Greetings from Hyperspace Studios! We hope you had an enjoyable
Labor Day as we welcome in a beautiful September. It's been an event
packed month for us, with several large projects happening and some
major media coverage in the works.
The big news is our participation in a new reality TV show coming out
this October on TLC. It's called Tattoo Wars, and each episode will
feature a pair of artists competing against each other. In what will
likely be the fourth episode, airing on October 23, Guy competes
against longtime friend and fellow biomechanic Aaron Cain. Because
each episode is a full hour, it provides the opportunity to show the
artists' work, studio spaces and creative lifestyles.
The crew from Original Productions arrived at Hyperspace Studios in
the blistering mid-August heat with their equipment and a rough
outline of a plan. We worked with them over the course of 3 days to
get as much good footage as possible and represent our art and
business in the best way we could. The producers were very flexible
and open to our suggestions and input, making it a collaborative
effort; we feel very positive about the experience. During their
time here we did a number of short sessions on regular clients of
ours, including Guy's clients Jack, Wes and Anthony, Michele's
longtime client and poster girl Mindy, and a collaborative backpiece
that the two of them are doing on Becky.
Guy's client for the big contest is also Aaron's client,
internationally renowned graffiti artist Saber. The plan for
tattooing Saber was more ambitious than usual- over the course of
just over a week, he had a pair of sleeves done! In his 2-day visit
to Hyperspace Studios, Guy did two long sessions on his right arm
while the TLC crew were here; after that, they all flew to California
to see Aaron, where Saber had two sessions done on his left arm and
the crew obtained a wealth of video material of Aaron in his studio
and metal shop.
Finally, on the weekend of Aug. 24-26 we all headed to the Hell City
Tattoo Convention in the historic Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, AZ.
This is the first convention we've been to in almost 4 years.
Michele shared a booth with Becky Morton of Unique Ink, and on Friday
she and Guy participated in an artFusion performance in charcoal with
fellow tattooists Mike Cole, Carson Hill, Markus Lenhart and Jon
Highland. For more information about artFusion performances and the
new artFusion documentary, go to www.artfusionexperiment.com.
Also on Friday, Saber did a 2-hour graffiti performance on a canvas
banner that Aaron and Guy had designed. A time-lapse film of the
performance will be featured on the show.
On Saturday the 24th, Guy and Aaron continued the work on Saber's
sleeves, this time working at the same time with the contest in full
effect. Although both artists collaborated on the basic layout of
the sleeves to make them compliment each other as much as possible,
the inner forearms were done with a curtain hanging in the middle to
obscure each artist's view of the other's work, making the outcome of
the piece a surprise.
Anyway, be sure to tune in this coming October, starting with the
premiere episode Oct.2 featuring Bugs and Mike Rubendall. The exact
date of the Guy/ Aaron episode is not yet final, but will be either
on Oct. 16, 23 or 30. If you're interested in seeing more photos
from our filming experience, we've prepared a gallery for you to
check out.
In other news, Guy has a new article out in Tattoo Society, helping
them celebrate their first year anniversary. It's a jam-packed
issue, also featuring Hungarian tattoo sensation Boris Lazslo and
legendary Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger. If you don't already have a
subscription to Tattoo Society, it's one of the highest quality
tattoo magazines available these days in terms of the level of
artistic talent in its pages. Be sure to check it out!
We would like to extend our thanks to all the artists who
participated in the Scratch Art book project and exhibition. We now
have around 250 boards, with a few stragglers coming in over this
coming week. The layout will be started mid-month and we hope to
have it off to the printers by the middle of October. Exhibition
dates will be announced as the plan solidifies.
We'd like to invite participating artists to make comments about
their scratchboard experiences, which may be excerpted in scattered
pages throughout the book. We'll be sending personal questionnaires
to everyone, but just in case you've submitted a board and you don't
get the questionnaire, we're interested in hearing about what you
think of the scratchboard medium, how you would compare it to
tattooing, whether you thought it was challenging, that kind of
thing. You can email us your comments at
hyperspacestudios@earthlink.net.
Enjoy your September, and we'll be keeping you all informed--
Guy & Michele
www.hyperspacestudios.com
