August 8, 2018 we showed street artist James Wilde some love, and here we are a year later and even with all these changes and so much new stuff going on – yeah, we still love her!
BTW, one week until we open at our new location – 645 S. Los Angeles Street. Will you be there?
This video of our friend S.C. Mero, a DTLA artist who shops at Raw Materials, is also about a year old. Have you seen her remote-controlled traffic cone zipping through the hood? 🚧 Unfortunately the traffic cone wasn’t with her when she was walking from Sonoratown recently, and she, along with her companion, was hit by a drunk driver and rushed to the hospital with a concussion and other injuries. S.C. assured us through her social media platforms that she is okay and full of love. She’s so amazing. We’re so relieved she’s got such a hard head that she survived. Yay, artists!
Happy Lunar New Year! To kick off our February sale, we are featuring artist Sam Larson (@samlarson) and Krink’s K-42 Opaque Permanent Paint Markers and K-70 Permanent Ink Markers, which are on sale for 20% off!  Check out some of Larson’s recent drawings below.
The K-42 is a classic paint marker. It comes in 17 colors, here Larson uses Light Blue, Orange, and Yellow. The alcohol-based paint is permanent, opaque, and non-toxic. The marker features a broad-tip with valve-action so that the artist can lay down an abundance of color while strictly regulating the paint’s flow. Handmade in the USA.
This marker is a great all-around marker for everyday use. It has a large capacity and valve-action tip, so it can easily be re-inked and last a long time. Additionally, the nib is double sided, with a 3mm bullet tip on one side and a 5mm chisel tip on the other! High quality alcohol-based ink is permanent, opaque, and excellent for use on paper, cardboard, metal, and painted surfaces. Available in Super Black, Cyan, and Magenta. Handmade in the USA.
Did you catch our blog post from a week ago hipping you to S.C. Mero’s exhibition at the LA Art Show? The day after the L.A. Art Show closed, Mero took Deborah Vankin from The LA Times on a tour of her street sculptures and Vankin wrote it up:
“The cone was part of Mero’s eight-piece solo exhibition presented by Art Share L.A., a nonprofit supporting emerging local artists. Mero’s public art installations, which she’s been making since she graduated from USC in 2011, typically dot the sidewalks of downtown L.A.’s Arts District, where Art Share L.A. is based. The conceptual sculptures employ humor to shed light on pressing urban issues such as gentrification, drug addiction and homelessness.”
“I just love how Sarah directs a lens onto dire societal issues,” said Art Share L.A. Executive Director Cheyanne Sauter. “But she relies so much on the accidental audience, and I wanted to make that more intentional by bringing her there.”
If you missed her show, we recommend you take a self-guided tour of S.C. Mero‘s street art, the locations are listed in the LA Times article.
If you’re at the LA Art Show today, we highly recommend you check out one of our favorite exhibits by one of our favorite artists – Art Lives Here: S.C. Mero Presented by Art Share L.A. She has her remote-controlled traffic cone with her, and if your timing is right, she might take you and the traffic cone for a spin around the convention room floor.
“Art Share L.A. has partnered with skid-row based, emerging guerrilla artist S.C. Mero to bring a taste of the streets of Downtown Los Angeles to LA Art Show. Embodying the nature of downtown, the onsite installation pieces are just a teaser to the larger site map of her work – which guides attendees into downtown to explore our community under the guise of a pseudo street art scavenger hunt. Each of her site-specific, clever creations calls attention to issues surrounding homelessness, gentrification, drug use, global warming, and more. The goal of this project is to encourage further exploration of underground art, arts activism, and social justice in the Downtown community in a way that is inviting and accessible for everyone.”
