Everyone grows up. There comes a time when you’ve got to hang up the beer bongs and g-strings. Maybe that’s a little too prolific an example, but some people have wilder days of their youth than others. One day you wake up and realize you’re starting to look silly doing things that you once thought were “cool”. Maybe you’ve gained some responsibility over the years. Sooner or later, the time comes to relinquish some of your fire.

In December 1999, Steve “ESPO” Powers learned this the hard way, but let’s start at the beginning. A young Steve Powers trained at The Art Institute of Philadelphia and the University of the Arts. Before his school days, starting in ’84, you could find ESPO tags across the city, but it wasn’t until later that he really found his signature. His schooling probably went a long way towards his aesthetic style, but it didn’t slow him down.

Moving to New York in ’94, ESPO began his days of illicit graffiti in full. All the while, the man skirted a fine line between legal and illegal. Some of his work even used legitimate billboard techniques; this was an idea ESPO became known for. A strange fusion between clean, very un-graffiti-like examples of his tagging the name “ESPO” across New York in the big block letters became his trademark. It wasn’t until years later, though, that this young graffiti artist really pushed the envelope on his peculiar crusade.

In ’97, ESPO embarked upon his most interestingly ambitious project to date. He focused his attention on the metal gates of shops and storefronts that looked abandoned and out of business; oftentimes severely marred by various other graffiti. Dressing up in street clothes—or sometimes even as a city worker—ESPO would begin the task of covering over all the old graffiti with white or silver paint. If passersby got suspicious and asked him what he was doing, he would tell them that he was with the “Exterior Surface Painting Outreach” and that he was cleaning up that particular surface. Following this, he’d transform each panel of the grating into a letter of his name.

From Steve Powers’ mouth, he used the name in any way he wanted as the need arose. ESPO meant whatever he wanted it to mean at any given time. This unique angle on what some might consider graffiti—and others a warped public service—became the young man’s signature practice, and his exploits on this strange breed of censorship are still famous to this day. In a subtle sense, ESPO found a way to be incredibly bold while still maintaining an almost charitable message behind his work, as if he was doing an overworked city’s job out of the kindness of his heart, although in an arguably egotistical way. By ’99, around 70 examples like the one shown above had been painted.

Like was mentioned earlier, however, days like this don’t usually last forever. In December of ’99, Powers’ home was raided by New York police and he was arrested for graffiti vandalism, following his involvement in a protest against Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s effort to shut down the controversial art show “Sensation” at the Brooklyn Museum. After being charged with six counts of criminal mischief, Powers accepted a plea and engaged in five days of community service.

The entire ordeal was likely an eye-opening experience. While various New York newspapers criticized Giuliani’s actions, very harsh words were spoken against the graffiti artist known as ESPO. It’s hard to imagine what went through Powers’ mind at this time, but on the spot, Powers renounced his days of graffiti. The man started on an effort to learn the sign painting business, and soon found a new applet for his skills. Had a true New York graffiti legend really gone soft?

Yes and no. Powers clearly took a hard look at his life after the arrest that was likely very disturbing to someone who did little more than replace wanton graffiti with clean lettering. He took a step back and saw that he could still practice the craft that he loved without risking his own neck, and that he perhaps could do some real good in the process. It’s clearly apparent that ESPO was never much of your typical rebel, so making the jump from illicit works to something much more respectable wasn’t much of a leap. Powers grew up, so to speak, but he didn’t lose his spunk and originality. In fact, he expanded it even further.

In 2002 while in LA, Powers volunteered to paint over graffiti for the city as a public service. He did, however use the old name ESPO in a very subtle way as he did. The artist believes in a sort of synergy between writers (graffiti artists) and buffers (city workers who paint over said graffiti), in that both sides of the coin have merit. This looked to be the last time Powers made use of the name ESPO, though, and in recent days, he’s even admitted he dislikes the old name entirely.

He has no problem with owning up to his past, and finds nothing wrong with anyone respecting the history that made him who he is today, but at the same time, he has very strong opinions on graffiti within his current lifestyle. Those days are long behind him, and he takes a lot of pride in the name Steve Powers and the work he does nowadays much more than what he did in the past. Basically, if you run into him on the street, I think he’d appreciate very much being addressed as Steve, rather than ESPO.

So what is Steve doing these days? One of his latest projects was titled “A Love Letter For You”, in which Powers and his team took to the rooftops and graffiti marred surfaces of West Philadelphia, censoring the city in a very beautiful way. Many of the murals created feature images and sayings that you might expect to see on a T-shirt, but at the same time, they convey thought-provoking, positive and even subtly romantic “love notes” across the city. When asked about the project, Powers said “I saw this as an opportunity to reclaim the space on these rooftops and reexamine graffiti,” and he certainly has accomplished that objective. He’s even spread the project to Brooklyn.

So what do you think? Is trading in the good old days of youth and mischief worth it? That’s up to you to decide, but Steve “ESPO” Powers has showed us that personal creative genius never goes away unless you let it. There’s always another idea, another flash of inspiration, and another surface to make your mark on. Who says you have to be illegal to be cool?

When it comes to art and the public eye, you can’t avoid controversy. Society has grown more and more liberal as time goes on, but art continues to fuel revolution and inspire new generations. Of course, with that powerful visual motivation comes an inferno of differing opinions.

Enter the artwork of Diego Rivera. His pieces continue to spark ideas and controversial action, but how did this legendary mural artist begin his career? Rivera was born into a wealthy family, descended from Spanish nobility. When he was only three, his parents caught him drawing on the walls. Instead of punishing the youngster, they installed chalkboards and canvases, encouraging him to explore his creativity. An artist was born.

Instead of punishing the youngster, they installed chalkboards and canvases, encouraging him to explore his creativity.

Rivera first studied art as a child in Mexico City, and later was sponsored to travel to Europe, training his skills in Spain, and then Paris. Cubism just began gaining popularity in France, and Rivera quickly became enamored by the style. From 1913 to 1917 he embraced cubism, but inspired by Paul Cezanne’s work, he shifted his style to post-impressionism. Around this time, his paintings began attracting more attention, and some were displayed in several exhibitions.

In 1920 Rivera traveled to Italy, studying the Renaissance frescoes there before finally moving back to Mexico. Back in his home country, Jose Vasconcelos contracted him under a new government sponsored mural program to paint his first significant mural—Creation—inside the National Preparatory School. While creating this mural, Rivera reportedly had to defend himself—armed with a pistol—against right-wing students! If that’s not dedication to finish his first major piece, I don’t know what is.

Sometimes even attacking the church and clergy, his pieces even made him a controversial figure within communist circles.

In 1922 Rivera helped found the Revolutionary Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors, and later joined the Mexican Communist Party. Around this time, his style began to show itself in full, making use of large, simplified figures and bold colors in fresco only. The subject of his murals followed Mexican society and the 1910’s revolution, frequently telling stories while preaching Rivera’s radical political beliefs. Sometimes even attacking the church and clergy, his pieces even made him a controversial figure within communist circles.

After creating a large number of murals for the Mexican state—and later the Red Army Club of Russia—most notably a series of one hundred and twenty-four frescoes in the Secretariat of Public Education, the Mexican Communist Party expelled him from their ranks. Still, he never renounced his ideals, and they continued to be present in his later works. His complete decoration of the Secretariat went a long way towards the birth of the Mexican Muralist Movement—led in large part by Rivera himself.

Rivera established himself as one of the most sought after artists in the world

Following the popularity of this new movement, Rivera established himself as one of the most sought after artists in the world. In 1930, he traveled to San Francisco with his wife Frida Kahlo, carrying out various commissions in the states before creating what might be considered his most famous series, composed of twenty-seven frescoes entitled Detroit Industry within the Detroit Institute of Arts. While Rivera’s political messages within his murals continued to be evident, signs were posted defending the artistic merit of the pieces, even if the artist’s political ideals were “detestable”.

Only one of Rivera’s murals was ordered to be edited—Man at the Crossroads—upon the Rockefeller Center in New York City, as the mural featured a portrait of Vladimir Lenin. The artist refused to alter the image, and it was likely painted over later. Following the cancellation of another mural commission in light of this controversy, Rivera returned to Mexico, repainting Man at the Crossroads, which he now titled Man, Controller of the Universe, in the Palacio de Bella Artes in Mexico City. Years later, he returned once more to the US to carry out another series of ten panels for the Golden Gate International Exposition.

inspiring the new generation to take action as we might see in current events such as Occupy Wall Street.

So who was Diego Rivera? He was an artist who did not believe in censoring himself. In spite of the waves he caused through the unapologetic political messages beneath his murals, his bold aesthetics and bolder attitude tell us exactly who he was. From his founding role in the Mexican Muralist Revolution, to his fascination and outspokenness about common man’s place in the industrial age, Rivera’s powerful ideals sing true even today, inspiring the new generation to take action as we might see in current events such as Occupy Wall Street.

Whether or not such drastic political movements are necessary in the present age, the fact that Rivera’s potent visuals and underlying messages hold the power to inspire a generation—even over a half a century after the artist’s death—clearly tells us of the timelessness of his art form. MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) is holding an exhibit of his works until May 2012, so if the striking history of this aesthetic revolutionary doesn’t convince you of anything, perhaps a first person experience might?

The human need to express has evolved from the Paleolithic times, when cavemen used to draw mural paintings on cave walls, creating history itself, as murals last longer than the artist himself, making them timeless and intriguing.

Today artists like Kristo Foletti have revived the art and have taken to deriving inspiration from modern science, using it as the subject for their hand-painted murals, which can now be seen adorning several buildings around the world.

Foletti’s most remarkable hand-painted mural has been the one he did for CERN, in honor of their particle accelerator, called the Large Hadron Collider. Foletti has used bold colors and symmetrical shapes in his art, which is larger than life itself. However his mural painting of the Hadron Collider is only half the size of the original machine, which in itself is awe aspiring.

However his mural painting of the Hadron Collider is only half the size of the original machine, which in itself is awe aspiring.

Foletti’s art has piqued interest in physicists as well, who deem it an intellectual interpretation of their hard work. Painted in the brightest of palettes consisting of a lot of sunshine yellows, cherry reds and electric blues, his mural paintings combine different shapes to imitate the actual shape of the ATLAS, which is the official name of the Hadron Collider for CERN.

CERN is not the only building where Foletti has made his mark. Foletti has imitated the same hand-painted mural in South Carolina as well, claiming that he was inspired to create this mural painting in a dream, where he saw ATLAS as a bright, multifaceted crystal.

Foletti’s work has been influenced by the ancient murals from the renaissance, where the main subject for the mural paintings had been religion. Foletti claims that science is the next logical step to interpret into art, as physicists have a huge hand in shaping up the world we live in today, helping the human race evolve, as art evolves with it.

The stark symmetry used with the bold colors used for these mural paintings are reminiscent of Picasso’s cubism, interpreted by a modern mind, which is a fine example of how old art is being adapted into newer situations.

Foletti’s new projects are taking acceleration to a whole new level. Not content with merely transforming particle acceleration into art, Kristo is now working on new techniques in which he can capture different types of acceleration onto his mural paintings. A recent project that he has partaken is a tribute to Formula One racing, which is created to be viewed at a speed of two hundred miles per hour.

People are drawn to Foletti’s work because it deals with creationism, the ultimate mystery for man-kind to explore, which is relevant to the basic foundations of physics and religion combined. Mural paintings are a way to explore these mysteries in a way that is open to interpretation, creating good food for thought and good fodder for conversation, which explains the popularity of Foletti’s work.

Mural paintings are an excellent way for artists to show the world their work

Mural paintings are an excellent way for artists to show the world their work, especially to those people who would never visit an art gallery in their lifetimes, provided a public medium for artistic expression.

When you talk about art in the streets, it’s hard not for certain names to come up. You can immediately grasp the skill and originality of some graffiti artists out there today. Their pieces aren’t the kind of things you need explained to you. Whether or not there’s a deeper meaning behind the works of art, the style and boldness of the designs makes your jaw drop. Among a sea of street artists, the number of guys who can do that well is pretty low. One such artist is Blu.

In the late 90’s, Bologna Italy got the privilege of being beautifully defaced by this talented individual. This is when the name Blu started getting big, but he still hadn’t hit his stride yet. At this point, he was only using spray paint. Typical enough—but in 2001 Blu unearthed a style all his own. Using house paints and long-reaching rollers, he began to express his vision in a whole new way. Stronger, bolder, and clearly bigger, his new works began popping up all over Bologna, depicting the obscure cartoony figures that Blu is now globally famous for.

Stronger, bolder, and clearly bigger, his new works began popping up all over Bologna, depicting the obscure cartoony figures that Blu is now globally famous for.

Cartoony or not, though, Blu’s pieces shout originality. When I first saw his stuff, I thought Dr. Seuss and Gary Larson had a baby boy and named him Blu (plus or minus some drug use). The dopey yet freakish human characters and wild creatures are right out of some poor kid’s twisted nightmares after a night of pizza and ice-cream. He finds a delicate balance between his stuff looking like something a kid drew, and a masterpiece Picasso.

The difference between Blu and Picasso, though, couldn’t be further. Very little of his work can be found in traditional galleries. I’m sure the guy needs to pay the bills, but it’s obvious that he wants nothing to do with the word traditional. Blu believes in an open source philosophy when it comes to his aesthetic inspiration. You aren’t going to find by the book conventions in his work, but at the same time I think in today’s society the rebellious free spirit behind his stuff screams “contemporary” louder than the next guy. Blu moves to the beat of his own drum—and people like that beat.

Blu moves to the beat of his own drum—and people like that beat.

While a lot of the art Blu creates today is still considered illicit graffiti, his popularity has spawned a lot of legal job opportunities in the form of massive murals and displays of his talent. I’ve got the unfortunate fate of being on the wrong side of the pond, but on the European front anybody with the time and desire to check out Blu’s stuff have nothing stopping them. Something wonderful about his work as well as street art in general is that there’s no admission to see amazing, one of a kind pieces. Take a walk down the street and you can see something absolutely breath-taking. That’s a facet of the trade and lifestyle that I think this artist believes in strongly. Inspiration and the ability to see awesome artwork is something everyone deserves.

On the flip-side, public displays of free artistic expression are always going to rub some people the wrong way. Coupled with the strong political theme underlying much of his work, you can bet his murals have turned some heads. Time and again his masterpieces are painted over by the big dogs we love to hate, but that’s all part of the game. I don’t think Blu cares too much—he even paints over his own stuff on occasion. The mindset is undoubtedly that of an ever changing world. Pictures may come and go, but the ideas behind them never die. There’s always more paint in the world anyways.

Something else that must be highlighted are Blu’s animations. I’m no expert in animation, but I can imagine how difficult it is on paper or even digitally. That’s why the animations Blu conceives are so incredible. Looking at his still works of art, you already see the obscure, mind-bending creations and ideas he brings to life. Whether it’s a figure taking the front of his face off to find a writhing pool of little bodies inside its hollow, or a yacht-sized shark made of currency, Blu’s twisted take on things makes an immediate impression on you when you see them. When you see his creations in motion, though, crawling along the urban scenery with minds of their own? The result is something else.

The still pieces Blu creates are already teeming with life. When they’re in motion, moving and shifting and twisting reality, surprising you at every turn, the life behind the paint comes across even more forcefully. Check out the video above of Blu’s “Muto” and see for yourself.