CULTURE DESIGNERS.
September 5, 2009

Over the past couple of weeks we've had some great visitors pop through the office.

Kazuki. Chup2? Thanks for everything, I'll see you shortly. Hope you had a good flight home.

And a wonderful visit from artist Angry Woebots and none other than the legendary Chaz Bojorquez, the father and creator of the LA 'cholo' style writing/graffiti. That's his wife Christina next to him, and music artist King Kapisi chilling in the background. Aaron and Chaz are both in town for a big art show next Tuesday in downtown Auckland, but they decided to pop in for a chat and to discuss some ideas. It's hard to put into words the amount of influence Chaz has had over his 40 year old career, and it was mind boggling to listen to him talk about some of the projects that I had no idea he was involved it - ie, Master inking artwork for The Empire Strikes Back, The Warriors, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and the amount of artists like Usugrow who have been spawned by being inspired by his 'cholo' lettering style. I was floored when he showed me his bio/portfolio - over 25 pages long... and that's all text, no images. Everything from being credited to gang symbols to items included in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian institute.

He also brought up something really interesting in the conversation that I'd never heard before - he doesn't consider himself just an artist, or a painter. For someone who has surpassed so many different mediums and gets to the point of influencing and impacting the culture on the whole, what do you call oneself? He calls himself a culture designer.

The more you think about it, the more truth you see behind that title.

We will be hosting a special invite-only night with Chaz next Saturday, inside our quarters boutique space. A select few individuals will be given the opportunity to listen to Chaz speak on his experiences spanning '69-'09, and be involved a special Q&A session with him, as well as the opportunity to buy signed prints on the night.

Welcome back to New Zealand Chaz.