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| Feature by Roller :: Thursday, November 27, 2003 |
| DJ Shiro takes really good pictures. He also makes dope stickers. Read on… |
| Introduce yourself... Where you from? How did you get started w/ street art/ stickering/ postering whateve’s you want to call it? My full name is Shiro, I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and my nationality is Blackanese (Black/Japanese). I was introduced to graffiti in the 80's through my involvement in Hip-Hop. I used to break-dance and make pause tapes with my cousin. Soon after a friend of ours showed us his “Subway Art” book, from that day on we started going out and bombing everything in site, finally the dynamic duo made the jump to doing burners in yards. A few years down the road I put graffiti on the back burner, we got board with bombing, so we started skateboarding and making music again, that lead to making shirts, stickers and stencils for my skateboard. Our boards were the perfect vehicles to transport us around the city to tag and put up stickers. Your Buddha stickers - Why did you choose that image? What meaning does it have for you? My Mom introduced me to Buddhism at an early age it had a really strong and positive impact on my life. It's a symbol I like using [because] to me it represents being in an enlightened state of mind. I feel it offsets any bad karma I caused from defacing other peoples property. What’s the deal with stickering the TVs? Is it common to see old TVs on the streets of L.A.? The part of Los Angeles I live in is "transitional" it's a middle class ghetto, it used to be a upper middle class Jewish community, now it’s a mixed bag of nuts that don’t take pride in where they live, they just ditch old TVs and furniture on the sidewalk and it sits there for weeks. So I decided since the shit was there I’d give it some curb appeal by putting stickers and doing full paintings on them, it makes them look more desirable, and hopefully keeps property value up. I'm in the process of making a map on my website of their location so people can find the TVs, and other discards I've painted and pick them up, it’s my way of getting others involved in recycling and art collecting at the same time. Free art as a reward for being kinder to the environment and Mother Nature. Loving the shopping cart stunt. Did you just do it one time or do you continue to sticker grocery stores? I've been hitting a lot of shopping carts; I see them as unexplored territory on my evolutionary scale of graffiti vehicles. i.e.: subway cars, freights, busses, delivery trucks, and shopping carts. My goal is to be the first artist to go "all city" in all the major grocery stores. Now a word from our sponsor, evolutionary scale of graffiti vehicles T-shirts will be available at my web site soon! (www.antisocialworker.com) How do you make your stickers? Any favorite materials/products? My favorite sticker making technique is hand cut multi-layered spray painted stencils on vinyl, sticker paper and floor tiles. Sometimes I get stickers printed at Kinko’s, I also make 4”x6” silkscreen stickers on my Gocco. Any tips? Wear an orange safety vest with a graffiti removal stenciled on the back, so you can bomb in broad daylight. Props to Engine from THR for the idea! Quality beats quantity Sidewalk stencils rule! I think every taxpayer has a right to at least one square of sidewalk. It's like making your own Hollywood star. Other L.A. artists to watch out for: Workhorse Collective:(Logan Hicks, Freddi C, Sergio Hernandez, Lesley Reppeteaux) and Orphan, Buff Monster, Siezer and Tofer. Any last words? "Dear Lord: The gods have been good to me. For the first time in my life, everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is. So here's the deal: You freeze everything the way it is, and I won't ask for anything more. If that is OK, please give me absolutely no sign. OK, deal. In gratitude, I present you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, give me no sign. Thy will be done." Homer Simpson |
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