Miriello Grafico

Dr. Lakra and Pedro Alonzo at The Logan

Jaime Rojo & Steven Harrington, co-founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com ,wrote about it this way:

Last night, The Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (MCASD) courageously opened the dialogue and its arms to embrace the chaos of the evolving street art scene. Smartly and incredibly in this city that has been described by Shepard Fairey as conservative, the installation is citywide and outside. It’s geographically expansive scope underlines the shows’ commitment to street art as a movement and may represent an important turning point in the recognition of it in the American public sphere. Naturally, much art is displayed in doors, which always begs the question, “Is this street art too?”. Well, no.

The urban environment of an industrialized world is home to the majority of the planet, so naturally the vernacular of graffiti, advertising, graphic design, photography, signage and all other visual communication has become fair game for the street artist. “Viva la Revolución: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape” is curated by Pedro Alonzo and it’s variety of artists well represents a freeze frame in the current scene. Not all of the artists are strictly street artists, and many began in graffiti but few have participated in a group show that has this much sanctioned access to public space.

The Logan building got called into the show after touring curator Pedro Alonzo through Barrio Logan and talking about the long-standing and essential tradition of street art native to the Barrio. “It would be a mistake to bring artist from around the globe to San Diego  and not recognize the founding fathers of this movement.” we said.  Pedro replied by sending Oaxaca, Mexico tattoo artist Dr. Lakra to art-out our building – The Logan. All of it happened in less than a day. The lift arrived, The Doctor blew-in, climbed on and painted non-stop for hours. A phenomenal work ethic and talent. In the end, he’d brought to life on our north wall, three of his hundred of tattoo sketched he carries around with him.

Dr Lakra's tattoo sketches

Come by and see what the Doctor created. Or take the bike tour of all the installations. And don’t miss the inspired show at downtown’s MCASD.  And the MCASD has people joining as members now that have probably never breathed their air before. Pedro did La Revolucion right.

The Doctor at work

Muralists Crol and Werc finish up their latest commission in Barrio Logan.

Take a look at the making and the results at . . . http://www.laentradaproject.com/videos/pared1web.mov

Also check out the La Entrada Project  community arts website to see how the mural tradition is being kept alive and directed to positive outcomes.

The high energy of graffiti artists Crol vs Werc are at it again -painting a huge mural across the street from Miriello Grafico here at The Logan. Not only are they painting a massive piece three stories up, they have also  organized a series of mural painting seminars over the next three months.  Called the La Entrada Project, “A collaborative art project of public art in personal spaces, meant to “actively cultivates the rich arts tradition in Barrio Logan.”

Teaching in the series of mural training are such  long time gurus Mario Torero, Victor Ochoa and people from the Voz Alta Gallery from here in the Barrio. These guys have their heart in the right place and ask little in return. I’m looking forward to all six weekends seminars with these guys learning mural work, silkscreen and . . . – RM

Scheduling a major party on the first day of the stock market’s downturn and the Vice Presidential debates might seem like its own form of social-suicide. Instead, the opening party of The Logan building was exactly what the masses needed. A place to meet, share, commune and understand that we are all in this together. And quite possibly, the innovation and problem-solving skills of the creative community may be more essential to the national dialogue than ever.

Ron Miriello toasted the crowd, “Our shared abilities of creativity and collaboration are fast becoming a new and important currency-type. As the financial markets waver and the myopic drive for individual wealth is paused, there’s an opportunity for the creative mindset and their unique abilities of invention, collaboration and informed risk-taking. The unique abilities of the people in this room are needed at a time like this.”

The celebration brought over 300 designers, architects, politicos, writers, artists and business people together to enjoy an evening in the creative beachhead neighborhood of Barrio Logan. The hosts – Miriello Grafico and LJG Partners – invited friends, clients and community members to a celebration – and celebrate they did. The Barrio restaurant, The Guild, managed the food and Temecula Valley ConVis organized the wines, all offerings from Temecula Valley. The Barrio Logan spokesperson Rachael Ortiz, arts tagger Crol, and the Mariachi Juvenil helped first-time visitors better understand the rich culture and history of the neighborhood. San Diego architects were plentiful, including the designer of The Logan, Jonathan Segal, who created a space where people obviously love to linger, share and invent.

Watch the party video on YouTube created by Jeff Durkin.                                                                        Find incriminating party pictures on Flickr.

Jeff Durkin and Steve Godwin of Bread Truck Films have been cobbling together street wise independent films for a few years now. They use a low-budget “run and gun” style of film-making that has become their signature. Together with taggers Crol+Werc they’ve been shooting a Barrio Logan based film called Mixed Message which is being cut together this month.

Crow+Werc, Bread Truck Films and Miriello Grafico were into a film that would use the Barrio Logan neighborhood and it’s creative community as the backdrop and reflect on the positive and powerful creative side of urban street life. We’ll add a YouTube link here once it’s ready to preview.

Here are a few shots by Jeff during the shooting and tagging at Miriello Grafico and The Logan.