Life is Beautiful

Plain and simple: I love life. I love everything about life. I love the good, the bad, the in-betweens. I see every day as this amazing gift, and the only thing that makes me happier than living my own life is seeing others seize each day like I try to.

When I first began street art in high school I wanted to create something that made people stop and appreciate their own lives for a little bit each day. Something that would make a person smile, or make a cloudy day a little bit sunny for a while. Which is why I am now completely obsessed with Mr. Brainwash’s graffiti project titled “Life is Beautiful”.

Mr. Brainwash photo courtesy: The Daily Beast

Mr. Brainwash is a fairly famous street artist, known all over the world for his use of pop culture in his art. He has become an iconic street artist, exposing his face (an obvious rarity in street art) and doing a lot of public media. Recently, Mr. Brainwash has taken his art off the streets into galleries and shows all over the world, holding his own private shows and selling his work for pretty impressive amounts of money.

The Life is Beautiful series came into play with Mr. Brainwash’s 2008 personal art show in Los Angeles, California. While Life is Beautiful wasn’t the only feature of the art show, but a large part of the show was based around the ideas of love and loving life. I wish I could have seen it, but fortunately some Lie is Beautiful pieces still remain all over the country.

From Mr. Brainwash's 2008 show

I think that Mr. Brainwash is such a success because he is not like most street artists in the world. He is older, like Banksy, and has a slightly more professional career in art.  I think his differences are what give him such an amazing perspective to create a project as amazing as the Life is Beautiful project. How can you not appreciate life just a little bit more when it is spelled out right in front of your face? Life really is completely beautiful, and sometimes it just takes a little bit of reminding to see that.

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Art Show Success

The crowd outside Rarebreed

Last Saturday, as many people know, was the Friends with Benefits art show at Rarebreed on Broad Street. I was really excited to go, but some unforeseen circumstances kept me out of Philly that day.

I have heard only good things about the show, and I’m pretty bummed that I missed it. The Friends with Benefits recently posted some pictures, taken by photographers Landon Wise and Lemara Prince, of the event. It looks like it was a lot of fun.

photo courtesy: http://www.friendswithbenefitsshow.blogspot.com/

One of the things that sticks out to the me is the amazing colors that stick out in every piece of art in the room. One of my favorite things about street art is the colors and the brightness. It lights up the streets, or in the case of this show, the entire room. There is a fun and joking atmosphere that’s almost impossible not to get sucked into.

photo courtesy: http://www.friendswithbenefitsshow.blogspot.com/

According to featurd F.W.B. artist Ticky the show took in about $1200 with shirt and art sales. “We all signed each of the custom shirt boxes and there were tons and tons of younger kids there who make their own stickers, who seemed really excited to meet us, have us draw in their blackbooks, and exchange stickers with us and each other.” Ticky said. ” There were people from New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and a couple hours away in Pennsylvania.”

Congrats to all the artists. For more pictures or info check out the Friends with Benefits blog, or the photographers personal sites.

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Want to see some of Philly’s finest?

If you wanna catch a glimpse at Philly street art off the street and in person then stop by the “Friends With Benefits” show on April 3.

Sponsored by Stickyricks and Junobo Paint “Friends With Benefits” starts at 7 pm that Saturday night and runs til 11. Stop by the Rarebreed gallery in South Philly and check out art from some of my favorites: Ticky, Under Water Pirates, Question Josh?, El Toro and Bob Will Reign.

This is your opportunity to check out art when its taken off the street and put onto canvas. While there are the obvious similarities in canvas art and street art, there are major differences as well. Canvas art gives the artists like the ones seen at “Friends with Benefits” the opportunity to really go crazy. There’s more time, more space, and many more possibilities.

Rarebreed, on 1624 South Broad Street, has always been a place for Philly hopefuls to showcase and sell their art, and has been one of the most popular haunts of street artists for years. All the art in the “Friends with Benefits” show will be for sale to the public, and any art that doesn’t sell will be up on the Rarebreed website afterwards.

So, even if you can’t make it, you can still get a piece of the action.

This can be yours!

More than canvases, visitors can buy collectors box sets, featuring the t-shirt shown here, a print, and a pack of stickers with all five artists work, packaged in a hand-made silk screened box. All this stuff was made by the artists creating this show, meaning each one of them sat for who knows how many hours drawing and painting and cutting and spraying and coming up with idea after idea.

I’ve always been amazed seeing real art like that, because I know how long even one piece takes. When Buda was still around I used to sit at my desk and draw for what seemed like forever, only to end up covered in paint and about ten or twelve little stickers. Trust me, this stuff is far from easy.

The artists will feature more than collabs in the show. Collabs are collaborative paintings including all five of them working towards one theme. For “Friends with Benefits”, some of the themes you can see would be Tetris, “Alice in Wonderland”, Dr. Suess and “Where the Wild Things Are”.

Personally, I’m psyched. I feel like these artists and the paintings that they make are so relatable. That’s why I love street art: it’s not too serious. It’s wacky, it’s colorful, and it’s pretty funny. I never saw the point in taking life seriously, and I know “Friends with Benefits” will be like a big giant fun house of art and craziness. I can’t wait!!!!

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