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"Punishment or Luxury? Artist Statement

Punishment or Luxury? is both an art show and a release party,I've been doing a lot of limited edition Design Objects in the past couple years and its great to have a bunch of them coming out around the same time.I've worked really hard with some great companies to present the work to you in this show. Punishment or Luxury?is first meant to be a good natured poke at myself but it's also an observation on the level of hyper marketing that goes on in our subculture(s).

I'm not talking about the same marketing that gets all the street artists pissed,mind you..Its the level of marketing that goes on in our own ""sub""culture(s).Everyone is hawking a ""Movement""nowadays,be it Street Art,Toys,Street Wear,Urban Art,Magazines,Sneakers,Websites,and they're all run by us. This show isn't meant to call out other artists or magazines for ""selling out"",far from it.I'm all about letting people do whatever the hell they want.I wanted to do my bird Char in sterling silver with diamond poops for Christ sake.It's just a call to take notice that the ""underground""is just as full of hype as the ""mainstream"".What you do with that is up to you.

A lot of what the visual treatment of Punishment or Luxury?'s logotype is based on is the marketing of our subculture(s)to the ""outside world"".I specifically chose Crass'visual style to ""clean up""as its instantly recognizable as a ""rebellious look""even if you're not familiar with the band.If you are familiar with them,using their iconography to market high end Design Objects hopefully becomes even more offensive or funny depending on your take.

Punishment or Luxury? is also part of my way of processing my own transition from doing ""pure""work in Street Art,to making ""commercial products""with Char on them.There's a younger Punk Rock version of me on my shoulder that's always saying ""You're a fucking Sell Out!"".I invariably tell him to shut the fuck up because he was obnoxious then,and even worse now.Even with all my inner turmoil about going ""Pop""I am having the time of my fucking life.

Doing an artist series of skateboards was a long abandoned dream not too long ago.To be able to work with the True Love Collective on my first Artist Series skateboards,has been a great experience.The first two boards in the series,""True Love Always""and ""True Love Almost"",(100 of each design)are available here at the show along with a Punishment or Luxury?deck made specifically for this event (10 in silver,10 in gold).

The opportunity to work with Random Nature came through a hook up from my friend,uis.At the time,the thought of making a Char necklace was completely out there and I kinda threw out the an idea that I was sure they'd deny.Sterling silver Char pendant with diamond poops.Luckily,Random Nature came back with an emphatic yes and one upped me with the suggestion to use black diamonds for Char's stooly deposits.They also suggested that we go the whole 9 yards and present the package in a foil stamped box and a silver foil letterpress print.This is by far the freshest single piece of work that I've ever designed and it's a collaboration in the truest sense of the word.

The tee shirts released at this show are special there's only a dozen of each colorway available.6 designs and 6 dozen tees.The ""P.O.P.*Art *(Point.Of.Purchase)""series is going to be an open edition"