create2xs

Chad Martin

excessive creator, observer, urban scout, artistic detective, eclectic taste tester, and Art Director

create2xs@gmail.com facebook.com/create2xs twitter.com/create2xs

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random acts of photography

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Crosswalk Character

Crosswalk Character

pedestrian creative lays repeatedly flattened by motorists for all who cross Houston St. to quickly appreciate. This loose piece of installation art feels pure and spontaneous, birthed from the boredom of painting the same white road markings over and over again. Honorable mention for crosswalk creative pieces go to the Mr. Clean Ad, and the accidental yet appalling School Crossing spelling error

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Toys

chain smoking dogs, dizzy mechanical hamsters, and scurrying microchip bugs; toys exercise our imagination, promote creativity, and inspire playtime for all ages. I have never given up my love of Legos, those little blocks are like a blank canvas. It is easy to appreciate all the imagination and design hours that go into making toys. Toy design is truly an art form, and maybe the most creative are the plush and vinyl Designer Toys that gained popularity in the late 90s. From Ancient Greek Toys to the battery powered computer chip programmed interactive toys we have today, toys are still helping the youth grow up and the adults stay young. In retrospect I regret blowing up my G.I. Joes with M80 firecrackers back in the 80s

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Mona Lisa?

Mona Lisa?

DaVinci inspired discovery on Franklin Street in Brooklyn, not the Louvre. It could be an accidental graffiti Mona Lisa. Either way, it is another in a series of reproductions that collectively provide a new perspective on the classic masterpiece. Leonardo Da Vinci first painted Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) beginning in 1503, and finished it shortly before his death in 1519. Oil paint on wood. Size: 30×20″. It has since become the most famous and most reproduced painting in the world, and a favorite subject of generations of artist there after. Contributors to a new Mona Lisa include Marcel Duchamp, Rene Margritte, Salvador Dali, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat

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No Diving

information design for shallow divers. The redundancy of the bloody illustration is necessary as the 3 foot depth marker is clearly not enough. If this graphic warning keeps even one drunken summer vacationer from cracking their head open then there is no doubt to its efficacy. There certainly is an underlying humor to it, similar to the Slow Children At Play sign, poor little slow children

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Happenings

Happenings

performances like this Union Square didgeridoo percussionist, and other completely random acts of public creativity, are quite common in fair weather New York. So many creative expressions occur in such close proximity here that sometimes events defy all probability. Case in point: I was having a random conversation with a Tuba player on the L train the other day, and I asked him if he ever played solo on the subway platform for money. He thought it was a ridiculous idea, claiming the Tuba was a supporting instrument in a larger band. But when the train arrived at the very next stop, we both witnessed a solo tuba player out on the platform playing for money. We looked at each other in complete disbelief. But that’s New York

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Milk Trick

living tie-die yielded extraordinary results using simple household ingredients. A plate is filled with a thin layer of milk. A few drops of food coloring (less is more) is added, the different colors are evenly spaced around the center of the plate. Lastly, a single drop of dish soap in the center of the plate activates the colorful experiment. The Milk Trick yields color and movement for approximately 5 minutes before the colors begin to get muddy. Rinse and repeat as often as you want, or until you run out of milk. A safe, fun, hallucinogenic experience for the entire family

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Midas

dog shit spray painted gold

found art on sidewalk had two creators— a canine collaboration with the artist with the golden touch, or at least a can of gold spray paint. This is an obvious and incredible effort to make the worthless, priceless. And it certainly highlights laziness, for if this crap were gold you better be sure the owner would have picked it up. A dog that shits gold, awesome. This was not the first time shit was used in art, and it probably won’t be the last. I suppose its up to the viewer to decide if this anonymous artist is full of shit, or solid gold

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Poster Boy

Dunkin' Dummy

ads suck, well most of them do. They surround us in a bombardment of relentless commercialism. Luckily there is a cure, Poster Boy! Brooklyn subway riders certainly know him by his work. Altering the same stale subway ads into new compositions and thoughtful juxtapositions, the collage pits the same advertising imagery against itself to great affect. Sometimes using elements from two or more posters right next to each other. Yes its vandalism, he get’s in trouble all the time. Slicing into ads must be bad for MTA advertising sales. And Poster Boy (Henry Matyjewicz) has been almost as prolific as Richard Poultry. While heat from the police may limit future altered ads from his conceptual razor blade, you can always pick up his new book Poster Boy: The War of Art

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80s Art

80's Art

sidewalk gallery showcases a sexy Post-Modern Pop Art 80′s relic, ready to grace the wall of some lucky Brooklyn hipster’s apartment. A plastic mold created this low-level relief, with details extending as much as 4 inches from the surface. To add color and and magnify the work’s sculptural qualities, an airbrush was used to really bring the painting to life. I suppose the invention of the computer as an art tool may have relegated the airbrush to t-shirts and motorcycle helmets, but to see a framed piece that captures such an 80′s fashion aesthetic is, unique. Only $180 for this mass produced, conceptually hollow, airbrush/sculpture with rather dubious production qualities. Just think what it will be worth in a thousand years

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Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite Corpse

cowboy shot dead in the head by a native’s arrow? A trucker with his lonely heart forcefully removed? A simple disembowelment, or just plain having your feet firmly planted in Hell— with the Exquisite Corpse possibilities for creative chaos are infinite. Originally, the Exquisite Corpse began as a collaborative surrealist technique back as early as the 1920s. It actually started with collaborative poems, and later drawings and even Collage. I participated in this example (left) with Marc Nachtigall, Joe Bloch, and JoJo Peralta. Once a single piece of paper was folded into fourths, I began by drawing the head of the corpse, leaving the neck lines near the fold at the bottom. This allowed Marc to begin drawing the upper torso once I hid my composition by folding the paper over. Marc would then complete his section of the drawing leaving torso lines at the bottom if his section, folded the paper over again, and passed it to Joe to draw the lower body. Once Joe is done and the paper is folded over once again the final panel is given to JoJo to complete the legs

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