The Artists

Here are bios of some of our featured artists.

Aidge 34 - aestheticscrew.com
Aidger 34 (also known by his Poh-poh as Luke Patterson) is a 3 headed beast: artist, educator & organizer all mixed in 1. Current title-holder of Hyphen Magazine's Asian American Nonprofit Man o' the Year competition, "Mr. Hyphen" works as a Counselor at the High School for Recording Arts in Hawthorne. Graduating from UCLA in Mass Communications in 2003, Aidge is also a graffiti artist and MC for the Los Angeles hip-hop group "Aesthetics Crew." His visual art has been featured in several magazines and galleries, and his group is preparing to take the world by storm some time in the near future... Aidge is also an organizer with the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality and Chuco's Justice Center. He is an artist of and for the people, and is determined to play a role in freeing the world from oppression, one idiot president at a time.

Chris Avitabile

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.

Jerrell Conner http://theredr.com
Year of birth: 1979

Residence: Long beach, Ca

Years in the field: 7

Education: Otis College of art and design

Media: typically you’ll find him on an old clunky dinosaur power book G4, working in an older version of Photoshop, drawing on a wacom tablet that’s a few generations behind yours.

But when it comes to art shows, he likes to mix it up a bit, with everything from ballpoint pens, spray paint, stencils, silkscreens, and markers… to oils, and acrylics.

Bio: born last among 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).

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.

Currently he is hard at work on his epic graphic novel series REVELATIONS: the Prophets.
It’s a post apocalyptic view of future history with biblical proportions.

Jonathan Yap

Larsen Garma

Lucien Shapiro - http://lucienshapiro.com
Lucien Shapiro graduated with a BFA in sculpture and slowly has been building his works ranging from paintings, installation, and three dimenesional art. He mainly shows work in the bay area but has been part of group shows in NY, Boston,Los Angeles, Taiwan, Berlin, London, Portland, Montreal, and Florida. Currently focusing on sculpture as a method of looking past reality towards a new day. The whimsical dance of collaged bits and pieces from the past and present. The constant building upon building to reach the infinite point.

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

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

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

Stuter

Thomas Messenger

Ver Mar- vermarart.com
When looking to see where the inspiration of her art began, Ver Mar started in her childhood. From home made board games to the drawings inspired by the computer revolution that defined her generation, she began to develop her creativity. Ver dreamed of becoming a fashion designer or creative writer, which ultimately lead to study graphic arts in San Francisco.
In college Ver was able to not only draw upon influences within her school, but more importantly from the active art community in the bay area. She expanded from her specialization in graphic arts to using other mediums: from paper to metal, to everyday objects. Using her experience working with new mediums Ver combined her graphic creativity with the three dimensional world.

As Ver looks to the future she is fascinated by the cinema of Tim Burton, Jan Svankmajer, Jim Henson among others. The concept of stop action films and period pieces where elaborate production design involving lavish costumes, make up and sets have proven to be her new inspiration. She hopes to use this inspiration and her established talent in the art world to explore the world of production design and stop action film. From graphics to sculpture, this artist has created her vision of the future and it will only continue to grow and evolve.

Special art installion by Simbulan ft. Bambie & Drendo:
My artist name is Simbulan. I was born, raised, and reside in the Coachella Valley with it's contradiction of country clubs and migrant tilled farmlands. I design and create functional art and furniture with a linear, natural aesthetic. Through my artwork I hope to articulate a conversation between nature, function, and modernism with the accent of my Filipino American heritage.

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