To the person who stole the image of Dennis Hopper from THIS:los angeles on
Friday night,
We have a feeling you have no idea what you’ve taken.
You’ve taken the one single physical document of the photographer’s time
with his subject.
This is not a print, as there is no negative. There is only this single
image.
You’ve taken our trust.
You’ve taken others faith in us.
You’ve impacted the way our business, that we have worked so hard to build,
will be able to work with people we respect and love in the future.
A business we do not make a profit from.
There is no way that this Polaroid will ever have the same worth to you that
it holds for Jason, everyone at THIS, and to our community in general. As
long as you have it all you hold is the sadness and anger that has been
created by your taking it.
We personally believe you made a very snap and not very wise decision. It
happens to all of us and all we can do is try to make it right. Many of us
have done this. Please make this right. We are not interested in
prosecution, we are not interested in the monetary worth as ultimately in
the case of this image there actually really isn’t one.
We just want it back.
The show is called These Friends. It is our hand reaching out to our
community, our friends and their friends and inviting them into the space we
have created and we assume you were one of those people. There is a very
good chance that you are a friend of someone who is a friend of the people
who were involved in this show. Please do not steal from your friends.
Even if you aren’t friends with any of the people in the show or at the
gallery, our door was open, no questions asked, to meet and enjoy some
really amazing works of art, by some really exciting and talented artists.
THIS is open for all of us to make new friends and come together as a
community. We feel like we have succeeded in that 10 fold, especially with
this last show. Everyone who we talk to says about how amazing of a night it
was. It’s impossible for us to remember it that way because of this theft.
We opened our doors in hopes to meet new friends and new people in a new
neighborhood and we have, we’ve met so many amazing people and had so many
amazing times. It might not be possible for us to continue the way we have
because of this theft.
All we ask is that you please give it back. Please please return the photo.
We are attempting to write a daily little blurb on most (hopefully all) of the artists involved in our upcoming “These Friends 2″ show opening February 4th but how do we decide who goes in what order? Pick out of a hat! The artwork shown is not what is in the show BTW, you’ll have to come to the show to see that. Here’s Chris Duncan.
I love this man. We first met in the late 80s when I bought 2 tickets for the All – Trailblazer tour in hopes I would get up the nerve to ask this girl in my high school to come with me. I didn’t, but remember seeing this obnoxious kid at skate spots that used to wear a Descendents shirt and decided to ask him instead. We became fast friends and hung out mostly every day for the next 10 years.
I’ve seen Chris’ art from day one and watched in progress to what it is now. When he tells me things like “Berkeley Art Museum bought my 40 foot wide piece from my last show!” I get the feeling like my brother won an olympic gold or my son got drafted by The Lakers. He’s a pretty serious art world guy now but still loves jumping off cliffs into murky water more than anything.
Be sure to check out the raving review in the current issue of Art Forum of his last solo show. Lot’s of big words I didn’t understand. – Jeremy
We are attempting to write a daily little blurb on most (hopefully all) of the artists involved in our upcoming “These Friends 2″ show opening February 4th but how do we decide who goes in what order? Pick out of a hat! The artwork shown is not what is in the show BTW, you’ll have to come to the show to see that. Here’s Mark Penxa.
Never actually met Mark in person but one night while trolling the internet I followed a link from Bend Press and found Mark’s work and fell in lust with it. His portraits of old baseball players is what I found first and everything I’ve seen since blows me away, especially his piece for These Friends 2. From what I can tell he has a great sense of humor and loves hockey but I learned all of this from his Twitter account. I guess I’m a Mark Penxa stalker.
We are attempting to write a daily little blurb on most (hopefully all) of the artists involved in our upcoming “These Friends 2″ show opening February 4th but how do we decide who goes in what order? Pick out of a hat! The artwork shown is not what is in the show BTW, you’ll have to come to the show to see that. Here’s Ashley Snow Macomber.
I think the first time I saw Ashley’s work was in that tiny little room upstairs at the old New Image Art. I couldn’t believe how beautiful and intricate it was. We met soon after through mutual friends No Age and quickly became pals. Her art still amazes me we couldn’t be more excited for her to be in another These Friends show. I guess it means we’re still friends!
We are attempting to write a daily little blurb on most (hopefully all) of the artists involved in our upcoming “These Friends 2″ show opening February 4th but how do we decide who goes in what order? Pick out of a hat! The artwork shown is not what is in the show BTW, you’ll have to come to the show to see that. Here’s Matt Hock.
Matt is hands down the funniest person I have met. In the real world and in the internet world on his blog Drarings We met him over a decade ago in Boston and kept in touch regularly mostly because his band The Explosion would sleep on our couch whenever they were in Los Angeles. When not making little drarings he hustles big companies to give him their money in the advertising world.
Oh, and his piece in These Friends 2 is my favorite so far.
We are attempting to write a daily little blurb on most (hopefully all) of the artists involved in our upcoming “These Friends 2″ show opening February 4th but how do we decide who goes in what order? Pick out of a hat! The artwork shown is not what is in the show BTW, you’ll have to come to the show to see that. Here’s Roger Gastman.
Roger is infamous. He is obsessed with graffiti, ALF, Topanga from Boy Meets World and a whole slew of things I dare not mention online. He is constantly trying to get me to adopt a Yellow lab. Not going to happen. He is one of my best buddies though, so I won’t hold it against him.
Roger has published so many books I can’t begin to count. He started While You Were Sleeping Magazine, co-founded Swindle Magazine and is now in the thick of curating a serious show at MOCA.
He’s the authority on all things illegal involving Tools of Criminal Mischief and breaking artists into great galleries around the world.
I don’t know what his artwork looks like. This is going to be an adventure.
We are attempting to write a daily little blurb on most (hopefully all) of the artists involved in our upcoming “These Friends 2″ show opening February 4th but how do we decide who goes in what order? Pick out of a hat! The artwork shown is not what is in the show BTW, you’ll have to come to the show to see that. Here’s Joel Speasmaker.
Joel is one of the nicest dudes ever. He really is. I met him when I was in college via the internet. He was already running a successful magazine and online art / culture store ( the drama ). He sold some of my shitty handmade books. He moved to LA for a little while, but it didn’t really take, so he moved back east and to NY where he is the principal of This is Forest.
Joel is one of those designers who is very interested in art, but doesn’t let his interest dilute his design. He loves white space, cataloging his vast library of books and zines and Chipotle. Seriously, he loves Chipotle more than anyone, ever.
We are attempting to write a daily little blurb on most (hopefully all) of the artists involved in our upcoming “These Friends 2″ show opening February 4th but how do we decide who goes in what order? Pick out of a hat! The artwork shown is not what is in the show BTW, you’ll have to come to the show to see that. Here’s Alex Lukas.
Alex Lukas is one of those multi-talented creatives that makes you feel lazy. He has the ability to comprise his thoughts into, like, really coherent smart sentences. He really can draw. And I don’t mean draw in the way everyone can “draw”. I mean really draw. He was the kid in class that could draw the best super hero of the time and everyone would want to copy that shit. He can also screen print, paint, design, manage a gallery ( space 1026 ) and answer emails in a timely fashion ( which seems more and more rare these days ).
He also is the recipient of a West Award this year. Nothing to scoff at.
We are attempting to write a daily little blurb on most (hopefully all) of the artists involved in our upcoming “These Friends 2? show opening February 4th but how do we decide who goes in what order? Pick out of a hat! The artwork shown is not what is in the show BTW, you’ll have to come to the show to see that. Here’s Michael C. Hsiung.
What can I say about Michael that hasn’t already been said about his mustache. He is sinister yet kind, well groomed with just a touch of the wild-side, his attention to detail and whispy wonderment engages you while you stare at him.. What?? Anyway, Michael is an amazing illustrator/artist who has taken all the basics of metal and dungeon and dragons, shuffled those ideas through his brain and creates a world full of simple characters that you just want to be around.
