Posts Tagged ‘ESPO’

ESPO’s Love Letter by Book, Opening, Train and Tattoo!

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

From Steve Powers’ (aka ESPO aka Mark Surface aka ESPO ICY) beautifully heartfelt mural project to the Philly city he loves, Love Letter continues to give back to the people. To celebrate the launch of the projects’ must-have book, A Love Letter For You-Brick Valentines On The Philly Skyline (which “documents the art and the neighborhood that inspired this ambitious public art project”-purchase here), Steve will be the man around town with an art opening, book signing, and Love train touring as well as taking over the Northern Liberties Tattoo shop through this week to create the Love Letter Tattoo Shop!

From the mural master on the tattoos for yous:

“for a week (more or less depending on demand), the only artwork that will be on offer will be all Steve Powers, all week long. All your favorite icons, punchlines, poignant reminders of the futility of life, hilarious illustrations of our inadequacies, True depictions of true love from the Love Letter project, and of course, PIGEONS. Its all here, it’s cheap, its permanent. No, I’m not tattooing, no skills. I will, however, sign your arm and let one of the skilled pros on staff at Todd’s shop re-ink it, fair enough?”

So to recap (click images for detailed info):

Get a new LOOK…

buy the BOOK…

get it SIGNED…

and ride the LOVE TRAIN LINE!

A bit from Steve’s A Love Letter For You blog:

tattoo_whats_mine_progress

“Another Elebration, another storm bringing massive precipitation. In spite of the snow, Espo’s Love Letter Tattoo Shop (a division of ICY SIGNS, a subsidiary of Mark Surface Intl.) opened right at the happy hour of 5. Two excellent co-defendants stepped right up: Nick encouraged me to invent something on the spot, while Michelle chose “whats mine is yours” and got it bolder on her shoulder. WHOA, I’ve got that feeling I get when I put work in a good spot. It’s like a seeing diamond in a moonbeam. 10 sheets of flash are in the shop now, we’ll add 10 more on tuesday, 10 more on thursday, and 10 more on friday. Dont see that special piece of flash? come again, rewind till you find the fine line to put on your spine. Or if you want, you can suggest to Es what works best, HELL YES”

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My Best List of the Best “Best of” Lists of 2009

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

I know I said I wasn’t going to do any sort of year end lists the other day, but there’s just something about lists that I just can’t resist. And when I can cherry pick from all the “best of” lists that suckers esteemed writers have diligently compiled on the interwebs, well it pretty much makes this list the list to look at. I mean, where else can you peruse a list that includes street art, Quentin Tarantino, NSFW music and viral videos, Manny Pacquiao, conservative conspiracies, repurposing tricks, National Geographic photos and iPhone apps all from one webpage?

So without further ado, and in no particular order other than alphabetical, I present to you my humble list of the best “best of” lists for the year 2009.

Click headers or corresponding images to see complete lists.

• Cool Hunting’s Top Five Street Art Shows of 2009

Stephen Powers (ESPO) West Philly mural project Love Letter
Covered a couple weeks ago here

• The Huffington Post’s 12 Weirdest Right-Wing Conspiracies Of 2009

• Juxtapoz’s Top 100 Moments of 2009 (art shows from around the world)

• Lifehacker’s Most Popular Repurposing Tricks of 2009

• National Geographic’s International Photography Contest 2009

• Quentin Tarantino’s Top 8 Movies of 2009

• Roger Ebert’s Best Films of 2009 (Mainstream and Independent lists)

• Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of 2009, Top 100 Tracks of 2009 and Top Music Videos of 2009 (click here to see full list of music videos)

My homies at N.A.S.A. with “A Volta” featuring Sizzla, Amanda Blank, & Lovefoxxx.
Directed by Logan featuring the art of The Date Farmers

• Time Magazine’s Top 10 Everything of 2009

• Sports Illustrated’s 2009 Boxing Awards

Couldn’t leave out the pride of the Philippines and Sports Illustrated’s Fighter of the Year,
the main man Manny Pacquiao

• Stereogum’s 10 Most NSFW Music Videos Of 2009 (click here to see full list of videos)

Matt & Kim “Lessons Learned” directed by my young pals Taylor Cohen and Otto Arsenault

• Videogum’s Best Viral Videos of 2009 (click here to see full list of videos)

• Vimeo’s 25 Favorite Videos of 2009 (click here to see full list of videos)

Last Day Dream from old friend Chris Milk
Exclusive interview here

• Wired’s 20 Favorite iPhone Apps of 2009

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From ESPO with Love

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

Stephen Powers (ESPO), one of my favorite graffiti artists (or artists for that matter), is currently working on a Love Letter-an ambitious project in which he’s literally painting a love letter to his hometown of West Philly. In conjunction with The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, Steve has been outfitting the city of brotherly love with his signature slogans in his uniquely bold style for this “public art project consisting of a series of 50 rooftop murals from 45th to 63rd streets along the Market Street corridor” which has been ongoing since July of this year.

And if you’ve seen our film Beautiful Losers you’ll have a much better understanding as to why this project means so much to the “handmade myth” known as ESPO (see how Steve eloquently puts it in the Coney Island section of the film).

Click here to see Steve’s amazing murals from the project’s website, A Love Letter For You.

Click here to see a map of the pieces via Philly’s Market-Frankford elevated line.

Also…

Keith Scharwath, one of my favorite graphic designers, recently took a trip from New York and viewed Steve’s love letters how they’re supposed to be seen: by train and up close. Click here to see Keith’s coverage at the Carwash.

(via Keith Scharwath’s Carwash)

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Beautiful Losers Now on DVD!

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Now that Beautiful Losers is available on DVD through Adam Yauch’s (MCA of the Beastie Boys) film distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, your holiday shopping is now officially over (or at least made easier). With an inspiring message of how outsiders helped shape today’s pop culture landscape, I think our film is a great gift to give this year especially if you’re interested in the arts, DIY thinking, documentary films, graffiti, good music, skateboarding, and of course, these losers: Barry McGee (TWIST), Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, Margaret Kilgallen, Harmony Korine, Stephen Powers (ESPO), Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, Thomas Campbell, Mike Mills, Shepard Fairey, Deanna Templeton, Clare Rojas, Cheryl Dunn and Aaron Rose.

Buy it now and inspire someone this holiday season!

Also available on iTunes.

(And no, I didn’t sign up for any back-end points, DVD residuals or anything like that when I edited the film. I just sincerely believe that we made something that is truly worthy of your time. Watch it!)

Beautiful Losers
Starring Starring Thomas Campbell, Shepard Fairey, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, Margaret Kilgallen, Harmony Korine, Geoff McFetridge, Barry McGee, Mike Mills, Stephen Powers, Ed Templeton, with Cheryl Dunn, Clare Rojas, Aaron Rose and Deanna Templeton
Directed by Aaron Rose
Co-directed by Joshua Leonard
Produced by Rich Lim, Jon Barlow, Chris Green, Noah Khoshbin
Executive Producers Ravi Ann and Jared Moshe
Cinematography by Tobin Yelland
Edited by Lenny Mesina
Original score by Money Mark
Graphic design by Keith Scharwath

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From ESPO, With Love

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Fresh off of Valentine’s Day weekend comes ESPO’s latest love lettering via Pictures on Walls. These 12 color signed and numbered screenprints come in two different color flavors, on cream and black and are only limited to 100 per color. Must. Have. Now.

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ESPO Bares His Soul in Brussels

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

“Rodney Dangerfield” - detail - enamel on powder coated steel - 61×61cm - 2008

Tonight the high-topped tight-tipped sultan of the subversive, Steve Powers (a.k.a. ESPO), brings his artistic stylings overseas to Belgium, Germany for his latest show “Semaphores of the Soul” at the Alice Gallery in Brussels. For years now ESPO has been bridging the gap from his roots in graf to fine art to installations, indoors and out, and those who know know ESPO runs the show. And yes, I know most everyone who reads this won’t be making it out to Deustchland for the opening or even during the shows run. But I just had to post this and support Steve as he’s one of my all-time favorite artists, dead or alive.

“Semaphores of the Soul” opening January 29th, 2009 from 6-10pm

Exhibition runs through March 7th, 2009

Also, here’s the trailer for Deitch Project’s legendary Street Market in 2000 featuring ESPO, TWIST (Barry McGee), and REAS (Todd James). Directed by Beautiful Loser’s director of special forces the one and only Joey G, Joey Garfield.

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How About 42?

Monday, November 24th, 2008

Smashing Magazine recently came out with a list of “40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters“. And it is an exquisite list indeed. After viewing their list of modern day classics such as The Life Aquatic (above) as well as Requiem For a Dream, Lost in Translation, and The Savages among others, two others instantly came to mind. For your viewing pleasures, here are the posters for Dedication designed by Steve “ESPO” Powers and of course our own Beautiful Losers exquisitely designed by Keith Scharwath.

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Beautiful Losers S.F. Premiere 9.5.08

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

THANK YOU! Thanks to all of you East and West coasters who’ve come out to support Beautiful Losers and helped spread the films message to your friends and family! With good word of mouth continuing to extend from person to person, through the web, and in print, we’ll be bringing our little film up the coast to San Francisco for another homecoming of sorts. Here’s a brief rundown of where we’ve been theatrically in the U.S. so far:

Los Angeles: At each of the 4 Q&A sessions we did on opening weekend 4 different people from the audience stood up and paid us the highest compliment, they thanked us for making this film. Come see what’s moving people! Last show is TODAY, Thursday September 4th @ 5:00, 7:30, and 10:00.
Tickets available here: Landmark Nuart Theatre

New York: The attendance of the late night showings at the IFC Center have been so strong that they extended the run for an additional 2 weeks longer than we were supposed to be in the theater. Last shows are this FRIDAY and SATURDAY September 5th+6th @ 12:25 a.m.
Tickets and more info here: IFC Center

San Francisco: You’re next! San Francisco premiere this Friday, September 5th with Q&A’s following the 7:00 and 9:00 shows.
Tickets available here: Landmark Lumiere Theatre

If you have peoples up North, please pass along the info that we’ll be making our Bay Area premiere this weekend. Your help has been invaluable and very appreciated! Thank you all again for helping make Beautiful Losers such a success!

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Beautiful Losers L.A. Premiere 8.29.08

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

(Sneak peek of the Nike/UNDFTD billboard on La Brea and 1st St. Design by Keith Scharwath)

On Friday August 29th, Beautiful Losers makes it’s Los Angeles premiere at Landmark’s Nuart Theater. To date, the response to our little film has been overwhelmingly positive and audiences have eagerly embraced our message of inspiration and creativity with open arms. With no major film distribution company behind us, we’ve been fortunate enough to have gained the support and good will from audiences who have seen the film and have continued to spread the good word amongst friends, family, and something called the “internets”. Hopefully this grass roots approach can continue to bring our film to more and more cities as we have just added Boston to our tour which already includes San Francisco, Portland, and Chicago.

The 7:30 and 10pm shows on opening night will feature Q&A sessions with myself, Aaron Rose, and Money Mark. Tickets for the L.A. premiere and theatrical run are now on sale and can be purchased at Landmark’s website here (Make sure you’re purchasing tickets for the correct shows. Dates are listed in the pull down menu above the showtimes!)

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Beautiful Losers NY Premiere 8.8.08

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Fresh from Tokyo, Japan after our official theatrical world premiere (much more on the Japan trip coming soon), Beautiful Losers makes it’s homecoming with the U.S. theatrical premiere on August 8th at the IFC Center in New York city. This release has been a long while coming as we’ve been on the festival road for over a year now, even capturing a documentary jury prize along the way. Select showings of this weekend’s special release will feature Q&A sessions with several artists from the film. The lineup goes as follows:

Friday, Aug.8th @ 8:20 - Aaron Rose, Steve Powers (ESPO), Chris Johanson, and Cheryl Dunn

Friday, Aug.8th @ 10:20 - Aaron Rose, Cheryl Dunn, and Lenny Mesina

Saturday, Aug.9th @ 8:20 - Aaron Rose, Tobin Yelland, and Lenny Mesina

Saturday, Aug.9th @ 10:20 - Aaron Rose, Cheryl Dunn, and Lenny Mesina

Tickets can be bought right here. (Make sure you’re purchasing tickets for the correct shows. Dates are listed in the pull down menu above the showtimes!)

The New York theatrical release at the IFC Center will run from August 8th through the 28th before shifting to the West Coast with runs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and finally end in Chicago (the film may have a longer run depending on the success of this initial roll out).

In addition to the the film’s U.S. launch, Nike Sportswear has partnered with us to give back to the people. “Make Something!!” is a series of D.I.Y. creative art-based workshops taught by some of today’s best creators aimed at inspiring and educating young people. The first set starts in New York and runs from August 8th through the 22nd and then moves to Los Angeles and goes from August 29th through September 8th. The workshops range from sign painting, photography, skateboard graphic design, toy design, filmmaking, tattoo art, footwear design and zine making. Classes will be taught by the likes of Aaron Rose, KAWS, Todd James, Tobin Yelland, Cheryl Dunn, Mike Mills, Ed Templeton, Money Mark, and yours truly to name a few. Come by my class August 30th where I’ll be teaching kids the dark arts of film editing! More on the workshops to come as they happen.

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