Talking off the Wall Mag #4

Street art is like a bead of mercury, when you try to stamp it out in one spot it just pops up somewhere else. In the 1970s, as police harassed and chased NYC graffiti writers in a vain attempt to keep subway cars clear of graffiti, writers began looking for easier targets. Train cars that sat inert in yards waiting for their next destination were a popular choice. But unlike abandoned buildings train cars

eventually move, and luckily for graffiti writers down in South Florida in the mid 80’s a number of these traveling art pieces started making their way down the East Coast and all the way down to Miami. Suddenly local writers were directly exposed to the level of skill that was coming out of NYC. Miami writers now had these wonderfully illustrated train cars to inspire and challenge them. These train cars offered wider horizons and far larger canvases.

One of our local writers who is fond of painting trains is Atomik. Before he started painting trains he used to do an intricate wild style, but once he started painting freight trains he developed a simpler style to better fit the nature of these fast moving canvases. A complex style is hard to capture as it zooms by at 45 MPH, so the simpler and more iconic the writer’s style the more easily it will be recognized. Atomik’s iconic oranges are especially well suited for the rounded ends of tanker cars.

Painting trains is very different in other cities. In Atlanta it’s very easy to paint, there are trains everywhere. But in Los Angeles everything is burnt out, everyone is painting there. Here in Miami it’s pretty chill for the most part. There’s been a heavy scene of local writers painting trains in South Florida since the late 80s, early 90s. Some people have done hoppers, and grainers, but Atomik was the first writer in Miami to do a top to bottom, end to end, whole car in a box car and that got him a lot of props in the graffiti scene. So next time you’re stuck at a train crossing watching train car after endless train car pass by keep your eyes peeled and you just might catch one of Atomik’s pieces rolling by on its way out of town. ~ Sandro

STREET ART IS LIKE

Photo by Pascal Doytier

The one thing graffiti writers probably hate more than their work being tagged by other writers is graffiti removal by property owners - buffing. Jel Martinez, a born Miamian, has turned the frustrating experiences with buff into art by exploring buffing, removal, surface texture and the world of graffiti on canvas.

Inspired by his surroundings and graffiti writers’ work in the streets of Westchester and Hialeah, Martinez started sketching graffiti at the age of 11, envisioning his own pieces on walls across Miami. Especially the work of Quatro from BOM Crew and Meer from AIM Crew influenced Martinez early on and by 1989 he started his first pieces. Over the years Martinez developed his style, met other writers and kept practicing until he eventually joined the Inkheads Crew in 1994.

In 2008 Martinez entered the fine art world with his works based on his experiences as a graffiti writer. Through the buff he started to recreate parts of graffiti history and his personal life. Martinez’ focus on graffiti removal to tell his story is an unusual approach. The erasure shines the spotlight on the removed graffiti, traces of which remain visible, and presents a narrative of the street art experience from graffiti to removal and beyond.

In his art, Martinez assumes the role of three separate characters involved in said narrative: the construction worker who creates the wall, the vandal who defaces the property and the city employee who removes the graffiti. Through his multi-layered works, Martinez then reenacts the experience and observations, sharing a previously untold story full of memories.

Explains Martinez, “I think I was first interested or really introduced to the removal or buffs in 1994 when the Summit Of The America’s was held in Miami, Florida. It was the year that I had the most pieces running. The streets of Miami were completely cleaned up and the buff was everywhere. That was a drastic moment for me!”

Those drastic moments now inform the art of Jel Martinez, who continues to balance gallery work with street art, having worked with artists such as NUNCA, OsGemeos, Finok, Joe Grillo, Shie Moreno and Chris Mendoza. ~ Heike Dempster

EXPLORING THE BUFF

Photo by Robert Dempster

David De Fex is a local Miami street artist who establishes the deconstruction of modern society. He embodies the loss of culture and camaraderie that plagues our present day world by illustrating the corruption of the media. His art delves deep into the brain-washing that’s rendered in day to

day life.

People have become obsessed with technology, television, and mass media. We, as a civilization, have forgotten the values of morals and community. The integrity of “real life” has been replaced with constant celebrity gossip and the materialization of a society based on what you have and not who you are.

De Fex represents this demoralization in many of his pieces by depicting the figures of humans and animal with a bit of a twist. His trademark is normally people with televisions or radios for heads, exposing the obvious influence media and entertainment have on our lives.

De Fex says: ”I try to demonstrate the clear disconnect our generation has with each other and with the world. People now-a-days have a hard time communicating face to face, and instead depend on phones, computers and the internet. There is an addiction to social media and an incessant obligation to technology that has come between the sense of community and commonality that once existed normally”.

He cleverly and intelligently uses nude bodies to exhibit the lewd and crass idea of sex that is seen daily. It’s no longer what you are thinking that matters, since you are now controlled by the media. He also depicts men in suits thoughtlessly roaming, with no originality or individuality and uses ink and colorful paint to portray the contrast of people and the media that controls them. He brilliantly captures the downwards spiral that has overtaken the world.

De Fex’s aesthetics and use of detail bring life to his idea of a “brainwashed generation” with an incredulous loss of creativity and unorthodox conformity.The Hangar Gallery is proud to represent David De Fex in his journey through the Art Universe. ~ Hector Garcia

DAVID DE FEX ART

Photo by Hector Garcia

Thursday September 11th The Hangar Gallery Event• @ Treehouse Nightclub 323 23rd St, Miami Beach. • A variety of Artists represented by The Hangar will be painting live to the sounds of DJs spinning dance music. Every 2nd Thursday of the month from

9pm-12am

Friday September 12th Cauley Square Art Walk• Cauley Square, 22400 Old Dixie Hwy, Miami FL 33170. 7-11pm• Every 2nd Friday of the month, the studios and galleries of Cauley Square host an Art Walk filled with music and performances. Providing any artist a great venue to showcase their work.

Saturday September 13th Wynwood Art Walk Talking Off The Wall Rag Special Event @ The Hangar Gallery 2235 NW 2nd Ave Wynwood Arts

District• Local & international Artists represented by the Gallery and LIVE PAINTING by ATOMIK

ART | History - Miami Marine Stadium Fall Benefit Exhibit @ Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art 2239 NW 2nd Ave, Wynwood Arts District• Art by: Abstrk | Axel Void | DabsMyla | Elbow Toe | Evoca1 | HoxxoH | Logan Hicks | Ian Kuali’i | Joe Iurato | Luis Berros | Pixel Pancho | Risk | Rone | Stinkfish | Tatiana Suarez | Tristan Eaton

All Together Again • @ Wyn 317 Gallery 167 NW 25st Street, Wynwood Arts District

Saturday September 20th Downtown Hollywood Art Walk Hollywood Blvd./Harrison St. & Tyler St.• 3rd Saturday of every month 7-10pm

Bird Road Art Walk Experience Miami’s Art Scene• Conveniently Located Just East of the Palmetto Expressway (SR 826) & South of Bird Rd (SW 40th St), The Majority of the Studios Are Located off of SW 74 & SW 75 Ave, Miami 7-10pm Saturday September 27thFAT Village Art Walk North Andrews & NW 5th St, Fort Lauderdale 7/11pm

Flagler Village Art Walk @ MAC Fine Art Gallery, 833 NE 4th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale

Wednesday August 27th Last Call Comedy Show Hosted by Jessica Gross• Wynwood Brewing Co. 565 NW 24th St, Wynwood Arts District• Last Wednesday of every month at 8pm

Thursday August 28th BBAD Boynton Beach Art Walk• 408-422 West Industrial Ave, Boynton Beach• Providing Florida Artists in all disciplines a venue to showcase their talent and creativity• Every 4th Thursday of the month 6-11pm

Friday August 29th PureHoney Magazine 3 year Anniversary Party. Free Show! Roadkill Ghost Choir, Sweet Bronco, Plastic Pinks, Gravel Kings, The Alleys, JUDE., The Psymatics• Respectable Street 518 Clematis St, West Palm Beach

Saturday August 30th FAT Village Art Walk North Andrews & NW 5th St, Fort Lauderdale 7/11pm

Reach Guatemala 2014 @ C&I Studios, 541 NW 1st Ave, Fort Lauderdale

Flagler Village Art Walk @ MAC Fine Art Gallery, 833 NE 4th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale

Wednesday September 3rd Gringo Bingo • Wood Tavern 2531 NW 2nd Ave, Wynwood Arts District• 1st Wednesday of every month Starting

at 7pm

Thursday September 4th I’m in Miami Bitch!• Andrew Kaufman The Disappearing Street Art of Wynwood.• Leica Store, 372 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables @ 7pm

Friday September 5th The Downtown Miami Art Walk• McCormick Place, 111 SW 3rd St, Miami 1st Friday of the month – 6-10pm

Sunday September 7th Average Joe Sale• Yo Space 294 NE 62nd St, Little Haiti – 3-8pm • The whole idea behind these Average Joe sales is to make it possible for everyday people to be able to support their local artists by presenting art work in a laid back environment at affordable prices.

TALKING OFF THE WALLYour CommUNITY Street Artist’s Voice

FACEBOOK /talkingoffthewall

INSTAGRAM @talkingoffthewall

Masthead/Logo: ATOMIK

Poster: Artwork by ATOMIK

Ads & Events due by the 10th of each [email protected]

Cover Photo: Sunshyne ReelsConcept: Pascal Doytier

TOTW talented writers, amazing photographers, contributors, unconditional supporters, artists and friends:Christy Thompson, Heike Dempster, Clara Vanessa, Sandro Abate, Sean R Sullivan, Craig Ledermann, Bryan Levy, Robert Dempster, Robert William, Andrew Kaufman, Jonathan Delgado, Sunshyne Reels, Myra Wexler aka Yo Momma, Yuval & Lorie Ofir, Sookie & Maddie Endo, Justin Hamel, Yess Miakoda, Zoel Zupstar, David McCauley, Renda Writer, TMNK aka Nobody, Luis Valle, Able Gw, Ivan Roque, Chy Tea Shoulin, GG, Danny Ferrer, Kelo, Jorge Rodriguez, Subi Roberto, 2Square, Kazilla, The DOWW, Leza One, HecOne, Diana Contreras, Atomik, Elio Mercado, Trek6, Asek, Buddah Funk, Derek Wilson, Effis Art, Registered Artist, Rigo Leon, 8bitlexicon, Steven Reyes, Nate Dee, Sergio Quinonez, Krave Art, Luis Berros, Tee Davis, Jessica Schnur, Abstrk, Astre74, Gons, Ernesto Kunde, Jenny Perez, Danelle & Michele Pino, Barbara de Varona, Monique Lassooij, Yuhmi Collective, Aquarela Sabol, Sharif Salem, Ramzi Adek, James Brutus, Jay Bellicchi, Rolando Chang Barrero, Axel Void, Jake Cordero, Craig Oneil, Hector Garcia @ The Hangar, Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art, Nadia Desjardins, Stefanie Caro, Christopher Ian Macfarlane, Chor Boogie, Lee Hoechstetter and my children, Lucas, Maxence and Shayna.Special thanks to Steev Rullman & PureHoney Magazine for believing in TOTW and making it possible. Peace

WHEN & WHERE DID IT ALL STARTI’ve been painting since 1995. I got started in Miami, Fl. In a suburb known as Kendall, in a neighborhood known as Devon-Aire Villas #4 and I represent Dade County.

THE EVOLUTION OF YOUR ARTWhen I first started I was doing tags, just straight up vandalizing stuff. Writing my name on other people’s property. After that, I got into the more art side of things and putting

colors and shapes and composition, characters. I went to a magnet art

school in junior high school. So, I learned how to do shading, all sorts of different techniques and contrasts. After high school I went to school for graphic design; so there I learned layout and logo and vectoring and all sorts of graphics. And now what I do is a little bit more different than just letters and writing my name. I paint a character and that relates to people. The eyes lock in, you get eye contact with the character. There is a smile, so it is letting off a positive energy. So when people see my character it makes them feel a certain type of way and I’ve come a long way from just writing my name on other people’s property.

ORIGIN OF YOUR NAMEMy name is Adam, A D A M. So, my first tag that was given to me was A T O M, Atom. Then I saw there were a couple other Atom’s out there. One was published in the book, Spray Can Art, that is one of the bibles of graffiti so I obviously could not use that name. So I put an “i-k”, that’s when Atomik was born.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELFI consider myself an artist. Not necessarily a street artist, spray can artist, gallery artist, graphic artist. I’m an artist all together.

THE BIRTH OF YOUR CHARACTERThat character was born in 2007 when they demolished the Miami Orange Bowl in Little Havana. I used to go to that stadium and watch the Miami Hurricanes, the Miami Dolphins, the Killian Cougars play football. So I grew up watching football games in that stadium. So once they demolished it in replacement for a baseball field, I thought it was wrong. So I went out there and voiced my opinion and instead of having my orange with a smile, it actually had a frown. And had a tattoo tear, signifying that the Orange Bowl was murdered, it was killed. And had a chipped tooth in it, cuz I have a chipped tooth. I threw a spray can on there and some Nike’s, and shortly after that the Orange Bowl Committee sent me a cease and desist. I stopped using that graphic that I created and I generated my own version of it; which you see all around now.

Now, fast forward 7 years, its bigger than the Orange Bowl. The Orange Bowl is long gone, so now being that I’m born and raised here in Miami, in Florida, I represent this city. I represent this county and this state. So the state fruit is an orange. Where ever I go, whether it be Asia, Australia, Europe, South & Central America, Canada, where ever...I am representing where I come from. So, yes, it is bigger than the Orange Bowl at this point.

MOST INTERESTING PLACE FOR YOUR ARTI’d have to say the most interesting place that I’ve put my Orange is on the end of an oil tanker freight train. It fits perfectly, it’s a circle and it almost looks as if my character was made to be on that subject. So, it you look up my work. You will see so far I’ve painted 4 oil tankers with my Orange on the end of it. That will be my most interesting placement of my Orange. On a freight train.

ANY AFFILIATIONI’m down with TSC, which is Top Skillz Crew. I’m down with 28K, which is Vandalism in Progress. I’m down with Buck50. Recipes YNot, which is an original Broward crew. I’m down with Seeking Heaven from Los Angeles, the RIP YNot northeast side. And I am down with MSG, which is Miami Style Graffiti.

ARTWORK YOU WOULD LIKE TO OWNIf there were one piece that I would like to own, it would be an original Stay High 149. I got a print from him through, damn what is the name of that website?! It’s a p... There’s a website online that sells like a lot of the original graffiti writers from New York city and um I wish I could remember their name so I could plug them in the interview, but um... I bought a print of Stay High 149 and he was one of the fore founders of graffiti. He can be considered like the Grandfather of graffiti writing. He started in the 70’s and he laid down the program, the outline for what a graffiti writer should do. Not only did he have his tag with his letters and his numbers, but he also had a symbol. Which was a character smoking a joint with a halo, and he was one of the first - he was the first graffiti writer to incorporate a logo with his name. That’s very important to me now that I am pushing the Orange, it relates hand in hand that I have my letters, but I also have my Orange character. It would be Stay High 149, I would love to own an original Stay High 149 piece.

WHY IS STREET ART IMPORTANTI don’t think street art is important at all. I think writing your name is important because that is where it all started. You started with tagging your name on a train; very simple, one stroke. It developed into a masterpiece from there, putting outlines, background clouds, fill-ins, characters; and it became a masterpiece. Now, once the subway trains died, then we have it moved forward to murals on the street and people writing their name on the street. So then, through that, we have murals and stencils being painted. And um, that’s kind of what on the front page right now with street art, but there wouldn’t be street art without spray can art. So the importance lies in writing your name and people need to recognize that. It’s not about throwing all these little techniques, and little generated images - computer generated images, people are projecting stuff. It all starts with the hand, with the wrist, with being able to produce something naturally and sporadically, not planned out.

ANY SHOUT-OUTSYeah, I’d like to give a shout-out to my boy, Demos, from Vancouver, also to my brother Philip, rest in peace. My grandmothers, Mamie Lila and Mamie Ana, rest in peace. I’d like to give a shout-out to YNot, rest in peace, Sege, Beno and GB. All the writers that have come before me in Miami and have passed. And I’d like to give a shout-out to my lady, Emily, she is my number one supporter and I love her. This is Atomik, representing 305, PEACE.

ATOMIK

Photo by Pascal Doytier

Talking off the Wall Mag #4

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