OPEK LIFE

That’s Where the Beauty Is

OPEK — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 23:48:14 +0000

Perhaps one of my favourite moments in an art documentary is Margaret Kilgallen’s famous ‘That’s Where The Beauty Is’ from Art21. The section I’ve quoted below is one I love, but the whole video is worth watching. “I think it’s the part that’s ‘off’ that’s interesting…That even if I spend a lot of time…Going over […]

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Creating Contrast As An Artist

OPEK — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 17:35:53 +0000

Edge control and contrast are two of the most potent poison’s in an artist’s arsenal. In your reference photo above, you see a dance of… Dark lines versus light lines Thin lines versus thick lines Sharp lines versus dull lines Hard lines versus soft lines Thatâ€™s the big idea of artâ€¦ you have to choose […]

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There is no perfect solution other than to get to work

OPEK — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 02:08:20 +0000

My carbon paper showed up yesterday, so I’ve been excited all week to play with it, transferring line-art from a photo into a sketchbook, as a basis to paint over. This will save me a bunch of time from my current method, where I’m laying down a light grid on my paper, and another on […]

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The ‘Van Dyck Z’ and How Art Continues to Inspire Me

OPEK — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 01:33:58 +0000

Hours and hours are spent ingesting art content â€“ instructional videos, courses, and otherwise â€“ as part of my creative brain’s outlet. I often find myself putting on a 1- or 2-hour YouTube livestream of an artist explaining something in place of music when I have something to do and need something on in the […]

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New FES 1 interview at The Graffiti Museum Company

OPEK — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 14:22:58 +0000

Just saw the homie FESTER SDK has a new interview over at the Graffiti Museum Company. As one of my earliest friends in the graffiti scene, he mentions a lot of the same names I came up; it was a real trip down memory lane with one of Canada’s powerhouses in graff. Check it out […]

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The resurgence of Art & Creativity in a COVID19 World

OPEK — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 17:49:08 +0000

The art world has been flourishing in the past few weeks, after having been locked up (or locked down, depending on how you look at it) by the COVID19 virus pandemic. Or as your racist friend from high school is calling it on Facebook… the “China virus”. As the days turn to weeks, and the […]

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A Complete Society6 Product List For Your Creative Projects & Products

OPEK — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 19:34:11 +0000

Try as you might, it’s hard to find a full society product list, a list of all the available products a creative can make and sell easily at Society6. What is Society6? How to sell art as a side hustle… If you’re an artist who has great art ready to go, but don’t have an […]

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Inside an Artist’s Mind with Douglas Panzone

OPEK — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 20:36:36 +0000

It was really cool hearing Douglas Panzone outline his artistic process, and hearing about the vulnerability of an artist when approaching his/her own work. He mentions not wanting to use stencils/cardboard for shading because he wants it to be difficult, which is I think something that lies in the heart of a lot of graffiti […]

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HERA: Colombian graffiti artist

OPEK — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 09:39:56 +0000

When I met HERA, one of Bogota’s (Colombia) highest profile female graffiti artists, I was struck by her friendliness, and her relaxed attitude to a North American showing up to watch her paint. She is confident and colourful, equal parts grounded & girlie. She is friendly, smiley and a pleasure to know. When I came […]

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ZOER CSX: Artist profile

OPEK — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:52:37 +0000

I first came across ZOER’s graffiti work on the Internet a few years back. His style stood out as not following rules or trends. It had a personality of its own. From there I learned more about how deep his artistic talents went. This guy is freakish with acrylics, pencil, Illustrator, and presumably anything else […]

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