R.I.P Leon Botha

Shocking news. South African Hip hop legend and painter; Leon Botha, has died. I have only gotton word of it now but apparently he passed away on Sunday at the age of 26, due to complications of his disease; Progeria. He is alleged to be have been the longest living example of a person with this condition, a disease that rapidly ages the human body.
I have only really scratched the surface of this beautiful human beings work and from what I have seen so far, he had some mad shit going down. Feeding a passion for martial arts, spirituality and philosophy Leon used the platforms of Hip hop and oil-painting to deliver his unique cosmic message. I am deeply saddened that I never got a chance to meet this extraordinary cat. Anyway I hope to blog some of this guys work and create more of an awareness around this very special individual, who probably mostly only associated with Die Antwoord's Ninja Video. For now you can check out his myspace and official website. Mad love.

Arabic Graffiti

So recently I've been taking an interest in 15th century Islamic arts, from the calligraphers to the miniaturists, its highly disciplined tradition of art that is far removed from the frivolous painters of the west at that point in history. I have also always been interested in graffiti as means of reinterpreting the urban landscape.
So finding this book, Arabic Graffiti(ISBN:978-3937946269) was a terrific find. Arabic by its very nature carries a distinct warrior-like ethos and how that relates to modern graffiti is something I'd defineately like to explore a bit more. It was Rammmellzee, the great american lingual alchemist, who devised the theory behind the "Wildstyle". He spoke in depth about the 'militarisation of the alphabet' in his theory of Gothic Futurism. Anyway I hope to blog a bit more about this book once I get hold of a copy.

P.S. The last picture, the "CTRL+ALT+DELETE" on the Palestinian wall isn't really arabic and falls within the genre intelligent/socially-concious street-art, but fuck it's a damn fine piece of graffiti.

SAMO/Jean Michel Basquiat Interview

SABER ONE: THE AMERICAN GRAFFITI ARTIST

years ago when I was still into graffiti I remember being blown away by SABER's wildstyles. The commitment that went into painting the LA river piece is insane, it took almost a full year, going and painting it everynight, busting his knees to create a the first piece of modern graffiti to be clearly visible from space. The only thing that comes close in my opinion is the Nazca lines in Peru, but that shit was alien-assisted anyway - another story for another day.
Looks like he's established himself as a credible painter, here he is doing his thing, just relishing the joys of painting, kinda makes me wanna get my act together and do some stuff.