I love the smell of spray paint in the morning.

The WiseAcres welding shack is no stranger to rattlecans, but I’m beefing up on colors and acrylic plastic squirt bottles since I took a MasterClass with Futura, (link) the godfather of graffiti. What an engaging, informative guy. Freddie gave me MasterClass this Christmas and last, and I have enjoyed some very fine in-depth classes with the likes of Billy Collins and Dan Brown, and will soon be diving into a Roxane Gay course. But I happened upon the Futura class while cruising the new stuff, and I’m so glad I did. I’ve already mixed the hard-edged metal of welding with the fresh action feel of subwaylike graffiti writing and I’m liking some of the results. Not all, but some.

Futura is kinetic; lots of Jackson Pollock-like moves while he’s painting, and he’s always experimenting. For instance in this video, he paints small, light clouds of color on the walls, then covers the walls completely with a long handled roller drenched in the same color; he gives himself latitude for change. The light clouds weren’t sparking anything but the color was. Bold moves characterize his work, and he’s taken graffiti art into an abstract expressionist feel, without losing the street aspect.

 His moves are fluid, unhesitating. My first tries reveal a tremor of intent; later attempts are stronger. I picked up something I call “squeeching” from Futura--you plop a blob of pure color on the surface and “squeeche” it, fast, with the edge of a flat surface; plastic, cardboard, a wide brush. You’d better do it quickly, in a straight line or an arc, for it to accomplish that Futura/Franz Kline strength.  

 Not all graffiti writing relies on paint; Bob Swearengin alerted me to this piece that popped up on the corner of a building at 19th and McGee in Kansas City, just down the street from The Hilliard Gallery. It hearkens back to Adam Cost’s message posters, but incorporates ceramic tiles in the background and the word, “LOVE.” It’s about 4” X 10” and looks to be affixed to the building with Liquid Nails or a similar adhesive. To me this is rather charming guerrilla art. Bob says there are several with different (positive) messaging around The Crossroads.

 Anyway, for the October First Friday show at The Hilliard Gallery, I’ll have a few pieces that attempt to incorporate Futura’s aesthetic, and that of street art.  

 Change of subject. Back in the 50’s and 60’s BC (before computers and we actually had to draw for comp layouts) art directors kept reference files; “tear sheets” from magazines. I still have some of those old files. Two pieces, a magical, unposed Eisenstadt photo of a full-dress drum major practicing on an empty football field, and his enthusiastic following, and Sonny Liston talking on a delicate French phone engulfed by his large, dangerous hand, are two of my very favorites. In fact they both inspired, and appear in, a G-poem titled “Sonny Liston Looking Vulnerable.” That poem will be in Third Wednesday, I’m happy to say, a top publication. Other poetry and essays will be forthcoming in Drunk Monkeys, Sledgehammer Review, Eclectica and Words & Whispers. It’s been a busy year and it’s only a little more than half over. I’ve got a lot more rejections coming, maybe a few more acceptances.

 And finally, I can’t ignore this second pandemic. May we make it through. Vaccinations are available here, unlike some other countries. Did you know most of us have had ten (or more) vaccinations by the time we were 18?  They were, are, mandatory in all 50 states in order to attend public school as kids. (No federally mandated laws) Thanks to vaccinations, we don’t have to worry about polio—and that was a scary sonofa...gun when I was young. It didn’t quite kill you—it just paralyzed you. Picture kids laying around in big tubelike machines called Iron Lungs. The machine helped them to breathe. There was a mirror so you could look at your face. That was it. Nightmarish. Thank God and Jonas Salk for that vaccine.

 The more people who get the covid vax, any of the three available, the sooner we can get through this thing. Thanks to those who have, those who will, and those who are considering it. Be careful everyone.

 Happy August.