Mr. Element

In the late eighties (after various forms of art education) Mr. Element was born.Being an effort to navigate around the stormy landscape of gallery politics and the flacid art “scene” in general, more and more public displays of little happy skinny guys occurred. It was not a known territory or culture, yet graffiti was the easiest term to describe how the art flowed and the folks that initially appreciated it. Skateboarding dug the nature of the art as well. Rick Ibaseta asked Mr. Element to illustrate graphics for his New Deal pro model. Not long after this honor, the name Element was acquired as part of a new company, Underworld Element, that was being formed by Rick and his friends. Unfortunately the agreement that the word Element would not be used alone and that board graphics would be produced by Mr. Element was not honored. No respect? You make the call. I still have mad ideas and am being creative while the vampires try and take a brother down. As time progressed in the early nineties, solo missions segued into an offer to join QUEST AND BENS’ crew, therefore the letters LBK (and later MGV) would follow Mr. Element.As Hip-Hop, Punk rock, Reggae, and Skateboarding cultures would have it, an opportunity arose around this same time for the Elemeister to take on the position of directing art at SLAP skateboard magazine with Maryland/DC Homie L. Dawes. The streets continued to be painted while publishing became an interesting endeavor. Companies within skateboarding requested graphics and ad designs including Think, Venture, and Experience. With offers to partake in group shows, Mr. Element got down with artists like; DREAM, JUICE, META, FELON, BISARO, SPIE, CUBA, DEEN (to name a few) at galleries such as Acme and Belcher St. galleries.Unfortunately, in 1996, in order to raise his growing family in a healthier setting, moving to the ‘burbs was the next step and art in the street became less and less of an alternative. In the recent past group Shows at Upper Playground, and club Mighty’s Toothless Gallery have reinvigorated the urge to display Elemental art in a more legal manner. Returning to school recently with a coputer graphics focus is helping to take the next step towards the self sustaining and profitable business endeavors rivaling many modern day art geek/beatniks that have been makin bread offa the pen and harddrive.