Fear Beer Bear - Shot Chaser

Line Drawing

Painting

Final

This piece was for a zine in my conceptual illustration class. The theme was Fear Beer Bear and chose to illustrate the issue of date rape. Kinda heavy. The lyrics are bits and pieces from Atmosphere songs.

Figure Painting- 003

This was the largest I've painted so far. It was a 2 session painting so maybe 5-6 hours to complete. I just began adding colors and working the smaller shapes.

Eyedea

A few weeks ago, a musician that changed my life passed away. I couldn't say he was one of my favorites and I wasn't sure how to feel when I first heard the devastating news. But the more I read about it the more disheartened I felt. He changed my life because he opened the world of hip hop for me, back when I only saw what was on mtv. Rap was the first element I was exposed to, was the most horrible at but became an expressive vessel for my life.

I first saw Eyedea battling on HBO in a competition called The Blaze Battle back in 2000. Man, he ripped his opponents so easily! This opened me up to the underground scene, back when Rhymesayers and Definitive Jux were barely coming up. It went to Scribble Jam, Rawkus Records, Hieroglyphics, Del, Non Phixion, Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, Cage, Stretch and Bobbito, the Wake Up Show, etc. I watched his battles over and over again which lead to other battles and freestyles. This world of hip hop was my school and my homework. After school I went to learn one of the elements of hip hop. I wasn't into the high school experience thing. I fell in love with hip hop and it changed my life. Any BBoy, MC, writer, or dj will tell you the same thing.

Freestyles were the best. The spontaneous build up of energy amongst peers or colleuges or strangers allowed me to become expressive. The best thing I learned was that It is OK to fail, just keep going! Which is something I always forget to do. Failing is such an important part of learning. The battle scene also kept your ego stable because the props you get are well deserved and if your ego is inflated, there will always be someone to knock it down. In the end, it's all fun and sometimes competition but we were all in it for the same goals. I know I'm just ranting now.

Anyway, I just wanted to say Thank You to Micheal 'Eyedea' Larsen for teaching me to know myself and to be confident through it. Your music and voice has touched many hearts and changed the hip hop world forever. Rest in Peace.

Listen to E&A sometime.