Graphic Content

Page 2 Street Edition

Today features a couple instances of street art that I'm slapping together for a Page 2.

On a recent field trip for reference material for an FP comic (more on that next week), I happened across a few bits of street art.  Evidently Phillips is immune to vandalism and these rogue artists are sticking to magnets (non destructive art for the win).  Introducing Boost from the Magnet Mafia.  I found one of his magnets on the street and snagged it for a closer inspection (I'm a part time art thief).  It features some 3 layer stencil work and is pretty snappy (who doesn't love a Storm-trooper?).  On the back there's an email address and the site Magnet Mafia, a nation wide magnet-graffiti-street-art organization.  It's connection with Sioux Falls is a bit hazy.  So here are those pics along with another piece that I think is pretty great.

 

I like the line work of this second one much better then the stencil action.  And the skull isn't obnoxious, which is a plus.

In other magnetic street art news, I also come across some stragglers from from Think Tank's "the Pond".  Here are some pics of a few on fire hydrants.  And there is also a setup in Zanbroz for TT buttons!  Exactly like that in Michelle's!  Who didn't tell me about this?!  I asked the counter person and they said it had been up for a month and a half, so pretty close to Michelle's setup.  The only difference here is that the buttons are in a Mason jar instead of the previously seen fishbowl.  These appear to be the only two setups, but who knows?  I checked a few other businesses and nada.

Nice!

Send work in to [email protected] or [email protected] and get your stuff published on Graphic Content today!

-kiel mm.

Another GC page 2

When it can't make the front page, it makes "Page 2"

First off, get out and vote.  Pronto.

Secondly, today's banner is courtesy of Brian Hauge.  He told us he was inspired by our current economic situation, reminiscent of the 30's era Depression.  Wow, Brian, thanks for setting the mood.  Just kidding!  (But seriously...)  Really, I dig it.  It's a fun effect.  Nice!  More of Brian's great work can be found at brianhauge.com.

Finally, unless anybody can prove us wrong, Think Tank's most recent project "the Pond" has come to a close.  We haven't seen any more buttons on Phillips and all the free ones at Michelle's have been "swagged" away.  Rest in peace Pond.  So.... what's next Think Tank?

Till next time, kiddos.

Send art submissions in to [email protected] or [email protected].

-kiel mm.

Think Tank's newest distribution plan is... free swag?

Stuff We All Get.

That's right gawkers, free Think Tank's "the Pond" buttons!  At Michelle's on Phillips Ave!  We had a couple people contact us yesterday about this little play.  They claimed there were TT buttons for the taking at Michelle's.  After work I did a little on site investigation and sure enough: a fish bowl full of TT's the Pond buttons has appeared at Michelle's.  A sign reads "Take a dip in the Pond." and "Fish for $0" and "brought to you by your local think tank".  I talked briefly with Michelle and she said it was waiting for her at her front door yesterday morning with a note saying "they" enjoy her lattes.  According to Michelle the bowl was originally half full of buttons.  This confirms our assumption that the buttons/magnets are for the taking.  So grab away!

Click to enlarge (sorry for my "s" to the "hitty" quality pics, dang camera)

Those of us in marketing know there's no better way to get people to wear your logo then offering free stuff, so if this is a super elaborate guerilla marketing scheme, I say "Hats off to you for tricking us Think Tank, but I will never post any of your mock-"art" again."  If however, they are robots with the sole intention of creating art (as we suspect), I say keep it coming.

Until next time kiddos.

-kiel mm.

Think Tank's "The Pond"?!

That's right, we interrupt the regularly scheduled GC submissions for this breaking news.  We received an email Saturday night at 11.12 from none other then Think Tank.  In typical TT fashion, the message was short:

"We are Think Tank.

The Pond is another of our projects."

Attached were the following five pictures-

We received this email over the weekend and didn't see it until this morning, so we're unable to tell you exactly what they are or where they are.  But if their previous Poppins Project is any indication, it is a guerilla/installation effort on Phillips Ave (see also the parking meters and the parking situation in the 3rd picture).  After work I'm going to take a little jog down Phillips for some on-site investigation.

Other tidbits-

-Unlike previous emails from Think Tank, I ([email protected]) wasn't the only one sent the email.  Another mystery address was sent it as well.  "fb.art"?

-There are, by our count, 7 different design "buttons" (?) with an aquatic theme (thus "The Pond").

-In their email, TT sounded mysteriously like a robot, leading us here at GC to believe that TT is actually a group of artistically minded robots.

We will keep you updated with any additional information as tomorrow I will see if I can track down a few of these "street buttons".

Keep your eyes peeled, gawkers.

-kiel mm.

GC's Page 2

Hey GC gawkers,

We're going to be taking today to play a little catch up on some little things that didn't make our front page.

First off- another TT kite has bitten the dust.  In my daily commute to the office, I pass under the Phillips to the Falls arch and discovered on Tuesday the monkey pattern kite was gone.  A tragic day.  One remains that we know of.  I shall not name the location of the "last" kite as I'm sure the Man and his street cleaning team monitors this blog daily.  Loose lips sink ships, eh?

What's next Think Tank?  What's next?

Second-  The HotHot Sasquash is our mysterious, half-squash-half-beast-all-awesome HHN spokesperson and he wants to be your facebook friend!  So add HotHot Sasquash as a friend and join in on the fun.

Here's a Polaroid taken of HotHot and his friend Farmer Digmund.

Finally, this last weekend I had the privilege of meeting Sarah Morean and Will Dinski in real life!  Sarah Morean is a SooFoo/Minneapolis resident that has submitted to GC before and Will Dinski is her boyfriend, who is a comic book artist as well.  It was ultra great.  They are certified, bona-fide comic book artists.  It was like meeting rockstars... or superheroes... or rockstar superheroes.... or superheroes that sometimes play the guitar they're that awesome.  It was great.  Check out their stuff at-

smorean.com

willdinski.com

Oh, and also, our deep expansive well of submissions has dried up.  We got nothing.  Bupkis.  Nada.  So please please please send in anything you have ever created to [email protected] or [email protected].  If we get nothing, GC cannot exist.  We're pretty sure (like 95%) that Sioux Falls has talent in the visual arts.  < / begging >

have a good weekend and see you on Monday...

- kiel mm.

It's Tuesday, and we have Fresh Friday's podcast!

Alright gawkers,

The long awaited FF podcast is finally here.  Ted takes to the streets to drudge up what he can about the Think Tank Poppins Project.  He talks through the whole fiasco in a very succinct manner and then talks to southdacola.com's Scott Erisman about his interpretation and coverage of the event.  It's a nice little listen.

You can listen to this week's Fresh Friday by subscribing to it on iTunes or you can just click on this little link...

http://www.pickfresh.com/files/pods/FF-19-Fresh-Friday-Think-Dacola.mp3

And that's the last word on GC about the Poppins Project!  We're done with it!  Good job, Think Tank, for monopolizing our blog for a week!  We're through with it!  Let's get back to the other artists...  Until next time, Think Tank... until next time...

Here's that lame podcast graphic again...

Alright gawkers, we're coming right at you again tomorrow to show and tell about regional arts and artists.  Amateur and pro alike.  So send in web friendly jpegs to [email protected] or [email protected].  We got fresh work coming your way this week, including Medema & Lavin, Hauge, another strip from the Sharkboy Chronicals, and GC is proud to introduce a new face to the stage, Holli Rausch.

Thanks for sticking with us, Gawkers.  Keep those submissions coming.

-kiel mm.

A little teaser for tomorrow

Alright gawkers, a quick thing before your weekend.  In keeping with his strict adherence to releasing the Fresh Friday podcast on Friday, Ted Heeren has uploaded a teaser podcast for this week.  Ted defends his innocence and typical Ted antics ensue.  The actual full length podcast will be out tomorrow-ish.  As this is related to the Think Tank Poppins Project, we are posting this week's FF podcast.  Subscribe to it on iTunes or click on the link below-

http://www.pickfresh.com/files/pods/FF-18-South-Dacola-Teaser.mp3

Stay tuned tomorrow for the full Fresh Friday podcast and hear FP's Ted Heeren and southdacola.com's Scott Erhisman discuss the kite project, guerilla art, and what it means for Sioux Falls.

Sorry about this lame graphic...

Talk to you tomorrow.

-kiel m.

What a week...

Alright Gawkers,

Coverage is almost done, I promise!  A couple new facts have come to light over online discussion and conversation I have overheard.  Evidently the police scare has been somewhat exaggerated (sorry for being a sensationalist...) and are aimed at deterring copycats or Think Tank themselves from striking again.  By my count from the ones I had seen up, only 2 remain (keep your eyes peeled...).

Also, we noticed an obscene amount of page visits (273!!) coming to our little blog yesterday from a place called southdacola.com/blog.  I checked it out only to find they were having their own little discussion about the project.

Here are those articles with comments-

"Pick Fresh" gets tagged to the action

Ted Heeren gets tagged to the project

There is some great stuff going on with this project.  Some great discussion!  Ted has gotten a big kick out of being fingered for the project and has decided to interview southdacola.com's Scott Ehrisman for this week's Fresh Friday (which might be a Fresh Saturday...).  We'll try to post that tomorrow.  Ted says he is innocent, so tune in to see if they can identify the true culprit(s)!  (and if it's any consolation, judging from his Sharkboy and Soy Sauce comics, there is no way he is capable of pulling off an artistic project of any sort...)

In response to the post about GC/Fresh Produce/"Pick Fresh" and TT, we're not going to say much (in fear of a "me thinks the lady doth protest too much" trap).  But I will say that Think Tank emailed us claiming responsibility for the project and gave us some pictures of the kites.  We post any and all art we are emailed.  We thought it was great so we posted it.  The pictures over the past few days have been a combination of TT's emailed pics and pics we took ourselves.  If we've been bamboozled into some elaborate guerilla marketing ploy, they got us.  We're transfixed.  We're sucked in.  We've fallen for it.  But we like to think it's a bunch of rogue 2nd graders makin' art.

And while we've gotten a sruge in visits, let me take this time to invite all of you to send your stuff in to Graphic Content to get it posted!  GC is about celebrating local art, so if you doodle, draw, paint, photo, or sculpt, we want to see it.  Send your stuff in to [email protected] or [email protected].  Make sure you get a response email from us to know that your stuff has been received.  And we usually don't give this crazy amount of commentary, honest.  We try to let the work speak for itself.

Here are a few more pics-

 

After I post tomorrow's Fresh Friday, we will return to normally scheduled GC entries and leave this TT event behind us (sorry TT..).  Stay tuned next week for Brian Hauge's interpretation of North Dakota, a collaboration between Cassie Medema and Sarah Lavin (?!), and the newest installment of Sharkboy and Soy Sauce (by Ted "Artistic Mastermind" Heeren).

What a week folks...

-kiel mm.

The kites continue to fall

Hey Gawkers!

This is exciting.  Here at Graphic Content, we continue to bring you coverage on the kite installation that went up on Phillips Ave a few days ago.  The art installation, which may be deemed "The Poppins Project", has met strong resistance by the Man and few remain up.  

I, Kiel MagicMouse, bring you news from the frontlines: I was at Michelle's for lunch yesterday enjoying a tasty Southwestern wrap when I heard some Downtown Denizens turn their conversation toward that of the kites!  I was unable to do an official interview but I did pick up the following snippets of conversation:

-According to one, there is a police squad/investigation looking into the kite installations to see if there is a gang connection!  Are you kidding me?!  Gang connection?  That's their reaction to an art installation?

-Another assumed it was a guerilla marketing ploy.  Hmmmm, is Think Tank a rogue marketing ploy?  (cou-sellouts-gh)

-One speculated that the shear number of kites lent them to believe that it would've taken a gang of ten people an hour to put them all.  So is Think Tank less of a group and more of a commune?  Or are they truly a gang?

-Another speculated that it was probably a group of 2nd graders.

-The material of the kites has been found to be masonite.

-the Police and City (and the Man) are working diligently to bring this kite fiasco to an end.  Thanks Sioux Falls, your help is much appreciated < / Sarcasm >

So, without further ado, I'm attaching some pics I got from the Think Tank email yesterday.

Click on images to enlarge and enjoy.

Over stop lights

 

In trees

 

Love the interaction between sculptures-

 

the Poppins Project?

So there you have it folks.  If there's any more news, we'll bring it to you.  Breaking coverage of Sioux Fall's first guerilla art project.  You heard it here first.  Eat your heart out Argus Leader and Kelo.

If you have any tidbits or want to see your art up here, send your info into [email protected] or [email protected]

Keep kite-in' Gawkers.

-kiel mm.

"What happens when you fly a kite in the city?"

Thus was the name of the email I got yesterday from our friend(s) at Think Tank (!!).  It appears as though Sioux Falls has received it's first true street art installation!  Yes, my friends, Think Tank has moved out of the bathroom stall and onto Phillips Ave in downtown Sioux Falls.  Awesome.  I got an email from them yesterday along with some pics.  I checked it out after work and it's legit!  There are wooden kites scattered all along Phillips Ave!  According to TT's email there were "27 lost kites" downtown but over half of them have already been "found by the Man".  Ultra awesome.  I don't know what to say.  I've attached some pictures I took of the ones I could find that were still up (it's like an Easter egg hunt with kites).  The "kites" are wooden cutouts with screen-printed designs on one side and the TT logo on the other side.  I saw three different patterns, a barrel of monkeys pattern, a fish pattern, and a giraffe/llama pattern (from what I could determine).  

Holy ultra, GC Gawkers.  Sioux Falls just got a big dose of art to the face.

Click below for larger images-

Zanbroz-

Rehfeld-

 

Others-

 

 

I'll post the ones the TT email had later.

Until then, keep a look out...

You can email TT at [email protected].

And thank you, Think Tank.  Thank you.

-kiel mm.