The Artists

Here are bios of some of our featured artists.

179 - http://www.onesevennine.com
Dope female artist from the Pocketfull of Monsters Crew in Seattle, Washington

Aidger34skizm - aestheticscrew.com
Aidger34skizm is a veteran MC, graffiti artist, educator & community organizer in Los Angeles. Writer of mediocre rhymes ever since 5th grade, Aidge has been recording and performing around the US as part of the Aesthetics Crew since 2001. Vandalizing walls since 8th Grade, Aidger earned a rep on the streets as a dedicated (but pitiful) criminal, stupid enough to get arrested like 8 times for graff, and even stupider to not give a F#ck still. Actin like the little punk that he is, Aidge took his game off the streets now and into less prison-likely mediums like this… Shouts out to all his students at the Academy for Recording Arts in Hawthorne, which he was set free from =(. He would like to blame the economy, but a recent South Park episode told him to do otherwise.

alfienumeric - http://www.alfienumeric.com
*See Producers page.*

Anthony Montemar

Antonio Pelayo - http://antoniopelayo.com/
From his site Artist Antonio Pelayo, born in Glendale, California and raised most of his childhood in the Mexican countryside, has never had his own country. Moving from an American suburb to a tiny village has kept his world unstable; yet that very instability has made him an artist.

Antonio was born in 1973 in a comfortable, quiet suburb that was definitively American: nearby neighbors, movie theatres, malls, and English all around. At nine, his family sent him back to his father’s village in Mexico, where the environment radically changed: old broken down adobe churches instead of gallerias. Outside plumbing. And Spanish, all around. Teased and ostracized by other kids, and unable to communicate with the adults, Antonio looked elsewhere for, if not companionship, at least solace. He found it with a pencil and in the pews. He sneaked into the Catholic church and stared at the murals of martyrdom. He’d hide in the dark corners and sketch the artwork along the walls.

Antonio sought out the work of other Mexican artists, making them his mentors, his friends. Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Orozco, all revealed to Antonio the depth of Mexican art and its own movement from the church shadows into the modern world. He learned Spanish. He strove to master it, hoping to communicate with the folks of the village. Still, there was a gap; the language barrier between poor farmers and the middle class kept him from meeting people on an intimate level. Nevertheless, he now had three languages: English, Spanish, and his drawings.

Years later his family brought him back to Glendale, which he now saw through the lens of Mexico. It looked unreal; it did not look like home. Nothing looked like home anymore, not Mexico, not southern California. The one home he had was his art. And though his mastery of the pencil and paper began in the shadows of an old church in an old country, he developed his skill even more in America. Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, the surreal work of H.R. Giger, all mixed and blended with his Mexican childhood to make Antonio into a true American artist.

I’ve tried landscapes and fantasy scenes,” he says, “but it’s the portrait that fascinates me. That intimacy between the subject and the artist, the vulnerability that the subject must have to my interpretation—that is trust at its most divine."

Antonio Pelayo moved inward to find an intimacy that we all crave. With his own hand he drew himself into darkness and solitude and discovered his art. Now, ironically, that art goes public, and finds homes in not one or two worlds, but all.

BeatRock (Dave Araquel) - http://www.beatrock.com
*See Producers page.*

Chris Santos

Here are bios of some of our featured artists.

Codak - http://www.under-developed.com

Comah One
Comah was born in Los Angeles, to a pair of very artistic hippies. His family traveled the world, exposing him to different cultures, ensuring an exceptionally well-rounded individual.Comah's passions in life, lead him to start creating using any mediums nessesary. In 2004, Comah painted a 7 story high sign freehand in downtown Los Angeles that read " TOY " for the toy factory lofts. His work throughout his career has been displayed in many art galleries nationwide, he has had several television appearances, aswell as being inducted into a time capsule at the rock n roll hall of fame. As of recent, Comah has been dabbling in the form of bodypainting. He is working with several prominant photograhers and stylists, creating unique urban/fashion looks to shock the modern art world, and bring the urban essence to the forefront.

Comah will be launching several designer shirts for print within the upcoming months.

Fabius

FOOD ONE

GANYAN

HEX ONE

James Dean Malone

Jerrell Conner http://theredr.com
Year of birth: 1979
Residence: Long beach, Ca
Years in the field: 8
Education: Otis College of art and design

Media:
digital-
Mac, creative suite, wacom tablet
analog-
Wood, paper, board, pen & ink, marker, acrylics, oils, screen print, spray paint, collage...etc

Bio: born youngest of 5 siblings (all will inclinations in the arts). He was the “quiet kid” in the back of the class that was awkward and always drawing. Though he never considered it as a career, that is until he won some art competitions very early in his career (beating out the older students several grades above himself).

Over time, the apparent conflict of very strong spiritual beliefs and having very diverse influences and at times a dark and edgy approach to visuals have begun to weave their way into a very interesting and unique marriage on the computer monitor and art board.

In the years since graduation from Otis college of art and design he has bounced around the industry project to project from preproduction and storyboard art at Electronic Arts, to illustrations for TV show intros on MTV, to various character design/development for several projects currently in development, to illustrations/graphics for Tankfarm, Faveur, and other clothing lines. In addition, he of late has been busy touring the local and not so local gallery circuit with his various series of character based paintings.

Currently he is heading up a team of animators hard at work on the new cheech & chong animated feature, and is toiling away on his epic graphic novel series REVELATIONS: the Prophets.
It’s a post apocalyptic view of future history with biblical proportions.

Books 1, and 1.5 on shelves now, book 2 still in development.

KEMST

Khary Finch - http://myspace.com/dreadmightysine
Khary Finch is an artist & musician who's style is heavily influenced by city life, politics, music, and the female form. Currently studying at Pratt Institute in New York, and a former student at the Chicago Academy of the Arts.

Larsen Garma

Manila Ryce

Mark Canto

MECA ISA - isa17.com
Raised in Virginia Beach, Meca developed a "girls can do it too" attitude which manifested as she wandered about town BMX riding, playing street football, bodyboarding, and listening to hip-hop; Meca's adventurous childhood experiences has influenced her art today. Her work has been shown in well-respected galleries as well as her graphic designs on album covers, print advertisements, and clothing. Her recent work is a playful combination of nature, anime, hip-hop, illustration and street lifestyle. Meca Isa currently resides in San Francisco.

Michael Virata
Michael Virata was born in San Francisco in 1975, and developed a love of painting and drawing at a very young age. In 1988, he moved to the Middle East, and thus began his journey. Competing in international art competitions, and winning several first place ribbons, created a drive to push further. In 1995, he won "Artist of the Year" @ Sacramento State University. By 1997, he decided to delve into the world of ceramics, with a main focus on Japanese earthen ware and teapots. In July of 1998, studying under the watchful eye of Marc Lancet and Masakazu Kusakabe, built a Japanese wood fire kiln for Solano Community College. In 2005, he was recognized for his efforts as a ceramicist, and was published in "Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics", by Marc Lancet and Masakazu Kusakabe. In 2006, taking all of his knowledge as a 2D and 3D artist, he began his career as a vintage hot rod builder. In 2008, Michael has come full circle with a renewed passion for painting.

Nic Cowan

Nick Wildermuth

Nocty

Pancho Abalos - myspace.com/pancho808

phloe is a hack who spends her “quality time” mulling over various scenarios on how to fake her own death. She can think of no better homage to the Sallie Mae Corporation for making her life a miserable, oily, unrepayable hell. She attended Otis College of Art and Design after UCLA said they lost her undergraduate transcripts three times. She was extremely dysfunctional in art school, and administration called security on her after she tried to return her Master’s Degree for her money back. www.studfinder.org

Ryan Spence

Sadie Barnette-
Sadie Barnette was born the same year that Run D.M.C. released the first hip-hop album to ever go gold. And she has loved hip-hop (and gold) ever since. As a frizzy-headed youngster, she spent her time daydreaming in Oakland public schools, and later turned those daydreams into community activism and art making. Sadie Barnette makes art to change the world, and support her sneaker habit. She received her BFA from CalArts in 2006, and will begin graduate studies in fall 2009. When people ask her to separate art, politics, and political art, she laughs.

SANO

SHERM - shermgrafik.com
Sherm is a graffiti artist from Los Angeles. She is currently repping 2 crews; COI and OTP and is pushing 30. When she is not working, she is usually painting walls, trying to create art, being lazy or sleeping. Go to www.shermgrafik.com to check out more of her artwork.

SICKdotONE

Simbulan

Son Cleva

Stuter

Thomas Messenger

Timoi

WOMACK

and many others!!

Also commissioned Original Hip Hop Chocol8s sculptures by:
Marcus Gray
Thomas Messenger