blast from the past

in the process of organizing photo files, caged animals, buffed but not forgotten ups. thought i'd share a few of the ones that made me laugh...

free jerm inc. packs - don't buy now!

as CEO of jerm inc., i am pleased to announce that we are expanding the geographical parameters of our street art marketing campaign. hundreds of these messages have now been printed and are being sent out to secret jerm inc. operatives throughout the globe. each pack includes a recipe for a non-invasive water-based cellulose paste, for adhering the pieces. pasting is not necessary however, the pieces can be put up with tape, thumbtacks, glue or any other method imaginable.

if you would like a pack of these messages to decorate your world, email me at jerm9ine@gmail.com

include these details in your message or email.
your address and the city or country you are decorating.

all packs now include 3 copies of each banner seen here.

all packs are free or by donation to jerm inc.

please if possible, email any photos you get of the banners to jerm9ine@gmail.com

commercialisn't

up to this point, all of our work has been hand-made with permanent markers (or spray paint) and stencil letters on paper and stickers. i have no plans or desire to abandon this format, however, it is very time consuming. so last night we stenciled six jermalism words onto 8.5 x 11 inch paper and made 100 photocopies of each page, and sliced them into banner form. simple.
each word is intended to provide a commentary on site specific environments or objects in the urban space, much like the 'endangered species' pay phones, 'bill bored' billboards (and the 'for rent' benches, which were also photocopies, inspiring this new approach).
These copies give me the opportunity to focus on creating larger scroll pieces, while still having unlimited ammo for the streets, no longer bogged down with the little things.

journalisn't, vandalisn't, materialisn't, feminisn't, capitalisn't & badvertising, are the slogans we started with, then we walked for hours, as usual. here is a handful of ups from the first night...







more to come...

give a man a marker...

i have recently been riding freights and greyhounds around Vancouver Island with some L.A. homies and chilling with ninja, as she is currently working in a hospital in the Cowichan Valley.
luckily my iphone had just enough life left to get this photo, post it on flickr and send it to Marc at Wooster Collective before it went all john doe on me. by the time i found a place to charge my phone, the piece was on wooster and my email was bananas. the daily what called me 'the thinking man's vandalist' and some other blogger added 'the poor-man's Banksy', both made me smile, been called a lot worse. i wrote this rhyme a while back and found it in a scrap pile, or a pack of files, i forget. i still haven't quite worked it into a song, but i'm working on it. the photo was taken on the beach at Maple Bay, on Vancouver Island.

the revolution will be privatized

22.5 ft. by 2 ft. banner at clarke & 1st in vancouver.
cameraman and i have been pondering the idea of a giant banner collaboration at this intersection for quite a while, finally we did it. everyone and their mother shares their banner quote ideas with me, but sometimes people like take5 and shwAllah just hand me gold that is so very fitting for the jermalism campaign, that i just have to use it. this time it was my very good friend byron cameraman. "the revolution will be privatized" he said, as we bounced ideas back and forth. gold. done.
this piece is not a large stencil, cameraman photographed my small banner on purolator stickers and enlarged it, he then printed it on 30 12"x18" pages and we glued it up here with the help of a few friends and a few drinks.

city benches FOR RENT

the FOR RENT signs were adhered to over 200 benches around vancouver in the last month.
only a handful remain intact today. the project will resume in the near future ;)
these signs are intended as a commentary on the city's homelessness crisis and lack of affordable housing.
the homeless and street populations in the smaller pockets of the city have become quite familiar with me and my work and approach me often to shoot the shit. i put this idea past many of them for their take on it and pondered for months, with reservations about offending the people i'm trying to speak for. many of them excitedly pushed me to do it, i think i just needed to know that it wouldn't do more harm than good.

scrolls

now that i am in the process of writing and recording my first studio album, my every thought is in the form of rhyme patterns, even my dreams are on beat. my street art project has followed suit as i am putting up larger pieces of my own rhymes in the form of 'scrolls'.

direct quotes

the direct quotes series was initiated about 18 months ago, purely out of the love for certain rhymes by sage francis, el-p and others which are etched into my grey matter. these were statements that i strongly identified with, so much so that i was compelled to put them in the street as part of my jerm inc. campaign.





over a year went by after the first small batch went up, which included the pieces above, as well as quotes by al jourgensen of ministry, krs one, aesop rock and homer simpson. we sporadically put up a handful of other quotes by jenna jameson, kurt cobain, sole and ill bill, before coming to the realization that their was a lot of power in using someone else's voice. placed in the right location, certain quotes tend to evoke a particular emotion. in the last two months, we have put up over 30 direct quotes, usually attempting to place them in areas that allow for the viewer to be reflective or provoked.

click on any photo and then click on the 'direct quotes set' tab on the right, to view the entire set.

the jerm IX tattoo project update

the two newest tatts inked to my skin were designed for me by tanha (a1one), from tehran, iran.
i have long been fascinated by his work, so rich in culture and style.
on my outer left calf is a1one's jerm sword of zolfaqar.
on my outer right calf is a1one's jerm shield.





since the ruling government cut the internet completely in Iran i haven't spoken to him in days. he has been utilizing his street art and photostream to share what is happening as the people peacefully resist, and some are dying for it.
my heart is with you and yours tanha.


designs in the works or ready to go from thesis sahib, galo, killer gerbil, boredmonkeylove, jef aerosol, basco5, beanie, buff monster, tosco, BISERama/the teeth project and many many more. thanks to all the artists, it's been a great journey so far. stay tuned.

It's Yours, Take It! Vancouver

on saturday may 2nd on the stairs of the vancouver art gallery, our city's epicenter for art and culture, over a hundred pieces of art were given away free to an excited and overjoyed public. with the help of my wife ninja IX and fellow street artist indigo, we collected works from mostly street artists all over the world, as well as locally for this free event. it was an overwhelming success and within twenty minutes of starting the event almost everything was gone to a seemingly happy home. everyone was photographed with their chosen piece and a huge smile...you can check out photos of the event by clicking on one of these photos and checking out the IYTI Vancouver photostream.







here are a few of my submissions...






on the heels of such a successful event greeted with such excitement and passion by vancouverites of every demographic, i have decided to go forth immediately with planning the next IYTI Vancouver event, which will take place in late summer or early fall, depending on submissions.

IYTI Vancouver 2 - reused & recycled...
will be a themed show and all artwork must fit the simple criteria of including a component of reused or recycled material.
trash to treasure. there are no limitations to how this can be done...paint on cardboard or a pizza box, instead of throwing it out...make flowers out of plastic bags...mixed media sculptures...paint records or bottles or...you get the idea.
think big, social commentary and brand disloyalty are encouraged.
trash to treasure.
instead of a landfill, a loving home.

if you would like to participate, email me at jerm9ine@gmail.com
to learn more about the origins of IYTI or other host cities around the world copy and paste this url...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/itsyourstakeit/

and remember...
IT'S YOURS, TAKE IT!

jerm IX

...the jerm IX tattoo project...

the project was recently featured on woostercollective.com
check it out here

http://www.woostercollective.com/2009/04/the_jerm_ix_tattoo_project.html#mail

designs are in the works from basco5, a1one, miss van, BISERama, buff monster, narboo, killer gerbil, boredmonkeylove, kill taupe and many more.

jerm IX's hypothetical corpse

confronting mortality, a life-long journey.
this project was born out of my fascination with death. My first hypothetical death occurred at wreck beach at UBC a few days after my 30th birthday.


i got hooked to being hypothetically dead, even if only for a few quick moments.




check out the set here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerm9ine/sets/72157603263753101/detail/

in the following months, other hypothetical corpses began to appear online and the hypo-corpse group was born.
check it out here...

http://www.flickr.com/groups/weplaydead/

playing dead in photography is not by any means a new form of expression, in fact it dates back almost as far as photography itself.