street art
These pieces began as sketchbook tags before they were cleaned up in Photoshop and turned into vinyl stickers to be sold as a pack of eight and individually, each titled for easy reference. Street art inspired a more focused interest in fonts, logos and painting, and I chose the alias "LabSynth" as the legendary aperitif was making a comeback in the west around the same time I started getting serious about this art form.
Chisel Dipped, 2010.
Monophobic, 2007.
Kung Fu Theater, 2005.
Sovereign Nation of LabSynth, 2012.
Black & Tan, 2012.
Mr. Winter, 2008.
The insert I designed for the sticker set packaging, which fits the interior dimensions of the clear plastic zip bags. The skyline is the Baltimore harbor as seen from Federal Hill, and the text copy is pretentious and dramatic, like a satirized fragrance ad.
The Garbanzo Brothers, 2008.
The Locksmith, 2009.
The final product.
Street artists adhere to a variety of codes of conduct. For some, you're not serious if you're not a vandal, for others infrastructure is fair game but private property is off limits, it's a spectrum. I wanted to do the best work I could and not be a vandal, and so small vinyl stickers on the backs of stop signs and such made the most sense. The only campaign to deviate from this code was hand-etched pint glasses featuring a shadowy self portrait, to be swapped into rotation at local bars. What can I say, it was an irresistible idea.
Assorted other products I've had produced courtesy of Redbubble, who does a nice job. Part of my agenda was also to bring street art deeper into personal fashion and interior design, normalizing it and disarming its association with criminality and also raising the standards for subversive artistry.
Where this all began: The first collaborative piece between myself (left) and a late friend who went by the name "Blister" (right), c. 2006. We shared a developing interest in street art, he was a natural talent and I was inspired to push myself to keep up. This was my first real attempt at painting, which we worked on at a regular live gig he set up at downtown bars. I liked the improvisational strategy, and I was fascinated at the way distinct unknown individuals could be summoned onto the canvas. We were heavily into a second very promising collaboration when he passed away, I hope to one day have the time to finish it and add it to the portfolio.