TOOFLY NYC

This fall I had the pleasure of reconnecting with my friend Jose since our days at School of Visual Arts. As the Artist Programs Manager of the Youth Artist Initiative at Joan Mitchell Foundation he is able to find creative ways to expose young alumni to professional careers in the arts. I am so thankful for the invitation to speak about my work, and to provide guidance and tips to young passionate minds. It was such and honor, and it made me super happy to see my friend with a big heart again. Thank you for all you do!

The #TooflyWorkshops are growing in number every year, and I am happy to continue to work with the Pepatian folks uptown in the BX.  This year they granted a few of the women in hip hop artists like myself the opportunity to teach and continue out graffiti, break dancing, DJ, spoken word, and much more lesson plans.  Shout out to the youth at Bronx Works, and The Point after school program who took the time to create some cool art with messages during these cold March days in NY.

Mural Installation in Dumbo Brooklyn for Project Art! Trying to diversify my stylez in art & design for my STAY TRU clients.  Shout out to @Mistadrumin for the art assistance, baked oven pizza, and laughs. Thank you Adarsh and team at Project Art. Doing great things for youth in various communities across the USA.

By now ya’ll know I don’t live in NY anymore right? I have been gone for 5 years and the transition was pretty smooth. I still gotta work tho. Only now I get to live as an artist full time. My dream has come true! It’s something I have always wanted and strived for. I have chosen to live the country life in Ecuador, and the city life in the states a few month out of the year. When you grow up in NY you have this “you can make it anywhere” mentality, and it’s true. You can. When you grow up in NY you make a lot of friends, it’s part of city life, it’s part of urban life. Over time those wonderful friends  jumpstart their biz, and the real work begins. Especially when their business models are educational, creative, and socially responsible. It is the kind of friends I like to work with! I am a worker. I love to get involved and make ideas work. It is the kind of energy that motivates me. I now have the opportunity to pop-up in NY for a workshop, a project, a gig, a wall, etc; It keeps things in life fun for me. That is how I do these days, and it’s working out. I LOVE IT! June is not too hot, and not too cold. Perfect to work outdoors. This year Thrive Collective and I took the time to reconnect and set-up a workshop as soon as I arrived. The #tooflyworkshop has become part of what I do as an artist. I have so much I have learned over the years that I can now share with others on a professional level. It is gratifying work, especially when it’s with youth. Each workshop is different, and with Thrive we have history. It makes this particular collaboration special to me. Wow 10 years. Time flies in NY.Make sure you make the time count. Back in the days when LASE NYC and I worked together ( Motug Days ) he brought me on to many creative and pioneering projects that I am thankful for. With Thrive, I think before it was called Thrive we painted at a public school in the Lower East Side. This is where I got to meet Jeremy Del Rio and all the wonderful community folks who continue to do the “good work” in a changing city. I am happy and proud of them. Thanks guys! Shout out to all the students involved in beautifying their schools walls.

Thank You Thrive Collective!

The #TooflyPopUpShop is back! It’s been a few years but this time around I had a little more time to put it together the right way. I am currently enjoying the process of curating events at various places. Something about getting all the pieces to an idea where people get together gives me great joy. Like painting I am putting together theme, color, and design to tell a story. Our story. Save the date!

I’m excited for June! Lot’s in the works this summer. The second #TooflyWorkshop has a date, a space, and a time. Get on the list only 8 spots left as of today!

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.

Happy to be heading back to California this year. It’s been a minute! This year I will be working with an amazing woman, friend, artist Favianna Rodriguez. We met a few years ago in NY when she was showcasing her prints in El Barrio. I love her work, and the great activism projects she has lead with the Culture Strike group. I am happy to be in full support of her migrations butterfly project which will take place at the Life is Living festival on Saturday October, 12th in Oakland Ca. We will be painting beautiful butterfly pieces for a public street art project about the human right to move. Proud to be part of it and super excited to see everyone! Especially Erin Yoshi, Estria, Glow, Nancy Pilli, Brett Cook Disney, The Few & Far girls, and many more. See you guys soon! ((( Many Thanks )))

Nancy Pili, Estria, Erin Yoshi, and the gang setting off the Estria Battle at the Life is Living Festival.

Favianna Rodriguez/Culture Strike kicking knowledge about what is happening in this country to undocumented immigrants and the crazy laws being passed that many of our friends and family may soon have to deal with. It is a serious time, and we have to use our art to spread these messages to the public at large. Graff is dope and all but we gotta start using our talent to educate folks and spread powerful messages to our community. Our art can be deeper, powerful, and more meaningful to all. DREAM! MIGRATE! LIVE!

Toofly, Glow, Dime

Time for some action!

We’re almost ready!

Strolling through event and found some vendors I love!

Agana ready to rep for the ladies as the only girl out of 14 artists male artists participating!? We need to work on this on the next one…

Blackbook battles with the funky cool youth.

Gloria rock’n her beautiful Butterfly. Migration is TRANSFORMATION!

Great to see all of Oakland beautiful peeps.

Voila! MIGRATON IS FREEDOM/LIBERTAD – Because I am flying back in forth between North America and South America these days the freedom to live this way is def where it’s at. FREEDOM FOR ALL!!! We should have the right as human beings searching for a better life to live wherever we want.

Mary Jane in the house! Nice to finally meet ya. Rocked a nice logo for them earlier this year.

Doves NYC reppin…characters letters background….

Miguel lindo! aka BOUNCE #trustyourstruggle hommie…gotta me time to hang next time.

Doze Green and the gang…Congrats to Vile for the win! 400 Montana cans what! I may just have to get in on this battle next time…it was actually all good and fun. Slowly getting over the idea of a competition…wouldn’t mind winning  400 cans!

It’s a wrap! Thank you Culture Strike <3

Why can’t we make people understand that we can enjoy life? – Phylilis Lun

Thank you Life is Living Festival, Oakland Ca!

Thank you Culture Strike and Estria Foundation!

Heading to Oakland next week. Gearing up. Lot’s to do while I am there. I’ve been preparing for this Pecha Kucha slide presentation for days now and I think I am finally ready for it. Eeeeek! Wish me luck…

Pecha Kucha Night Oakland!
Thursday, October 10, 2013 // 6:00 PM to 9:30 PM

The New Parkway Theater
474 24th Street // Oakland, 94612
Pecha Kucha, San Francisco <—- purchase your tickets!
Facebook Event Link

PechaKucha 20×20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the images. The presentation format was devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture. The first PechaKucha Night was held in Tokyo in their gallery/lounge/bar/club/creative kitchen, SuperDeluxe, in February, 2003. Klein Dytham architecture still organize and support the global PechaKucha Night network and organize PechaKucha Night Tokyo.

PECHA KUCHA NIGHT in OAKLAND! DJ Agana and Erin Yoshi kicking off a wonderful event weekend.

Fun space. Lounge chairs, popcorn, and the buzz it up service. Super nice! I think I want to plan something like this back in the motherland…

Great presenters on this night. Marc Bamuthi Joseph setting it off. Co-Founder of Life is Living Festival! 

Eeek! TF time. Rock’n it out…

Bigging up our Graffiti Women: Lady Pink, Younity, Ladies Love Project, Few & Far

Favianna Rodriguez – Migration is Beautiful. Speaking the truth!!!

Nancy Pili Hernandez: Water Writes/Estria Foundation represent! Lot’s of wonderful folks doing great things for the community.

To close out the night ETHIOPIAN grub!  

Busy weekend in Quito. On Sunday we started a community wall in our barrio. With the help of local community organiser, Kuntur we gathered a few artists and kids to give us a helping hand. Our neighborhood mercado is in a battle with the city of being pushed out. There’s 25 women who run the market “Las Mamitas” also known as “The Mothers” are being asked to move to a different location. They are against relocating because it is further away from the main road, making it hard for the community to get their local farm produce. In resistance they have set camp in the mercado from fear of being pushed out and locked out of a place they have helped build for over 30 years. It’s heartbreaking to witness the battle because these are native people who live off their farms which produce fruits, vegetables, poultry, etc that is a lot healthier and better for all of us. I would much rather support their cause than organized corporations who have unnatural systems of providing our food. Even though the SUPERMAXI and the TIA are modern, organized markets in Quito that resemble Wamart their direction is not far from becoming similar in how the US provides our food. With all the GMO issues going on back home, my support is for more mercados that offer farm raised, and organic produce. In solidarity with Las Mamitas we got together to rock a mural for them and help voice out the struggle. Final wall flicks coming soon, check out the process…

More flicks sooon…

Read more

During my trip to NY I had an opportunity to do some live art at the 1st annual fundraiser for the Sneakers 4 Success organization. It took place at the Open Road Rooftop in the Lower East Side. This is one of the most beautiful rooftops in New York City because it filled with colorful graffiti by New York’s most notable artists. Check out the live art photos taken by my cousin Richie, and some of my favorite shots borrowed by other photographers of the event.

S4S uses sneaker culture, urban lifestyle, and footwear design as a platform so students can discover their intuitive creative powers in solving problems. The use of sneakers keeps the students engaged and connected to the material as well as exposing them to ways they can transform their passion into anything. Overall, S4S will give every student that SOLE POWER^TM needed to achieve anything.

My boys. Kips, and Clef. Toofly team 2012. Thanks fellas;)

Borrowing some flicks form the Pink Eye, and the Sneaker4Success site. Funky cool fly ladies and their custom kicks…

My chicas and their lovely smiles! xoxo

Shout put to Samel del Pilar and the team for the invitation to paint live and for their wonderful work in organizing. Toofly live art painting was donated to the organization and will be raising funds at the next exhibition in NY. Look out for it and support this crew!

Having fun under the sun;)

Was happy to see Anarkia from Brasil in town, and hommie Martha Diaz from Hip Hop Association. Thanks for the luv ladies;)

((( Lot’s of love from my crew )))

Was happy to see Nitty Scott MC again this summer. She’s so DOPE & BEAUTIFUL! Boombox Family baby! Rock on…Photos by: Melanie Rieders Production ©2012

Shout out to Lori Lobenstein from Female Sneaker Fiend for connecting me with the Sneaker4Success team. Thanks Lori!

As the sun set, and the guests arrived everyone kicked back under this beautiful summer afternoon for the Doin’ it in the Park film screening. Photo by Jonathan Lopez ©2012

Art of the Streets in Stockholm Sweden is back!!! I’ve been invited to participate again this year, alongside graffiti women MAD C, and BLUE. Looking forward to seeing you ladies again it’s been a hot minute. Especially BLUE, who’s character work was refreshing to look back in the days on walls of the lower east side. I want to send a big thank you to organizers, Jacob, Ceylan, and Tobias for the opportunity to be able to visit your beautiful country again. Looking forward to share my work, and rock some graffiti workshops. See you guys soooooooooon! If you missed it last year,  check it out Art of the Streets 2010.

Welling Court Mural Project#2 rocked! Lots more walls, lot’s more artists. Big ups to Alison, and Garrison (adhocart.org) for organizing another beautiful event. Sending love to Louie for opening his home, and heart to all the artists again this year. Thank you Welling Court community for supporting us, we hope you enjoy this amazing public art museum for years, and years to come. To my Project Girlzâ„¢ summer youth team you guys made me very proud yesterday. I hope you had a blast, get ready for more the summer has just begun! Shout out to all our friends and family who came thru to check out the event. See you at the BBQ’s brunches, picnics, beach trips and much more. Hello Summer!!!!

3-4 hours…

Zam, Toofly, Chorboogie

IN LOVE WE TRUST….

Our youngest little member, Princess Ani…

I live for those smiles:)

You guys ready to rock your first gate?

Shout out to Tanya for hooking my girlz up with extra paint:) Thanks girl!

After a few can control lessons they were ready for their first ever freestyle session…

Project Girlzâ„¢ Youth team 2011 baby!

Time for their photo opps…

Little pro, in love with paint…

Cern…lovely as ever…

Cycle, Lady Pink, Free 5….

Street artist process shots…

This lady’s work is amazing!

This too! DOPENESS….

STREET ART is the BEST! Feel right at home in this world…the artists are diverse, kind, and conscious….

Explore…

More gardens, more gardening, more green, more plants, more, earth, more peace, more flowers…

Nature, the true queen of art!

Summer blooms…

Grown with Love, Grow with bugs:) One step closer, we’re getting one step closer….THANK YOU.

For more infromation about the Welling Court Mural Project check out the press release below:

Read more

THE LOVE MOVEMENT by Toofly. Acrylic & Spraypaint on wood. Check out the process shots
The Love Movement paintings are officially installed at Canarsie High School in Brooklyn , NY. Shout out to the Love Movement /NY4NY team for making it happen. All originally paintings were created, and donated to school by the artists.

Momma’s Hip Hop Kitchen Vol:4 was a sweet success! Shout out to the MHHK team, who put on a beautiful event. Turn out was amazing!!! it get’s better and better every year. I’m happy and proud to be part of the collective of folks who stay true to their community no matter what. Much luv to our lovely Momma herself; Lah Tere for the invitation to share my slide show of works on stage  alongside some amazing female performers, musicians, and dancers. WOW!!! It was powerful altogether. Loved it! Thank you to all who came through to show your support, it means a lot to all of us who are there share our heart & soul…

Love my B-Girlz gals! Thanks ladies for supporting your biggest fan;) FULL CIRCLE SOUL!!!

New Toofly T-shirt debut! STAYING TRUE for all you ladies out there who live up, and rep what this is really all about…
exclusive and limited will be online soon! www.tooflynyc.com/shop

ahhh…The fave…slick black Love Heart Necklace. Last one, sold out! hot item, hot shot…

Booth buddies! Gotta rep the BAAD ASS WOMEN of 2011 baby!

11th annual Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance  Festival! March 7-26 don’t miss it!>>> BAAD

Was happy JUNKPRINTS got down this year! Yeah guuuuuuuurl you know how “we” do….

Walked around the booths, and ran into some designs I had done back in the days for the Pro-Choice Education Project. Memories…

Mother and son, Love this picture! Hope you like your little Toofly and Mr Pickle’s drawings in your black book Jack;)

Shout out to Karen for helping me take flicks, it got hella busy but we squeezed in for a few shots of some beautiful folks out there who do amazing work!!! You guys ROCK.

Slide show backdrop by TOOFLY! Fly….

Thank you everybody!!! ((( COMMUNITY LOVE )))