KARMEN DELIGHT

Karmen Delight (born Carmen Acosta) is an established graphic artist out of Los Angeles, California. With 7 years experience in the music industry her work can be seen on album covers for such hip hop artists as the Living Legends, 2mex, & The Shapeshifters. Currently, Karmen is a National Designer for House of Blues Inc. where her love and knowledge of music continues to co-exist with her eye for design. Her artistic style has been described as innovative and conceptually unique.

 

YELLEY

I’m a painter, a builder, a designer, a decorator, a teacher and a critic. I obtained a B.A. in Studio Arts: Mixed Media from San Diego State University in 2005 but my real education came from the school of hard knocks. I experiment with many forms of art so that I can surround myself in it from all sides. I love architecture and interior spaces, the wonders of nature, the patina and history of found objects, bold pop aesthetics and urban living. So it’s inevitable that my artwork be just as diverse. I work in various mediums and dimensions, to reflect my subject matter which is influenced by global issues like world cultures, history, politics and anthropology, as well as more personal issues like fear, addiction, and domestic turmoil.

I see my drawing style as a kind of decorated animation. The lines are unapologetically simple, but it’s me – trying to give some clarity to my train of thought. In reality, I cope with humor and wit, and in art I illustrate with a soft brush and a pearl finish. I choose to dip my troubles in sparkles and cram them into gold frames, if for nothing else, just to make them seem real and worthy. But to feel the tension or emotion of my work, you have think conceptually and peel away all the superficial layers …In my world, the ugly things are always masked by pretty appearances… and the pretty things are shrouded in sadness. I also use decorative mediums to address the social dichotomy of Arts vs. Crafts - Art being the intellectual work of men, and Craft being the kitschy hobby mediums labeled as feminine, and therefore inferior. I am an activist at heart and I guess one day I’d like to prove that a woman can use craft mediums to create intellectual work.

- Danielle “Yelley” Rauto

 

SARAH SPINKS

Tattoo Artist, Married, 25, B.A. Literature and writing studies, TCB
I must make art. I must turn the ideas in my head into something I can revisit on occasion, something tangible, something I can share with others.

I made my dream job a reality and tattoo five days a week, in the quaint hillside town of Bonsall, at American Tattoo. I look forward to many more happy years of making art. I thank everyone who has helped me along the way. Thank you.

My process is varied, but I always strive to keep my work readable. I use acrylic watercolors in most of my paintings, and a technique called spit-shading, which has been passed down and around amongst tattooers appreciative of the traditional ascetic.

I want my art to look bad ass. I want it to pull you in. Rock 'n' Roll forever. I love Chad.

 

RON RAUTO

Q: Where do you get influences for your fine art?
A: Lots of things inspire me like graffiti, photography, music, tattoos, people… everything. I have been drawing all my life; almost everything artistic I do is in my sketchbook. Graphic design comes pretty natural to me, make something look dope! Logos, Type, ad ideas, web sites, whatever it is- make it look good and polished. And I love photography, capturing that exact second, person or feeling. Some of my photos have become paintings. I try to create art that provokes something.. emotion, thought, a feeling- anything.

Q: How do you pay for your art habit?
A: Well, I am the Creative Director at a design and marketing firm called Namtra Media from 9 to 5. After that job, I come home to my second office where my wife Danielle (”Yelley”) and I run a clothing company called Dudebro Apparel. It’s a lot of work but it’s what I love to do.

Q: How did you get into art on t-shirts?
A: All through high school I airbrushed t-shirts. I went by “Kolorblind”. I must have airbrushed over a 1000 shirts. Then in college I took a couple screen printing classes. And my last job was at a screen printing shop in Encinitas. I love the idea of reproduction of a drawing. Seeing a design being printed over and over again and people wearing my canvas’.

Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I moved from Honolulu, Hawaii when I was 15 and settled in Oceanside, CA. I will always love Hawaii and hope to retire there, but I’ve been in Cali almost 15 years now and it’s definitely my home.

Q: Name three adjectives that describe your style:
A: Graphic. BOLD. Clean.

 

ARTOO

It’s the Aye aRe Tee Double Oh. Another day in the life of the Bio-Mechanical, Fully Diabolical Half Man, Half Machine. The hip-hop resurrector, the dead jonny distant, guitar smashing rockstar bass dropper. Hardest working soldier of the unknown, the Circle Cypher Vulture a.k.a. Mitch Bagnet. Nike obsessed baddest poet, self-inflicted starving art victim seeks visual asylum and a dirty rotten good girl. Single handed wax drummer / boom-bap technician, got plenty of breaks. Bad to the skeleton, harder than a math test. Can't stop - won't stop, don't sleep & never rest. Mixtape mafia boss skratch perversionist. you haven't even heard the worst of it, suit wearing bad mutha fucka sneaker fetishist, stencil bandit, light me a cigarette and call it a night. paint splattered last rider, late night studio dweller, riot insiter, sword carrying sushi lover, calm on the surface with ink just below, mic thief/stealer of the show, vinyl junkie kid scarer, beat sequencing movement manipulator, sound of creative destruction, old school type wants Old Skool romance, Blak Hearted Bastard suicide king in a b-boy stance, hand styler/ghost reader, graff meets nouveau, beak in the bird feeder, loved by many, adored by the rest.