ArtNow NY Video Short Series Filmed and Produced by John Felix Arnold III

We have been working our tails off on the new ArtNowNY gallery opening at 548 West 28th Street in New York City's Chelsea Arts District this coming Thursday June 7th.  Working around the clock on a list of tasks and deadlines and things that would make any persons head spin.  Being in this new role as Creative Director of the gallery and the Co-curatorial Chair of our programming has been an honor, a pleasure, and one of the most amazing learning experiences of my life.  Not to mention I get to bring people I love and respect into the New York City art scene, in Chelsea no doubt, and work with people that I have admired and looked up to for a very long time.  Shit , I reconnected with Swoon today at the Bushwick Open Studios in Brooklyn, and just that simple interaction alone really made me see that I truly am in the channel of a higher power and living a life that I never dreamed of.  Anyway, all the spiritual mushiness aside, I have really been working just as hard as creative director as I do on my own work, and the balance is creating some amazing programming and collaborative presence in New York.  It feels good to be home.  I created a video series that we will continue throughout the life of ArtNowNY that captures sections of New York life, culture and people.  I filmed Unstoppable Death Machines in Bushwick at a raging show where my homie Ben Robey wild out harder than I have seen in ages (dude fell through the drum set off the bar and kept singing and screaming on the mic!!!!).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ix4wJwJAQk]

I filmed the amazing Alyssa Kazew in the Village dancing at New York's famous Grays Papaya.  I captured Jose Santiago giving a cool patron a straight razor shave design in her hair at Well Connected in the Lower East Side, and I even was shot via Coby Kennedy at Fort Tilden doing what I do best, walking through the middle of nowhere collecting debris and wood to make art with.  I am very, very happy with the videos, and I am truly blessed to be in a position to be able to create them right now and be paid for my work.  Also I connected with old friend and amazing director Lenny Tso who edited the pieces, and I even got to put my own music as the soundtrack to three of the pieces under my music alias Tekkamaki.  Boom, for real!!! Here they are, check them out, more to come, holla.  ArtNowNY launches June 7th in Chelsea.  The its back to Oakland to get ready for OLD CROW YOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_XJMpkXJt4]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vb7GM4rhy0]

Onwards to the East Coast : Fresh New Wheels on the Tar Mac

Sometimes I haveta use this blog to just speak my damn mind, cause its like a bubblin pot of gumbo ready get eating and savored and shit, and analyzed and rethought.  This has been a pretty amazing ride in a short amount of time entering 2012.  I haveta say life has thrown more at me, good and bad, than almost any other time in my life, but the amazing part seems to be this new found ability to cope, handle, stay on task, and move forward positively instead of falling back into old habits.

Sometimes I agree with the phrase youth is wasted on the young, but right now I don't because I am not that old and because I am glad I did all (almost all lol still have those selective "what ifs" for sure that I know I will hold onto for a long time) the things I have done and walked through all of the fire as well as ice cream cake I have in my life.  This show coming up in New York (Eat Peter to Feed Paul @ Littlefield)  and the show I just had in SF (The Love of All Above @ Queens Nails) are really a grounds for me to give appreciation to both places for really nurturing me through some of the best and hardest times I have ever known.  SF was a good foundation for me to lose it, in everyway (shit got dark yo lol) then rebuild, and New York was a beautiful pot luck of inspiration, temptation, and trial and error that I get to thankfully go give back to now with a good head, and right fit mind on my shoulders.  In other words I am ready to fucking rock this show in New York, not in a overblown big headed way, in a thoughtful, right step, calm and collected, do it well and go hard sort of way.  I asked God (my god at least) to please help me get back there someday when I first moved to the Bay, and now after years of becoming a much more "fit to live" person, it is all happening.

I know a lot of people who are very close to me right now that are going through some tough times, very tough times, myself included to a certain degree, and I want to make this trip and this show an experience that demonstrates how appreciative I am for my life and those around me that make it amazing.  We are all in this together, and we have to do all of this together, there is no other way to truly make things amazing. Self will only gets one so far. Building with others and living in love, or at least appreciating the little things and the big ones and always trying to make others know they are appreciated is what makes movements and creates change on a massive scale.  I am coming home New York, get ready because it is a whole different approach to getting on that tar mac this time.  Much Love to Everyone, they know who they are! NGO!  John Felix Arnold III