TANK MAN - JEFF WIDENER
Jeff Widener is the acclaimed photographer who took one of the most iconic and important images ever taken. A mutual friend mentioned to me that an artist was helping Jeff create an NFT of the Tank Man by appropriating it in the artist’s style but unfortunately the artist had pulled out and would I like to make a pitch to do it. I made the pitch by actually doing the artwork straight away and showing Jeff the finished article. He loved it and we minted the NFT which you can see on the link below. The story Jeff told me how the photo came into being is truly astonishing in terms of it being a series of events that happened all at the right time which meant that the photograph now exists. There are actually other Tank Man photos done of the same moment but Jeff’s is the one that was used on all the newspapers the next day. At the time it was certainly the equivalent of going viral. Here is the link to the NFT and also a link to an interview with Jeff telling you more about how the photo came into being.
https://foundation.app/@MARCCRAIG/foundation/99278
https://petapixel.com/2013/06/21/a-conversation-with-jeff-widener/
AMARA POR DIOS
In the early days of my street art career I was aware of some giants and soon to be giants who seemed to create these intensely beautiful artworks with ridiculous ease that left me in awe. It was certainly a standard to aspire to! One of these artists was the goddess herself, AMARA POR DIOS with whom it was obvious would eventually be a superstar and more so. Imagine my joy then when an art event hosted by London based Chrom Art asked me to create a mural for them with Amara herself.
She was not only very talented but also very gracious and put me at ease straight away. We sketched out the mural very quickly and spontaneously and then she gave me a masterclass in the smallest gestures to upgrade my characters. Even as I write this I still can remember that notion of pinching myself that I was able to do this mural with her. Check out her website.
BOTJOY - LEAKE STREET
Here is another wonderful example of a series of fortunate events and connections that meant I got to connect with another creative meastro. And the inspiration still lingers all these years later. BOTJOY aka Gary Hirsch is a dynamo of positive intent. His creativity has been able to transform so many people in a way that has created a global community of like-minded positive folk and it is very infectious. Spend some time with Gary and you will not only feel good but you will feel that good that you will want to create. Inspiration is a gift that keeps giving. We had immense fun meeting up in London and I gave him a. tour around Shoreditch and the day after we did this mural at the south end of Leake Street on my favourite wall! Check out his latest creative crusades and his TED talk at the website below.
ANNA WILDING - OBAMA PORTRAITS
One of the many ironic pluses from the pandemic lockdown was getting connected to the social media platform Clubhouse. In the hedonistic early days of the NFT gold rush it was heaving with creatives and collectors and one such creative was the gorgeous Anna Wilding. Anna served a tenure as the White House photographed for Barack Obama and she had taken some awesome images which she asked be to collaborate with her on by transforming with my doodle characters, We did three in total and here are the individual portraits that I worked on.
Such a great talent becomes apparent when you use the photograph as a reference point to map out the doodles. Anna captured their souls completely and it made making these portraits a dream job. All three NFT collaborations were sold. See Anna Wilding’s website below.