Fist full of eyelashes

The photo that you see above is mucho months late to the YKFS blog, but it has been visible on my Flickr site since the day back in February when it was taken.

Casper, a stencil and block print artist in the Netherlands, wrote to offer in trade one of his canvases for a stack of my zines. The piece being offered at the time didn't really speak to me, but as I browsed through the other works that were posted to his Flickr space, a comic-inspired canvas that sampled John Byrne's cover art from Iron Fist #8 grabbed me by the eyelashes.

The piece that I'd immediately become interested in had already been traded to someone else, but I shot a note back to Casper asking if he would mind creating another one for me. A month later, live-and-direct from the Netherlands came a freshly customized canvas that I liked even more than the one that I had seen online. Best of all, it had a red background.

For the better part of a year, it has been a want of mine to decorate one of the walls in my studio with pieces produced by artist friends and acquaintances. Though the styles of art would vary widely, it seemed like a cool idea to see if I could create a sense of harmony amongst the differing styles on display by focusing on pieces that prominently incorporated the color red.

The color scheme, by the way, was dictated by pieces already positioned on the wall: an Afro Samurai poster signed by creator Bob Okazaki and a woodcut print made by my zine-making brother-in-arms, Kiyoshi Nakazawa (Drunken Master). Ink sketches like two that I own by David Choe and longtime friend Stormko, as well as black & white photos by soul-brother-from-another-mother Damon Daood would bring a monochromatic contrast to the redness.

Because I didn't want to impose on Casper's creativity in any way, I fought back the gnawing urge to request that his stencil work be somehow done with red. Still, without a single word the work came tailor-made to fit my wall. Great minds think alike, goes the popular proverb.

And although there are only five or six pieces in my collection now, as evidenced by the image posted up top, it is shaping up to be an eyelash grabbin' set.