Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery, part 2

This is the second part of my interview with owners of Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery, Kelly Teasley and Maggie White. With backgrounds in art and social work, they began Young Blood as a D.I.Y. gallery in their living room in 1997. Following media hype (Lucky magazine and the Handmade Nation documentary, among others) and much community support, Young Blood Gallery and it’s complementary, all-handmade boutique now nestles among a bike shop, a bakery and an all-vegan restaurant in one of Atlanta’s hippest neighborhoods. Part 1 of this interview lives here, and I’ll post part 3, the final portion of the interview, soon.

Jolene, the three-legged Young Blood mascot

Keep reading at Juxtapoz.

Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery

On one of my recent trips to Atlanta, I had a frank conversation with Kelly Teasley and Maggie White, the co-proprietors of (the charming, fantastic, fairy-dust magical) Young Blood Gallery and Boutique, as featured in the book and doc Handmade Nation. Highlights include how to be a good neighbor, how to found a punk rock gallery and the conflict that comes with transforming that space into a financially sustainable entity, the awkwardness of becoming a recruiting grounds for Urban Outfitters, and the true-life rags-to-riches story of Jolene, the three-legged-cat.

The interview is kind of mammoth, but these ladies were so forthcoming and informative that I want to post it all. So I’m splitting it into three parts. Check back for the rest soon! For now, head over to Juxtapoz to read Part 1.

Living Walls Controversy

So this is Living Walls Part 3, I guess…or maybe instead of Living Walls: The City Speaks, this is Living Walls: The Conversation Continues. Or maybe you could even call it Living Walls: The Assault.

I’ve just heard that some of the Living Walls murals have already been painted over, most notoriously by a local writer named Vomet. Here are photos of the Swampy/Gaia/Greg Mike wall, taken from the Living Walls Facebook page:

The FB reaction ranges from people cheering Vomet on and complementing his style to disappointment, outrage and casual acceptance.

Keep reading at Juxtapoz.

Living Walls at Burnaway

“OX moves beyond the common practice of simply appropriating public space for the proliferation of personally meaningful marks or imagery by incorporating aesthetic elements of a piece’s environment into the language of the piece itself. The result is work in a place that is also about that place and therefore about anyone who is in that place to see it. The status of the commandeered public space is elevated from that of mere canvas to objet d’art—the viewer graduates from witness to participant, completing the work by observing it.”

Artist Daniel Clay’s take on his Living Walls experience, at Burnaway, an online arts magazine out of Atlanta. The editor Jeremy Abernathy asked a few disparate parties (including me!) to weigh in on the conference. Check it out here.

Living Walls Street Art Conference

Part 2 to be posted tomorrow…

Swampy, Gaia and Greg Mike’s legal mural

Back from Atlanta, back from three days of street art summer camp aka the Living Walls Conference. Those three days were pretty intense—can’t imagine how it must’ve been for those artists who lived in the common quarters and spent a full ten days painting, pasting and partying.

Jason Kofke working outside of the Eyedrum garage

Ming Donkey and I rolled into town around 9pm Thursday, August 12 and headed to Eyedrum. A gated art compound in a seedy neighborhood, Eyedrum is a warehouse and a crumbling garage with a maze of back sidewalks, which line railroad tracks and wind to privately leased studios. Travel-bleary, we tumbled out of the truck with our dog, Booger, blinking dumbly at the spread before us—the grungiest, rowdiest art squat in the history of Atlanta.

Keep reading at Juxtapoz.