been turned off for the next kilometer, just leaving the junctions and the bus stops lighted.)

So I crawled out and ran by the road, just until I reunited with my mates and then split up again. To go home.

It was a bit too dangereous to appear in the same area again, those cops could be anywhere by now, even if we just tried to get on a bus and reach our next spot.

 For the review, I can say, that that was one of the fun trips I have ever had.

Taking place in an imaginary pursuit, can give you as much as adrenaline and fun as you wan’t.

If you want to check out the artwork in the Real World, here’s the exact location.

1st work –

Bauskas Highway, the stop is called Baložu Pagrieziens and is on the route of 23rd bus Abrenes iela-Baloži.

Latvia, Riga, of course.

2nd work.

Bauskas Highway, the stop is called Baložu Pagrieziens, but it’s on the route of 26th bus Abrenes iela – Ķekava.

Latvia, Riga, of course.

For other news, I have finally opened my twitter page – www.Twitter.com/MyNameIsBleep . Follow me, for some quick news and things I have found on the web.

Also, you should check out this site – www.stencilrevolution.com . It’s a great place, a lot of creative people showing their work and exchanging reviews and artworks.

Im there too, (I’m BLEEP)...

 http://yfrog.com/4xpictures003zj

http://yfrog.com/jbpictures004j 

P.S. This artwork is going to be reproducced into a completely new idea really soon. Stay tuned! ;)

Just for Starters

The very first blog of the series, introducing the yet-to-be-known street artist [Bli:p].
 I live in Riga, Latvia. It’s a small, beautiful place to live and stencil in – there aren’t many stencil artists here, but I believe there is a lot of hidden talent within many people here. The one thing I love the most in this city are the hot, dry summers and the really great people – nobody seems to give a fuck about you stencilling. I’ve pasted few stencils in broad daylight in parks and fountains and people never seemed to care or even notice me. I thank you for that, my fellow citizens.

 I believe the thing that dragged me into stencilling was one of my friends. It was back at fifth grade. We used to buy these permanent ink markers and fill our school notebooks with silly little tags, that were really just shortened names. My friends used to call himself Maro, my name was Patr. That was the moment [Bli:p] was born.

 As time passed, I found myself more and more interested into tagging, I loved the idea of throw-ups,  although back then I didn’t really know what a throw-up was. I couldn’t really draw and I had no idea of the techniques of spray painting, my first can was spent on the back of my parents garage, dripping it all, leaving my hands and clothes pitch black. It was a tough, but a very interesting start for me, it was something new and never-before experienced. Then came the two things that changed the way i looked at graffiti. The first one was a computer game of graffiti. That was the way I learned the many, many ways of street art. At the time, I didn’t see stencils would change my life forever.

 Few months later, my mother, who had grew more and more suspicious over me spraying my hands black all the time, bought me my first graffiti book. It was about the stencil artist Banksy. Back then he was not so well-known as now, but the works were as simply brilliant as nowadays I believe that made me do stencils, I really loved the idea of saying funny things, while still pointing out something that really mattered in this very simple, but beautiful way. A few weeks after that I changed my name for the second time. I became Splat, a bit more experienced artist.

 Splat was a long-lasting name for me, as I lost interest in urban art for a few years. Maro had stopped doing graffiti way back for good. I had nobody to talk about it, I had no new ideas to work on. The life of Splat ended as fast as it started – there were a few ironical stencils and tags, until it finally died a very sad, temporary death.

 Splat reincarnated with the appearance of the newborn street artist I got to know few years back. We became really close friends as the interest of street art was something very unusual in the city we lived (still live) in. Sure, we had many graffiti legends, but there were no stencil pieces, no wheat pasted stuff, all we had were throw-ups done in the best way possible. He was stencilling too, by the way. I believe that pushed me to start it all over again. I had somebody to share my ideas with and many new, interesting thoughts.

 That winter I started making small, one coloured animal stencils. I still have them somewhere, I had made a whole bunch of them - two swallows, a small deer antler, a rabbit, lady GaGa etc. I had produced almost every available CD artwork of my computer into a stencil. That was the training track for me. My skills grew with each artwork I did, they became more and more complicated, when one day I got the idea of the clapperboard piece, something I’m still proud of. It took me almost a week to produce, I couldn’t really see how to make it or what thoughts I was putting in it. Once finished, I used to lie in bed at night, thinking of the work, not understanding shit of what it says, but deep inside feeling it was something good. The moment the stencil had been sprayed onto an OSB in the garden, was when [Bli:p] appeared. The name was a very tough one for me. It took me a while to actually find the right thing for me, as everything I could rely on was my inner sixth sense. I have three completely filled notebooks with names such as Teeth, Twat and many others. It was a late night epiphany, I was deadly tired, lying on the bed, twisting my mind around the many silly possibilities, when it finally came to me. Bleep back then. It was a great relief - back then I didn’t knew of the pain the visualisation of this name would cause. After three days work I decided to pronounce myself as [Bli:p], using a very simple and easy way to do it. I certainly didn’t know of the whole picture my later work would cause, when connected to the name I was making myself.

 I believe [Bli:p] is something very rebellious in it’s own right. I don’t know if it was meant like that, or was it just a subconscious trick, but the straight forward lines and the name made me a very different street artist from most of the painters in Riga. I both intentionally and unintentionally became a minimalist, pointing out problems in peoples’ lives and the society in a very clear and understandable way. After making my first stencil of the “dangers of stencilling” called “Hitler - a graffiti artist?”, I remember thinking “Damn, this got together well”. The way I wrote [Bli:p] connected with the read-only lines as well as with the messages I tried spread. It was a way of saying “I’m saying all I want to say, no government or public media can censor me”. From that moment it progressed instantly. So, many ideas I had, so many ways of expressing yourself, it actually got me really confused for a moment or two. But that passed with a new idea I had to write down, with every single spray I made. That was, that is, and that, for sure, will be fantastic. 

- [Bli:p]