our 1st @LadiesLoveProject #FunkyFreshNY Exhibit and 1 Day Pop-Up Shop. We are happy to have held it at @Bierwax in Prospect Heights Brooklyn aka Fort Green. Why they are changing the names of NYC neighborhoods? – it’s no surprise to most. Anyway the  location had a beautiful outdoor patio for a sufficient amount of vendors, and an indoor cozy space to hang artwork. Latino owner, Chris Maestro, his wife, and team welcomed us with open arms and made the event super smooth experience. @Ylove57 a long time friend and supporter of the Toofly “ideas” teamed up as the point person for the art sales. We had worked together in the past on Younity exhibitions and her assistance was very helpful. Together we hashed out the details to push the event to new heights. The Ladies Love Project is a growing idea that evolves with time. It flows to the beat of NY. Each year we team up with different artists, artisans, designers, and and staff to see what kind of flava they can add to the event. It is carefully curated to bridge the gap between established talent, and up and coming talent. We are known to head into different neighborhoods as much as possible to discover different parts of our city. We like to be all inclusive with the folks we build with because representation matters. Everyone is welcome at LLP as long as you are serious about your craft and message to the world. Locations are our biggest hurdle each year, but somehow we manage to partner with spaces and orgz. Sometimes a community space will charge us an arm and a leg with no care for our project, and sometimes they will allow us to pop-in and do what we do best with full support. Every year is a different experience, and we try everything to see what works and what doesn’t. It’s the best way to create. As an independent, and self sustainable project we have had our ups and downs. The journey to curate arts and culture events in NY, LA, and other cities to represent who we are continues. CULTURE IS OUR POWER it is OUR LEGACY to this ever changing “New, New York”. Thank you ALL for pulling thru, and making the troop to Brooklyn. Your support for the LLP project means a lot to all of us. We are heading into our 10Yr anniversary in 2020 and will be planning something special. Look out!!!

More flicks coming soon…

Nina Shunku – a community space in the Centro Historico of Quito, and one of my favorite spaces to support. When I arrived back in 2012 the building was in shambles but little by little the crew has fixed it up and is now running education programs, workshops, music events, cultural gatherings and much more. Proud of them! It as time to rock a new piece before my trip to NY and squeezed it in just in time for the 7/10 year anniversary event.

Hello 2019 — new year, new projects! Setting it off with a collaboration wall production with one of Quito, Ecuador’s most recognized street artist APITATAN. He’s been making moves for years, and is a leading aerosol artist in many ways for the culture. We have been meaning to work on a piece together for some time now so when our friend @Sramdip from Nepal arrived for a visit we decided to go for it. As character artists, and in touch with our energy frequency we felt a mystical theme would work great with Sramdip’s pyramid calligraphy. It took about a weekend to get our schedules organized to meet up and get to work. Worked it out as best we could, and was happy with the time we had to build. Also the 1st MTN aerosol graffiti shop has arrived to Quito and was a few blocks away. We will brew! stay tuned…

“VIBRATIONS” Location:  Calle Pablo Claudel Street Jipijapa sector

Thank you friends!

#Tooflypopup at the next La Carishina event in Quito, Ecuador December 15 & 16 from 11am -7PM. See you there!

The 1XRun X RickyPowell X Toofly collab has dropped! It is so much fun to draw and illustrate on top of photography, especially images by the legendary Ricky Powell who’s street photography of Hip Hop artists, and New York City life over the years captured captured classic moments in time. Check out sneek peek at the 3 embellished workscreated for the project featuring Rakim and LL Cool J. Mutual Respect is a Beautiful Thing! Thank you Ricky for the invitation to participate in this series. I absolutely love it!

During the #Grafiteras trip in Oakland I got word that our Crewest Studios locked down a few walls for our team to paint in Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles. The timing couldn’t have been better! I was already in the states and client just had to make the flight switch. My schedule was open and ABC studios covered all expenses. Gotta love when those gigs come in because the hotels are fly, transport is taken care of, and you can work with quality materials and hire a your team. The mission to rock a fun, and colorful letter piece that captures the essence of the show and characters. Hip Hop is a huge element in the series #TheMayor and I drew from the culture that bred me. This was my second time in Atlanta a growing and booming city. I love how green it is too!  The heat not so much. Not too long ago my family moved here and I was so happy I got a chance to see them once job was complete. It was an awesome trip and job! —- Thank you ABC, Crewest Studios, Richie, Sean, and Paul for all your help on this wall. Shout out to The Mayor premieres October 3rd on ABC!

Sean is working on a video of the piece, you tube link soon!

#Represent #TheMayor

The job perks. After them long and hot days at the wall hitting the pool was a must! The Marriott hotel was amazing!

Last time I was in Atlanta I flew in did a job and flew out. I did not get a chance to check out the street art scene. Once job was approved I hit the streets in search of walls, Atlanta has some great spots! Would love to return and paint at one of their festivals.

Thank you Atlanta! Thank you family! Till next time…

I had an opportunity to go to NY right after Mexico and rock a mural workshop with the Pepatian Hip Hop Academy. I haven’t been back to Bronx Works in about two years because the program is usually in March. It’s very cold in NY during that time so I try to avoid it. This time I decided to make the stop, and troop it like the native New Yorker I used to be. It was nice to see some of the students I worked with a few years ago, they are all grown up! Wow, time just keeps flying. I was happy that Jane Gabriel’s made it happen, and that Bronx Works approved a wall for us. In the past the kids and I had worked on the “My Name Is” workshop, as well as the “Hip Hop” canvas/stencil workshop. It was time for a mural! Hip Hop Culture has changed over the years, it is important for many of the educators to teach it’s roots. We have to know where we are from in order to know where we are going.  The “Hip Hop Don’t Stop” mural workshop sprung from this idea, and students got a chance to learn about the four elements + pioneers in the process. It became a large story book they can use to talk with others about, especially new students joining the program. They are proud of their work and want to share what they created. It was really fun to see some of the kids zone out and forget time and space when they were painting. I know what that feels like — I live for that! Thank you students! thank you Pepatian team! Thank you Bronx Works staff! and everyone that was involved. Shout out to Marisol Diaz for the beautiful photography and all the wonderful educators of this program. For more information visit www.pepatian.org

Lancelot Chase, Toofly NYC, Caridad de la Luz “La Bruja”, and DJ Fred Jones

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ©MARISOL DIAZ 2017

HI my name is, and I learned that Hip Hop Don’t Stop!

Back in June! for more ya’ll see ya soon.

New York is always  hectic for me year after year, and now the projects in Quito are growing too. SO much so that I am short on time to catch up on my blog posts as you can see. As soon as I get a chance to relax I will get to them:) The easiest way for me to share at this time is via INSTAGRAM @TOOFLY_NYC or on my Facebook Page. In the meantime check out the Quito Transit Bus Project we had this past weekend. A first for Ecuador, happy to have been part of it.

Construction on my first home has officially started! I have to be focused on that project for the next 2-3 months but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to support our friend’s mural project in Quito this past weekend. Over 150 artist from Ecuador signed up to paint a very large wall at the parque Bicentenario. A huge park that was once Quito’s main airport. The city has grown so much that the airport had to move elsewhere and now there’s a large space in the middle of the city open for a new park design. In the meantime artists, food vendors, and locals are enjoying the open space to ride bikes, skateboard, run, play, and rock out events. The 1st ever Metallica concert was held there a few months ago and it was massssssive! It’s a great space for almost anything, and our organizer friend Luis, from NEURAL INDUSTRIAS CREATIVAS  hooked up with the city parks dept in Quito to rock a large mural in support of the growing demand for urban artists to have legal spaces to paint. When I first arrived to the motherland everything was chill here. You can paint walls in peace and rock a wall almost anywhere with the owners permission. In the last year however the last mayor put that shit on lock and now many street artists are getting fined over $300 and getting thrown in jail for a day for not having their permission given directly from the city. It’s has become more and more difficult to paint walls here. Making it harder for street artists to paint is bad move, because the urban arts culture in Ecuador will suffer, and the craft will not evolve properly. Without an urban arts culture to represent the country many young people will turn their energy elsewhere, most likely negative. It is very important for all artists in Ecuador at this time to come together now and attend these events, as well as city meetings. “LA PREVIA” held on Saturday August 30th is part of DETONARTE’S message to the new city officials of Quito to help support a large arts and culture movement happening all over the world. The new mayor (forget his name) came through to give a speech at the event, which showed us he’s in support. City meetings will be held in the next few weeks let’s see what happens. Till then we will make our voices heard! Gracias LUIS!!! <3

“FREE SPIRIT” Not enough equipment or paint or time to make this happen but one day I’ll rock it out in full detail..

teamed up with Splash from ALM crew…

Collaboration among artists helps us grow…

Young people have open places to enjoy live urban art they can relate to, music, and sunshine. The opportunity to “hang out” creates a space where they can build and be inspired to create.

hommie HTM with the graphic skillz + he’s an awesome “good vibes” soul.

“building” with folks from CUENCA – fun projects ahead…

EME ESE, finally met the artist that paints these graphic cows everywhere in Ecuador:)

Quito peeps! The best part about painting with all these guys is that they are all so nice and chill. Love that!

Finally met Apitatan, he paints everywhere! His stuff is pretty prominent, and he looks like his characters! We all do:)

It was a beautiful day to paint, ride bikes, stroll, and eat ceviche de chochos!

TOOFLY X SPLASH Collabo 2014 – gracias amigo! Letras y Characters always look good together:)

I forgot to smile…*smirk

TOOFLY.SPLASH.PAINT.APITATAN – photo by ALM

OK Ecuador…get your shit together so we can take it to the next level. We need paint, we need ladders, scaffolds, and most of all spaces to create beautiful murals to bring our people and barrios together to enjoy life. We work hard for it, and YES we are part of the solution for your “EL BUEN VIVIR” campaign.

Nos vemos el Jueves! Septiembre 4, 2014 Apuntesen! Si quieren ver cambios…

As soon as I landed in NY, I took a long power nap and then it was off to the Bronx! I had to rock the “Toofly Graffiti Workshop” at Bronx Works with 15+ afterschool students. This year the budget for the Pepatian “Bronx Hip Hop Academy” was enough to extend it from 2 weeks to 4 weeks which gave my class the opportunity to learn a lot more, and put a little more effort on their graffiti project. We got some bigger canvases, and acrylic paint to fill up big areas of eye poppin’ color. Their goal to collaborate and work together as a team on a backdrop for their final presentation alongside Rokafella’s dance crew, DP One’s Dj crew, and La Bruja’s MC/Poetry crew. The “Toofly Crew’ had a lot of fun spraying and stenciling their pieces, and working with Reph on the outlining of their letters with big fat sharpies. Shout out to our hommie Reph for subbing on a day I could not attend workshop. Everything worked out great and the kids had fun. It’s always nice to see it all come together.  Next year we hope to get a nice long wall to re-create their 2014 piece:) A big thanks to Jane Gabriels for making this project happen and getting the “true school” crew together to educate young men and women the art of Hip Hop’s Culture. Big thanks to Shanika and the youth at Bronx Works for rockin’ out with us again this year! Have a wonderful summer.

Bronx Hip-Hop Academy was Produced by Pepatian for more infromation visit their site: www.pepatian.org

In a collaboration with BronxWorks Teen Program, Pepatian’s Bronx Hip-Hop Academy offered a series of workshops in all four disciplines of Hip-Hop in April 2013, culminating in a final informal showing. Held at BronxWorks, the Hip Hop Academy gives youth in the Bronx a similar opportunity: to feel and experience hip hop in its birthplace. The youth learn the history of the genre and its connection to our borough but also to personally connect. Inspired by their lives and the culture they develop tools for creative expression. From stirring poetry to fresh art work to fly steps, Bronx Hip Hop Academy is a program that connects youth to the spirit of the music and to learn more about themselves. My hope is that the youth take inspiration from hip hop and continue to express themselves and tell their story. By telling their story, they are hip hop!

NYC TRUE SCHOOL! —>  TOOFLY, LA BRUJA, DJ DP ONE, ROKAFELLA
proud to be part of this wonderful teaching artist team. Thanks Jane for linking us all up!

Back from New York and ready to get these blog updates started! It was a busy busy trip this year. The NYC grind was in full effect. Shout out to everyone that came through to support the LLP crew this spring. It was a rainy windy day to start, but by the afternoon when most folks roll thru, the sunshine blessed us with a beautiful day. Just in time for the performances, and all our big supporters. This year the LLP team invited a few new vendors to join the creative art and designer crew. Check them out, they do beautiful handmade works! We love LOCAL, HANDMADE, and ORIGINAL CREATIONS. These guys fit right in. Aurora Barnes and Rhyme Factory did their thing, and DJ Enigma had us dancing for a bit to close out event. It was FUN!!! Besides the morning showers the Ladies Love Project Spring Pop-Up Shop this year was a success once more <3 Love to the crew and everyone who participated to the very end. We will be taking a break for Holiday this year, ( sad face ) but be sure to check our updates for 2015 as we revamp and prepare for something bigger! YOU KNOW HOW WE DO:)

RAIN OR SHINE!!! Ladies Love Project Spring Pop-Up Shop 2014 – Shout out to Samantha Morales for the beautiful flicks:)

LLP Crew fun every spring in the heart of the Lower East Side <3

The Toofly booth of new goodies was a success! THANK YOU TF supporters.

Hoodies sold out, but new ones coming this fall stay tuned.

Shout out to publisher Yoav from OUTDOOR GALLERY NYC Book. I finally got to sign his copy:)

Toofly / Love Warrior steez ” Staying True”

LIL EGO Fly as ever! Fashion and Lil Kids gear.

Vanilla Medallions Rock’n it! Her new handmade caps are dope!

Besos Not Bombs – gotta love the name!

Molly Hein with some new handmade cards:)

Wonder Lee the life of the party! Good Times:) We must hang more…

Shout out to my hommie Yvey for holding down the TF booth! and for all the peeps tweeting away event flicks. Go team!

We have lot’s more flicks of our vendors be sure to check out our facebook page here —> LLP SP/2014

Circa 95, Aurora Barnes and Rhyme Factory did their thing!

FUN IN THE SUN NOW AND FOREVER with my bestie <3

Beautiful People, Beauitful families

THANK YOU NEW YORK!!! We’ll be back bigger and doper than ever in 2015!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

LADIES LOVE PROJECTâ„¢ SPRING 2014 POP UP SHOP!
Saturday, May 31st, 2014 // ( Rain Date Sunday, June 1st )
Time:12PM-8PM
Location: Houston Street Center // 273 Bowery, New York , NY // 2 trains to 2nd Ave or Delancey

Read more

The Ladies Love Project Holiday Pop-Up Shop Re-Cap flicks are still in the works, but here are a few of my faves! I snuck in a few flicks in between vending, building, and making sure we did not blow out any more outlets. Ah!  Samantha Morales will have her images up soon. I know they are gonna be AWESOME. Our photobooth rocked this year, happy we have Sam on board, and thankful Karla came thru as well to give us a hand. Thank you all for supporting the LLP Holiday Pop-Up Shop!!! The event and the crew is growing and getting tight. YAY!!!