Chor Boogie recently finished one of his most amazing and inspiring murals to date. The impressive mural called, “The Perception of Color Therapy” shows Chor Boogie’s explosion of colors and patterns which he is known for. But this incredibly sized mural is not only interesting because it is nearly half of a city block but also because Chor Boogie showed his devotion to public art by finishing the mural even after being stabbed in the neighborhood while working on the mural. A week after the accident he returned to work on the mural which was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Council in an effort to beautiful the community.

The Art in Storefronts program takes abandoned storefronts in San Francisco neighborhoods and adds welcoming and visually interesting works by artist on plywood covered storefronts. This particular mural “explores the healing aspect that colors have on the subconscious and their conscious effects on modern-day society”. The artist believes that color has the power to move the viewers and has a “healing power” which he incorporates into his imagery.

For more on Chor Boogie, check out his website at www.chorboogie.com. His work is also included in the book Mural Art Vol. @ which showcases large scale work by many artists including Chor Boogie himself. You can also become a fan of Chor Boogie’s facebook group by clicking here. The last image is a portrait of the artist in front of an earlier piece.

A couple of weeks ago street artist, Gaia hooked up with Keith Schweitzer from No Longer Empty, to paint and document a pull down gate in Chinatown. Check out the video below documenting the process.

No Longer Empty is an organization that orchestrates public art exhibitions in vacated storefronts and properties around New York City. The non profit organization was formed to bring thoughtful, high caliber art into the public domain. Spaces are donated rent free by the landlords which are then transformed by amazing artists including; Know Hope, D’Face, and now Gaia.

You can read more about no longer empty at their website http://nolongerempty.com Also be sure to check out more of Gaia’s work on his website at :

If you are in the Portland area please be sure to check out The Tribute Gallery where a new and exciting show is going to open on January 7th. The show, “Play for Keeps.” is curated by Elizabeth Lamb and Chloe Gallagher. It’s intent is to “explore the often underrated importance of play.” The show was inspired by Dutch historian and cultural theorist John Huizinga who once wrote, “Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience.”

The show features Baltimore based Jon MacNair, Indiana’s own Joshua Witten (who’se interview you can find right here on Curbs and Stoops), Los Angeles based artist Patrick Haemmerlein as well as a series of other amazing artists including: Brett Anderson, Huy Ngyen, Garric Simonsen, Angela Dawn, Breanne Rupp, Megan Marie Myers, Brian Costello, Jackie Bos, Karri Dieken, Stephan Ferreira, Mark Colman, Heidi Elise Wirz, Coco Papy, Sally Gilmore, Mark Olwick, Louise Krampien and Cara Tomlinson. All of the featured works are works on paper.

The works featured on this blog are the works of Jon MacNair – the first image will be included in the Play for Keeps show. MacNair was born in Seoul, Korea and attended Maryland Institute College of Art where he earned a fine arts degree in illustration. Now Jon keeps himself busy by doing freelance illustration work and drawing figures crawling through dreamy worlds.

While the imagery across all of his work is captivating, what I enjoy the most about Adam McLevey is his Driftwood series. The entire collection of work is made using found materials which stylistically merges McLevey’s live painting and graffiti backgrounds – introducing a looseness and spontaneity into the series which is akin to his street art approach.

The subjects have a similar origin as the surface on which they were painted. McLevey’s represention of homelessness captures all of the feelings that we associate to the adversity – both compassion and fear are portrayed in the same painting.

McLevey writes, ‘All of the materials in these pieces echo the people in the portraits. Everything is stuff that’s been cast off from a house. They’re all the remnants of living someplace, the bits that get chucked out before a house gets scrubbed down for a happy new family to move in.’

Another interesting project is McLevey’s “One Pound/One Stamp” series which he sells through his website. The artist creates small pieces the size of a holiday card and makes them available at random to whomever buys them. Check out some examples of the wonderful art on his websitehere.

If you want to keep up with Adam, you have a lot of work to do. The artist is currently in a few shows including RUMP and The Great Bristol Art Sale — Both of which are in Bristol as well as The Unholy Grail in Southampton. Mc Levey also has a piece in the upcoming show at Weapon of Choice Gallery in Bristol which opens this Friday.

Note: The first two rows of images are from the Driftwood series. The third row are some images I couldn’t rob you from seeing.