the fav tory Zhudaru1963 st Pete art.

July 11, 2021

Second Saturdays At The Factory: July Edition

One of my favorite monthly events in the St.Pete Area are the Second Saturday Art Walks hosted by The Factory St.Pete. Each month allows the artists that call The Factory home an opportunity to share what they have been working on recently or just have great conversations.

I didn’t get a chance to see this piece at last month’s Juneteenth event but shout out to The Factory for still having it showcased. Zulu Painter really did his thing with this one, it’s a collage on a grander scale.

It’s always a great time chatting it up with Lucky LeRoy on whatever theme he’s got going on in Leroy Land that Saturday. Leroy had many of his pieces showcased this month featuring his interpretation on Pop Art and the works of Andy Warhol. The Hugh Hefner piece as well as the Anna Nicole Smith piece are some of my favorites. With all that “Drip” talk in pop culture nowadays, LeRoy’s “Giuliani Drip” piece is definitely a splash.

Jae The Creative had a couple of pieces on display, I really dug the “Flawda Boy” piece and her color pallet choice, the orange is a big vibe. ND Art Life also showcased a few pieces, he had on display for the Juneteenth event. I can’t wait to see what he brings to the Fairgrounds St.Pete.

Two of my favorite Second Saturday regulars are Fsquared Ceramics and The Nature Of Fire. Ashley had a couple new dope collage pieces on display. I love the goldish tint on her piece “… It’s From Within!” made with Stoneware clay. I enjoy the simplistic brush work Fsquared uses on some of his pieces, it gives off a calming feeling.

I have seen Myiah Pink’s art work at a couple of the $lugged $ound$ events held at the BTMVLE Studio but it was really dope to see everything come full circle. I remember telling her about The Factory a couple of months back and now her work is being shown there. Happy Soul is definitely a vibe.

Anytime my bruthers at Before The Storm Studio are doing a pop up or event you know Jit will be in the building. After the historic “Life In The Desert” fashion show at the Juneteenth event, the homies are back with a BTS logo tee as well as those must have shorts for the summer, you can never have to many comfortable shorts my g. Also available is the “Velocity” tote featuring one of my favorite cloud designs the gang has used thus far. These dudes are changing the game.

June 20, 2021June 21, 2021

Juneteenth Jubilee at The Factory

The Factory’s Juneteenth Jubilee was definitely a special night, celebrating community, culture, and freedom.

The whole city has been waiting weeks for this performance from Onlyonetwo and boy did he deliver! Performing a variety of tracks off his most recent “Fire EP” and the 727 Hip Hop Classic “222”, there was a song for everyone on the set. As long as he played “Been Fair” I would have been good. I haven’t seen so much energy from a St.Pete show in a minute, with the crowd so hype that Onlyonetwo did an encore performance of “Sam Kassel (Fluuu)”. Shout out to Wrecka, Alex, and the rest of the SEVAW family.

Anytime my brothers from Before The Storm are doing anything you know the Jit is going to support it. The “Life In The Desert” Fashion Show brought their latest collection to life, combining stealth and desert attire with a “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” style brought the entire capsule together. This shit literally blew my mind when I saw the models rocking the hats Johnny Depp had in the film. Even some of the show exclusive pieces like the various bags and anything with a scorpion on it was absolute heat. Huge congrats to Raheem, Laurent, Chad, and the models for putting this all together. This is something I have always wanted to see happen in the city and I knew they where going to be the ones to accomplish that, a definite game changer.

Myiah Pink had some new pieces on display as well has some new “Happy Soul” merch. I have been following her over her last few pop ups with the $lugged $ound$ family so it was nice to see everything come full circle. Big shout out to Zulu Painter as well for his dope installation inside of The Factory, and The Nature Of Fire for her work that was on display .

Per usual the homie Sean.mp3 went brazy during his live performance. Be on the look out for a review of his latest project “MP3 & Me (DEMO) dropping on the site this week. QueenofEx straight up killed her performance, having the whole crowd hype. To close out the event The Sunchildren came through with a dance performance.

It was also really dope connecting with the homie Lazz Beats as well as kicking it with Rishi, ABR, and Yella. This is only the beginning of all the amazing events that could happen at The Factory, bringing the entire city together for the culture.

May 9, 2021May 9, 2021

Second Saturdays At The Factory: May Edition

From beads, to Nikes, even a Cypher, this months installment of The Factory’s Second Saturday Art Walk was one for the books.

Starting off with one of the dopest installations I’ve ever seen in my life, the homies at Before The Storm had their “The Sky Is Falling” installation up for the last day so you know Jit had to pull up. Everyone has thrown a pair of Nikes up to see if they would hang on the phone line, so this brought me back to that. The immersive aspect is what took it next level, would love to see this brought to a larger scale at The Fairgrounds one day. It’s like Nike meets Rene Magritte. Big congrats on this one, y’all made some shit for the museums.

Was really nice chopping it up with Bead The Burg. Being a Tampa Bay sports addict, I love her “Brady’s Bunch” and “Champa Bay” handmade pieces she had on display. The “Sunken Gardens” one was really nostalgic for me and even has me thinking about taking a trip over there on my day off. Fingers crossed on that Sandman Motel piece that one would be a game changer.

Finally got the chance to meet Creations By Z, it’s always nice to meet a fellow Leo who also happen to make really dope custom sneakers. Her AF1s pictured above could easily be apart of Nikes annual Black History Month collection, the details in the customs are that good. The concept of her Ying and Yang lion pieces was really creative, and a highlight of the pair.

Big Beyo has been a staple of the art walks but his new kraken piece might be my favorite to date. It has a graffiti wall vibe to it, but how Beyo captured the eye of the beast was on point.

“Calling My Spirit” was still on display from i.b.o.m.s but that just gives me more time to appreciate. Every time I see one of his pieces on display it’s like I’m seeing something can’t miss, I need to soak it all in before it’s gone.

I always start off the walks by going in to see what the Nature of Fire & Fsquared Ceramics are working on, they are always so warm and friendly. It was really cool to see some of their new collab pieces they have made. the Nature of Fire ability to capture the human body is incredible. Desperately in need of a pot made by Fsquared for Lida’s Jungle, my Cacti is growing and needs a home.

After being postponed in April, I was highly anticipating the Rishi Beats & Friends Cypher. Rishi also played a small set of a few of his newest joints, which are in heavy rotation on the SoundCloud playlist.

My favorite artist right now is Johnny Adama , so when I heard he was participating you already know Jit was gonna run it up. Johnny played a couple joints off his new project “The Adama Effect” a few of which take the top spot on my “The New St.Pete” Apple Music Playlist.

I heard rumblings of a couple special guests popping up to the cypher, but damn I didn’t know Alec Burnright was gonna go that brazy. His project Mofongo+ dropped at the top of the year, and is always in constant rotation, shit “Tony Danza” is contender for song of the year.

Sean.mp3 had my IG story feed going brazy with his freestyle, homie was spazzing on some futuristic shit. Sean is a really dope artist and producer that does a lot of work with Before The Storm. Check out his project “MP3 & ME” dropping 5/20.

March 14, 2021March 14, 2021

Second Saturdays At The Factory.

Every Second Saturday of the month The Factory St.Pete hosts an Art Walk showcasing some of the artists who have studios within The Factory and who have collaborated with The Factory in the past.

The main installation I was looking to check out this month was from bujikimo. I first saw the couch piece he made for the grand opening, as well as the piece he brought to Coastal for the “Lonely Fans” show. I saw some glimpses of the Bear Brick online but I had to see it in all its glory in person. By far my favorite bujikimo piece, it’s really dope how he added his esthetic to the bear brick canvas. The stop sign piece also on display was inventive as well as an unexpected canvas choice.

It always a joy for me to see some new work from Zulu Painter. I love how he is able to capture people’s faces. His versatility was really on display this month with the new clock piece he unveiled called “Time”. The eyes inside the clock are my favorite touch. The color pallet forms almost a kaleidoscope effect within the clock.

iBOMS is another main stay at The Factory. The main focus in both of these pieces are the blooms. In “Blooms of the mortal” The bloom appears to be taking the form of figure. Also notice the head is cut off. In “Unsweetened Love” the pig character can’t handle the taste of the blooms causing him to spit them out.

One of my favorite pieces still on display is the collab piece between iBOMS & Zulu Painter. Pretty much a mash up of both styles, since they are two of my favorite artists how could I not love this one. It’s the skeletor grill for me. Plan on picking this piece up in the coming week if it’s still available fingers crossed!

No one makes a collage like the abstract.

Abstract Poet is becoming one of my favorite artists. His collage style is like none I have seen before. I was lucky enough to have Abstract Poet create the cover art for the Jit Camp presents: Laz Beats- Lord Slug project. Hopefully one day I can get that actually made into a physical piece, that would be next level.

Beyo had a couple pieces on display. I am unfamiliar with his work but I really dug this Travis Scott piece. It was a dope touch to capture the cactus jack colorway esthetic for the piece.

The Nature Of Fire is doing some next level work.

Two of my favorite Factory residents Gio’s Typos & The Nature Of Fire are always a joy to see. Gio is a poetry guru. The Nature Of Fire had some new pieces she has been experimenting with on display, she definitely has a dope little collection on her hands.

Saint Paint has been killing it with the murals.

While I was at The Factory I had to show love and check out the new Saint Paint mural he just finished for The Fairgrounds. Each letter captures a piece of Florida, and who doesn’t love a good post card. Can’t wait to see what’s in store at The Fairgrounds but I’ll be picking up my charter membership this week.