Miriello Grafico

My friend Sean Kelley let me in on his fondness for the story of Yvon Chouinard, the man behind Patagonia. Over our fruit-plate lunches at Patty’s here in the Barrio, he shared with me the background of the soon-to-be-released movie called 180° SOUTH, that retraces Chouinard’s road trip to South America and Patagonia in the 60’s.  I particularly like the line in the trailer “It’s not an adventure til something goes wrong.”

Talk about a story that has stayed true to the brand, Patagonia is more a brand that has stayed true to “The man”, Chouniard himself.

180° SOUTH is the story of one of the most unique and prolific environmentalists of our time -Yvon Chouinard. Rather than re-living Yvon’s story through old photos and his life’s work with pie charts, 180° SOUTH weaves Chouinard’s tale through a modern day expedition. This expedition was inspired by the rumor of a legendary trip in 1968 and the proof that came with it when the lost cans of film that documented the trip were recently discovered. The old footage captures Chouinard and best friend Doug Tompkins in 1968 as they explore untouched mountain ranges and un-surfed coastline on a 5000 mile expedition from California to deep Patagonia. For the two men, the original ‘68 adventure still stands as “the trip of our lives.”

Thanks Sean.

The great people at Sanctuary 143 pulled off another stellar arts event last Saturday- CONSPIRE - their latest nomadic arts installation. Since the wildly successful Reinventing The Wheel event here at The Logan, CONSPIRE took advantage of Greg Strangmans Martin Building+Flats in Bankers Hill. Each room in the four story 1950’s apartment building was turned into a separate artists or musicians space. Those showing include: Acamonchi, Josh Higgins, Mike Maxwell, Josh and Jeremiah Zimmerman of The Silent Comedy, Josh Shelton, Sean Kelley, Joel P. West, Wes Bruce, Sandee Manuel, Keikichi Honna, Jeff Faeth, Sean Christopher, Tocayo and Will Redd.

I kinda felt like I was walking through a really creative college dormitory where everyone was focused, productive, social and collaborative. Just the way you hoped college would be - but never was. Check out Jeff Durkin’s video of the event at http://vimeo.com/3050203

Miriello Grafico was a sponsor of the event, in total support of giving young artists exposure. It seems to me that groups like Sanctuary 143 and SEZIO are connecting a new audience of people with the arts in ways formal museums can’t, or have no idea how to.  If I was a museum curator in San Diego, I’d be at every one of these events with my notepad and mind wide open.

See more CONSPIRE pictures on Flickr.

The Sanctuary 143 nomadic artist collective opened their Reinventing The Wheel artist installation at Miriello Grafico’s Logan warehouse to over 700 people. “It felt more like New York than San Diego”, “I’ve never seen so many people into an art event in San Diego before”, and “I was blown away to find this level of energy, and in Barrio Logan of all places.”–were some of the comments coming out of the din.

Several artists and bikesmiths, including Ron Miriello of Miriello Grafico, contributed to the show pieces, all based loosely on the theme of reinventing- rethinking- the wheel. Velo Cult of South Park San Diego had 100 night-riding bicycle members arrive in mass to swarm the show and further expand the eclectic crowd of artists, designers, politicos, media, kids, dogs and hipsters.

Sanctuary 143 is an artist group, masterfully driven by Sean and Stacy Kelley and Jeff Faeth, with an approach to arts events founded on low egos, true collaboration and hard work. You can see photos of the Reinventing The Wheel event on Flickr.

Learn more about Sanctuary 143 and their next event  at : http://www.sanctuary143.com/category/events/