He’s like a French graffiti style Dr. Seuss, wearing brass knuckles and smoking a blunt. I’m pretty sure that makes us blood brothers. Or at least homeboys. Is that still a word? Homeboy?

Alexone

Ukrainian artist Irena Zablotska did something this morning that no one has done in a very long time (meaning a month or so). She inspired me to get back out on the street and paint a wall. Or actually I might start with a wall in my apartment, but either way she is the inspiration for my renewed interest in something big. She’s got that subtle something that’s very Eastern European about her work, and the other 95% of it is just plain, old badass. I especially enjoy the more geometric works. They remind me a little of Tim Biskup’s more recent works. I just can’t help it lately; I love all things geometric. When I close my eyes all I can see are lines and shapes intersecting and overlapping. Thanks to Zablotska, I’m going to be seeing those shapes on every blank wall I pass today.

Irena Zablotska

Found through B/D. I tried to place his style by comparisons, but there’s too much originality. Isoe’s got his own incredible style and it will be a basis of comparison from now on rather than a product of it. I’m a fan to say the least. I even like his webpage design. Isoe for the win.

Charlie Isoe

Don’t know shit about the dude. I know I’m into his hella grungy stencils and paintings. Do I really need to know anything else? Nuh uh. And neither do you.

VRNO

I’ve only ever visited the Metro DC area once in my life, and that was on a guided elementary school field trip. So I didn’t really get to see much of the city outside of the monuments and halls of government. I’m regretting never going back for a closer look at the non-political side of the city now that I’ve come across the work of DC artist D.Billy. David William, aka D.Billy, has recently embarked on a project to recreate the world as action art. Is that too hard a concept to understand? Basically he is trying to turn the whole world into a Michel Gondry movie. Using balloons, artists tape and whatever else he has at hand, D.Billy has started to illustrate how the world sounds. It’s a sweet project on top of an already impressive body of work. If you haven’t gotten the chance before, now’s the time to scope out his portfolio.

D.Billy

Wooster Collective is covering this pretty well, but I thought I’d throw out a quick mention of Dan Witz’s latest project, Ugly New Buildings. The project is a reaction to the gentrification of the New York neighborhood that he occupies, where beautiful, old buildings being torn down to be replaced with modern monstrosities. Using re-painted photo stickers Witz gives a new twist to the Kilroy graffiti that used to be so pervasive. There really is no better street artist than Dan Witz. He involves the environment so seamlessly in his work to magnify his statement, and his photo-realistic style is flawless. See what the King of Street Art thinks of New New York.

Dan Witz - Ugly New Buildings

Slinkachu, the most brilliant motherfucker behind The Little People Project has embarked on a new, and dare I say even more ingenious, art project. The Inner City Snail project takes your everyday garden snail and transforms it into a tiny piece of mobile street art. Non-toxic paints are used in case any of you were about to alert PETA; none of the snails get hurt. He’s also managed to incorporate his little people into the project, tying everything together in a tidy package. Tagging up snails? Fuck me that is awesome.

Inner City Snail

Oh, Havec. If only I spoke French I could tell the five people reading this all about your inspirations and influences. I could tell them why your style is that crazy, sketchtastic mess that it is. Or how you’ve worked with practically all of my favorite French street artists. I could ask you if you’d draw me up a tattoo, but not a tramp stamp or anything, because, you know, I’m a guy. A straight guy. Google translate is a pain in the ass, and everything comes out like an alien robot wrote it, which is basically what does happen. So we’ll just have to look at the pretty pictures, man. Which is all good, but still… the tattoo would’ve been nice.

Havec

There has long been a raging argument about whether or not so-called Street Art is actually art. Even the works by street artists shown in galleries is sometimes disputed. I’m not an expert in any way, shape, or form, but I know what moves me, what I think is beautiful. That, to me, is art. One person communicating their emotions to another person through a medium. Even conversation is an art. But I have no doubt that even the most staunch defenders of “pure” art forms would have no trouble accepting the work of Ernest Pignon-Ernest as art in its truest sense. His street art works so harmoniously with its environment that, as with all great street art, the environment itself becomes a part of the representation and meaning of the work. I think most of us will agree that making art a part of the world is preferable to making it on the world. Or maybe it’s just me. Thanks for the link Will.

Ernest Pignon-Ernest

Evan Roth is like the Richard Feynman of interaction and street art. Everything he does is open source. Everything he does turns the traditional idea of something on its side. He co-founded the Graffiti Research Lab if that will help you understand how gigantic his innovations are. My favorite part of any of his experiments/projects is that he wants to put them in all of our hands. Open source is the watchword. What makes him like Feynman even more is that he never settles on being great at one thing. His work is constantly moving into different arenas, mediums, ideas, and locations. It’s the process of dreaming up an idea and then making it a reality regardless of whether or not you have the skills to creat it already. People like this are unstoppable forces of change. I’m just glad he’s on our side.

Evan Roth

*Update*

Evan and the GRL project are featured today in an episode of Boing Boing TV that you can watch here. You can also find it in today’s Daily Videos.