Hawaii Graffiti

Ive been slacking!

2009-12-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

What's up guys?

Sorry, ive been out of the scene lately. I haven't posted anything new but ive still been doing my thing. I just have a lot of things going on right now which takes priority over taking pictures. But in time, I will be back.

If I don't update before the end of the year, I hope all has been well with everyone this year and hope our economy gets better in 2010. I'll be back to continue what I love doing, viewing art in its street form.

Happy holidays and as always.....Be Safe!

Michael Jackson Comes to Life

2009-07-13T01:49:00.001-07:00

Mural done by: Biest, Look, Prime (Honolulu, Hawaii 2009)

Most of us have already seen the Michael Jackson Tribute wall on South King Street. Passing by it today to get a better shot, I stumbled upon the wall and saw a guy leaning on the wall dressed in the black and white outfit that MJ wore during Billie Jean.

All of a sudden, I hear the words "ACTION!" and realized I stumbled upon a set for a short film. I moved out of the way quickly and watched.

"CUT!", and a car rolls by. The actor comes into the shade for a little bit to wait for the stop light to turn green and as soon as the coast was clear, he propped himself up on the wall and stood as a statue imitating MJ's pose on the wall.

There were five of us there. The actor, the kid, the camera man, a woman watching the whole thing unfold, and myself, and the occasional passers by.

I stayed and watch as they filmed take after take. I could not stay very long but I was able to catch some pictures of the days events. I cant reveal who was doing to filming without their permission, but all I know is that its going to be shown at some film festival in Chinatown this weekend. The short film is still untitled. I will update if and when I find the short film online.

Las Vegas Mural

2009-07-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

On my last visit to Vegas, I stumbled upon this large mural. I wasnt able to get the mural as a whole because there was a 40 foot container parked right in front of it. Anyway, I posted a reply in a Las Vegas Graffiti thread in hopes that some of the locals there can identify the crew or the people who painted it.

If you know who painted it, can you email me or leave me a message. Thanks.

Multiple Forums

2009-07-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

Funny thing that we "Hawaiians" do.

So I went online to see how many "forums" and sites that there are for Hawaii graffiti there are and theres actually a whole bunch of them. But the funny thing about all of them is that everyone posts the same thing on all the sites.

I can go to my site to look at pictures, then someone will "borrow" the picture and post it on another site, then someone else will borrow it and post it to another site.

Aren't you tired of seeing the same things on different sites?

Most of us know which sites im talking about but im not going to mention which ones. I just thought it was funny to see the same thing on 4-5 different places.

What do you think?

Twooooooooez

2009-07-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

(Click it to view the larger picture)

Many of you have heard or seen Twoez bomb on the H-1. Here's a flick if you havent seen it. Count em....76! That's right, 76 O's.

Interview with Aero

2009-06-19T16:07:00.001-07:00

Aero was on Oahu and rocked a couple of pieces while in town. Motorists can catch a view of his mural from the H-1. The mural is located at the Palama Settlement.

I was able to get a "mini-interview" from Aero and this is what he had to say.

1. What was your inspiration for your Palama piece?

The night before on Kauai i had a vision to paint me as King Kamehameha graff style holding out spray cans bringing the islands together. Honestly I had know idea but I found out it was King Kamehameha the next day, I had chicken skin and out of respect was going honor the day and keep it traditional.

So now the theme word changed and Palama was my next choice, due to signage permits not allowing direct marketing to the ongoing traffic. Mike a teacher at the settlement thought of Malama as a replacement word. The font style was a rough freestyle of something legible from the highway but not to simple.
The next thing I had to throw in there was a boat since my mission for this year is called “its about the journey”. The boat is leaving the islands and sailing away.

With Diamond Head in the background it made it an official Oahu coastline. It began to drizzle several times on me when I was completing it. In my eyes it was another sign to pack up and finish my work was done.

2. How long did it take you to paint that piece?

I had some support in the red and baby blue fills, but altogether a continuous 4 hours.
The speed rate is due to everything being at ground level and accessible without a ladder.

3. What do you do while you paint? Listen to music? What kind? Meditate?

While painting I found most music distracts unless it’s instrumental. Now bare with me I like to go where what some call the zone even when creating a quick piece. The state is some what of a mental meditation I guess. I visualize the image in my head and begin to move formatting sections and blocking out areas with color to build zones. These zones become my territories of interest that make a quick production feel complete. Based on color selection and characteristics of the paints I pre-determine where colors will be utilized effectively and what brands to use for certain effects e.i. detailing, shading etc. The deeper we venture into the dimensions of layering and start to create the illusion it becomes clear on how much time is involved in each zone. At this point the game has just begun and the only disadvantage is the how fast you can psychically paint. While progressing on the mural the next level is bending time by minimizing your lines and strokes for more accuracy and purpose. If I get any more philosophical it could make you really reconsider spray painting with out a respirator. This how I keep each painting entertaining enough to paint even if its not worth my time.

4. How often do you paint commissioned pieces?

The rate of commission varies some could take 1-3 days. If I were to look at a ratio based annually at completed murals it would be around 250 large and small. I believe it’s the best way to promote my paint line and still network with business.
I can’t forget custom canvases, prints, shirts, hats, workshops, events and free painting with fellow artists.

5. What's it like traveling the world?

Travel has mostly been a work experience for me since I first traveled internationally at 15.
Ive learned through traveling it’s a worldwide competitive playground and its entertaining hanging with people who don’t speak English. Every thing else is a dream you will probably never experience ever again so cherish it.

6. If you could do something else, what would you be doing?

Id be surfing with my younger brother Emery Kauanui back in Kauai.

Id like to say thanks to Aero for his time and committment to aerosol artists around the world. You can view his murals from around the world at www.aerosolarts.com or see his Spray Paint Company - Blubbercolors at Blubber - www.blubbercolors.com

MadC X Newkon

2009-06-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

MadC was in town for the Undivided Hip Hop event at the Blaisdell.

Newkon and Mad C take on the streets in Aiea.

Larger photos can be seen at:

http://www.23hq.com/minkus/photo/4448371

http://www.23hq.com/minkus/photo/4448372

Busu is Back

2009-03-21T13:28:00.001-07:00

Busu is back on the island and has already made an impression on the graff community. After posting the flick of this bomb, it generated 30 comments in a day and a half.

With spring break already started, im sure there will be a lot more painting going on in the streets.

Skew x Reyes x Kiro

2009-03-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

Heres a couple snapshots of Skew and Kiro pieces during their paint session. Who wouldve wanted to be here to see this happen? I know I would of.

2009-03-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

So Reyes MSK makes it in to Honolulu and rocks a couple spots. Here's one of the pieces he did.

Havent kept up

2009-02-12T15:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not keeping up on this blog. Ive been busy with work and rarely have time to go out and flick. But since my last blog, I have met some other people that I havent met before which is one of my goals for this year: To meet the people that do the painting. For the people I have already met, thanks for your trust.

Hopefully this weather clears up cause I know no one like to paint in the mud. Be safe everyone!

Youtube Video

2009-01-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

Not sure if you knew but I put together a really quick video of "Spyr/Siva week" on youtube. If you havent seen it yet, check it out at:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=T10qVqBNAEo

I'll be making more simple videos like this in the future but for now, this is all ive got. On my wishlist for 2009 is a video camera. Im gonna try make a bombing video...if interested, hit me up.

808Urban and DC4

2009-01-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

I have had many requests for these pictures and its finally up. I got flicks of the 2 legal murals that 808Urban did over the break. Heres a sample:

"Be The Change You Want This World To Be"

DC4 Proddy

I also have this picture of the Palama wall done by the DC4 guys. You can view closer individual pics of BOTH of these murals at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/808minkus

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

Like everyone else, December was busy season for me. I did happen to get a lot of flicks but haven't had time to upload them until now. Theres a lot of new flicks of old stuff at the 23 site.

Some of you might know that I have a flickr account too. That site is going to be reserved for the best of the best. I am going to post quality productions and the sickest burners on the flickr site. Hopefully it will inspire a lot of the new painters to practice hard to hopefully get into that site. The pieces that go on the site will NOT be decided by me, but by other people who are not into graffiti. This will eliminate some bias by me.

Anyway, hope all of you had a great 2008 and hope to see more of you in 2009!

A Blog WORTH Following

2008-12-21T22:43:00.000-08:00

For all of you who have been following my site over the last couple of years, wouldn't you say that you have seen a change in the Hawaii Graffiti scene?

Ive seen a lot of new writers come and go. Some want to make a name for themselves by getting up. But some have made a name for themselves because I happened to flick their throwup. My site is headed into a different direction in 2009.

Quality is going to be the theme from now on. If you dont spend the time to do quality work, then you dont deserve internet time either. Let's see what status you can achieve.

A lot of you kids need to learn what graffiti was about back in the day. Check out this blog:

http://estria.blogspot.com/

Read it, learn it, bookmark it, and pass the message along. Cause if you want to get to this type of status, you better be doing it right.

If youre wondering what happened....

2008-12-18T06:50:00.000-08:00

If youre wondering what happened to the site options, I turned the comments off.

Lately, comments have been getting out of hand with people pretending to be other people. Or...people talking "shit" about each other. Or...people using my site as a way to "call each other out".

So, ive decided to turn the comments off. If I turn them back on again, and people continue to do the same things, then im gonna stop posting the flicks. I do this as a hobby. I shouldn't have to monitor the comments section as much as I have been. Take your beef on the streets and not on my site.

www.23hq.com/minkus

Rain Rain Go Away!

2008-12-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

The rain hit hard the last couple of days. Some schools were forced to shut down, roads were closed due to heavy floods, and peoples homes destroyed.

You know what this means, no ones been bombing cause of the rain. Chill spots should be avoided because of flash flooding. I guess that means my camera will be taking a break for the next couple of days.

Everyone just be safe and see you when the sun shines.

Phyto/Surf Video

2008-12-08T15:51:00.001-08:00

Heres the rooftop flick of another Phyto.

Also, Palama is back up and running so I'll be catching some flicks of that sometime this week.

If any of you Hawaii writers are interested, a friend of mine has a video production company. Mostly surf/bodybuilding videos. Some of the videos he shoots has been distributed nationwide. He is looking for people interested in painting his company name for a "time lapse" type clip which he will use in his next DVD.

Im not sure when he will be doing it but you have to provide your own paint and do your own artwork on it. He may want to see sketches and will pick the best out of the submissions. If interested, please let me know so I can get a count of how many people might be interested. Im sure he'll throw you a copy of the DVD for free. More information will come at a later date.

Phyto killing another rooftop

2008-12-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

On my way to work yesterday, I saw another dope Phyto roofie! I was in a rush to get to work on time, so I never got a chance to flick it. Traffic was ridiculous yesterday. Anyway, im getting the flick today so check back tomorrow for the images.

Intro

2008-12-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Shaka (24k) for this Minkus Throwup

Much of the people in the graff game either know me, or know of me. I'm "the guy that flicks graffiti". I started this blog so people can understand what I do and why I do it.

I have always had a love of art. Not graffiti art, but regular art. Art class in intermediate opened my eyes to the different types of art. I actually did not like graffiti. As a kid, I never really paid attention to it. It was negative and there was no art involved in "tagging". So what changed my mind? Seeing artistic graffiti on the streets. Its like the "whoa" factor. Seeing something on the streets that's not supposed to be there, how long it took to do that, how did they get up there?

Your friends share the same interests and they tell you about this new graffiti throwup someone did on the freeway. It sounded really good so you decide to go see it, and its GONE! Buffed before your eyes got to see what it was all about, before anyone got a flick of it. That piece of graffiti is gone forever.

This is why I decided to be a "graffiti photographer". By saying "photographer", in no way does it mean I'm a professional in any way. I use a decent camera almost always on the automatic presets for exposure and if necessary, with flash. I started out with a pocket camera but now use a Nikon with interchangeable lens'.

What did I flick? At first, everything! Tags, Stickers, throwups, that little marker tag on a pole. But then I realized, that's ridiculous. The amount of graffiti surrounds us EVERYWHERE! So now I just flick the "bigger" stuff. Occasionally, I'll flick some marker stuff if my camera is already out and ready.

Since this is my first blog post, that's all I have to say for now. I will share my experiences, my photos, my opinions, and hopefully make this blog the place for you to come for graffiti info in Hawaii.

Until then....check out photos on www.23hq.com/minkus

The latest photos are from Siva (AF) trip to Oahu. I must say Siva and Spyr killed it.