Shepard Fairey for his Obey Giant line and images of Obama is probably one of, if not the most well known street artist in the world. His attention to detail, his clean imagery and on occasion iconic pieces have attracted attention from all quarters of the arts world. However there's definitely a (relatively) new kid on the block who might, and I mean might, just knock the crown from Fairey's head, and that has to be El Mac (The Mac).

El Mac is a Los Angeles born artist who's photo-realistic murals are known and loved around the world, he provides depictions of everyday people and ethereal women, utilizing distinctive a unique style of brushwork and shading patterns that centres on the human face and form. His artwork combines many classic art themes and techniques with inspiration from both a Mexican and Chicano culture of the South West, pin-up art, and religious imagery. The Mac has been quoted as viewing his work as “the result of a life devoted to art.”

Those who work with stencils and/or screen printing are well aware of the limitations of colour palette, either resorting to reducing the range of hues or in some cases creating half-tone meshes to provide a CMYK spectrum of colour. However few will turn to vexel art, one because it is a laborious process, usually via Adobe Illustrator, of meshing vectors to create blends of colour, and to because of the difficulty of transferring it to the street without a very high degree of talent in spray art. Perhaps The Mac achieves his astounding results through what I'd guess is an enormous amount of natural ability and understanding of light, (just check out his hand drawn sketches), yet still his style is remarkably similar to many vexel works at sites like DeviantArt.com.

The street has a time limit, eventually, should you take long enough, it's more than likely someone out there, usually the local authorities or police will catch you in the act of what they in their narrow minded opinion is considered as vandalism or defacement of public property. Which makes it all the more astounding that El Mac can achieve so much in his murals in such a relatively short time.

RETNA / The Mac from RVCA on Vimeo.

“I just really love to make art…to create…it’s very satisfying. Pushing around colours to make images that communicate something to other people. It feels like I’m doing something important, like I’m fulfilling some kind of duty. I feel like making art is some way of rising above basic instincts towards survival and reproduction, and trying to connect with the spiritual.” -El Mac.

Some of his pieces even resemble etchings, coloured grooves interlace skin tones and backgrounds as would an antiquated printing press. This incredible hand/eye coordination provides an immediate route in for El Mac's work, works which have quickly formed a warm relationship between him and his fans. This bond is strengthened by the subject choices of El Mac, the vibrance of the public, the beauty of woman, ideas that need little examination, forcing through a strength of humanity as the main subtext, if any, of El Mac's back catalogue. El Mac has worked many times with another prestigious graffiti artist Retna, who I must find time to feature in the future if I can!

As of now The Mac's website www.elmac.net is being redesigned, however you can keep up with all his latest work at his blog at www.mac-arte.blogspot.com. There's is a rather interesting interview by David Choe in Juxtapoz Magazine which you can read here.

This post is tagged El Mac, Juxtapoz, street art, The Mac, Vexel