Paint the Walls and Tear them Down!!

Print Show & Sale - Successful!

Bridge and the framed Prints

On Friday December 5th, we curated our own photo and poster exhibition at the Autonomous Workshop in Railroad Square in Tallahassee for the First Friday Art Walk. It was a great success!

Framed Photo Prints

We displayed tons of photos and prints ranging from posters to postcards from our recent journey documenting radical Stencil Art, Graffiti, and Street Art through northern parts of  the Yucatan and the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico! 

Poster Prints, Postcards, and Stencil Art

AND we'll still have the ability to make prints for you to take home and keep forever! Along with handmade crafts from the autonomous collectives in Chiapas, postcards, framed 8x10s, DVD's (possibly), posters, crafts by us, and more... 

Posters, Postcards, and a glimpse of the
handmade wonders of the Waldo Wildcrafts Collective

We are working on getting our ordering site up and running but for now, e-mail us and let us know the title on flickr of the image you're interested in and the size and we can send you a PayPal money request and the print of your choice!

Thanks again for everyone's support!!!

Art Show!!!

 The first showing of our photos will be Friday, December 3rd at the Autonomous Workshop at Railroad Square in Tallahassee!! We'll be selling prints from postcard size to 11" x 17" as well as crafts handmade by indigenous communities around San Cristóbal. Waldo WildCrafts Collective will also be setting up with some of their lovely DIY crafts.


  Final tallies are in and we've taken 3000 digital photos, 8 rolls of color 35 mm, 7 rolls of black and white 35 mm, and 4 hours of digital video. We're currently in the mad rush of editing digitally in time for the art show on Friday and locking ourselves in the darkroom to make prints. 


  We're also counting down the last hours of our Kickstarter fundraiser. There's a sad but realistic possibility that we're not going to make it. We hope that our kickstarter backers are willing to still support us through the donation button we have on our blogsite here. We're still offering the same rewards that we would have sent through Kickstarter. 


  After the Art Show in Tallahassee we're looking to have another show in Pittsburgh (and wherever else wants to have us) so keep watching for updates. We'll also be focusing on putting the zine itself together. Thanks for all of your support!

We're back in the states! Time to reflect and print...

  With a few close calls of running out of money and nearly missing buses, we made it home!!! The last week in Mexico was a whirlwind. We finished our last shooting session in San Cristobal as well as in the outskirts. We rented a scooter and rode out to El Arcotete and las grutas (caves). On our bus ride out of the city, we were able to take some photos of some Zapatista communities and the murals in the mountains.

  We stopped in Palenque to see the ruins. The grand scale, intricate detail, and ancient age combine for a really incredible impression. Then we took an overnight bus to Merida to meet back up with our friend William. We got there on a Sunday where there was the big Sunday Market. The whole Plaza Mayor is covered in vendors and live music plays all day. While in Merida we also got to go to the annual fair, the ruins at Izamal, and some incredible cenotes nearby. Cenotes are sinkholes carved out of the limestone and filled with water, some shallow enough to swim in.

  Unfortunately the adventures in Mexico had to come to and end,  so we made our way back towards Cancun to catch our flight. We stopped for a night in Tulum to enjoy the beach and then caught a collectivo and a bus to Cancun to fly back to Florida. We're in Orlando back at Tony and Bijou's house and by the weekend we should be back at the farm and starting to edit and print.

  We still need help though! We don't have money to print yet so pass the word! Our first show will be in Tallahassee on Dec. 3rd so if you're nearby, come on out!!

On the Road Again...

We'll be back on the road heading out out of the mountains of Chiapas and back to the Yucatan to get back to our ride home, so we might not make it to a computer for a few days, but

Just Seeds is writing up a piece for us on their blog by the 13th. Check it out! 

 

and there's a lot of new pics from San Cristobal and there will be LOTS more soon.

Our Kickstarter still needs $2,000 to be completed or we get nothing, and we've spent every penny on the this trip and still need to $ to develop and print! We will be posting some fresh new rewards straight from the hands of Mayan crafts collectives, so please, chip in and lets get it done!

sooner than later - Bridge & Bird

Final days in San Cris!

  We're counting down into our final days in San Cristóbal. Its been amazing but freezing cold. Before we leave we plan on renting scooters to ride into the surrounding mountain villages and try to get some shots there. Except in San Juan Chamula, its punishable by imprisonment to take photos so we will have to keep guard on our photo snapping habit. Our Spanish has improved immensely and we're able to find our way around most of San Cris.

   Maya Pedal fell through which we are pretty sad about but we did get to sit in on a meeting of the bike advocacy group Pedalazo and go to an amazing stencil art show and meet some local artists and activists. We're hoping to interview a few of them before we leave. And we've been taking SO MANY PICTURES we can wait to publish them!

  Also, we're still short of our fundraising goal. We pretty much went for broke on this trip and its been totally worth it but we really need help. So if you can, please pass a buck and pass the word!!!

San Cristóbal de Las Casas!!

One week and many, many, treacherous (and nauseating) bus rides later, we have started the art and resistance phase of our project!

  We stopped in Merida for a few days to visit our friend William and his family. He introduced us to some of his friends who also showed boundless amounts of generosity. Merida is the heart of the Yucatan and it was the last site of Mayan resistance. 

   We hated to say goodbye but we had to come to San Cristóbal to begin our project. We got on a bus around midnight from Merida to Palenque and then from Palenque we took a crazy ride through the mountains to this beautiful, wonderful, culturally rich city of San Cristóbal! As we stepped off of the bus we were immediately confronted by a wall of graffiti emblazoned with "Libertad!" "EZLN" and other art of the type which we came to find. Every corner hides a stencil or a painted word which captures a moment of political and social history and we are seeking them out everyday!
To preview some of our photos, look at our flickr page and keep following the blog!

PS. Don´t forget to check out our kickstarter and pass the word. We're good at budgeting but we're spending money and not working right now so every donation helps!

Estamos en Mexico!!

  The Mexican adventure begins!!! The running around preparations and stress are over and we are here and totally stoked. We caught an early morning flight with a stopover in Ft. Lauderdale where we met our friend Jacob (who you will probably see popping up in some of our pictures). Then we flew into Cancun and caught a bus to Playa Del Carmen. We're staying in a hostel on the beach in hammocks and exploring this rather touristy town. There's not much street art (or much authentic in general) here so there hasn't been too much photography so far. We're excited to start our journey towards San Cristobal where there will be more art and indigenous culture. Make sure to check back!

Updated Video and Final Countdown til the Adventures

 After some hard work we finally finished our updated video for kickstarter.com! Check it out, chip in, and pass it along!!also on YouTube!

  Its been a busy couple of weeks working and getting things together to go to Mexico and Guatemala but we finally fly out Tuesday!! We're flying into Cancun and our first stops will be Tulum and Merida. We'll be posting pictures and updating the blog whenever we can.

   Besides this blog follow flickr for more photos, kickstarter for our fundraising progress and shoot us an e-mail with any questions or if you just want to say hi!!!

Kickstarter.com Fundraising is LAUNCHED!!

   Our project (we're calling it Solidarity South of the Border) is launched on Kickstarter.com to try to get some means for this adventure! Check it out on Kickstarter and help us fundraise! Donate and pass the word along to everyone you know!!!

Launching Kickstarter.com Project SOON!

Solidarity South of the Border: A Radical Photodocumentary Project;

"A digital and film photo journey through Southern and Central America documenting resistance and community through art and ingenuity."

In preparation for our journey to Mexico, we're launching our project on kickstarter.com to raise funds for our trip and our work; film, developing, a place to keep our stuff, etc...

So, please check it out and support us!
thanks!!
-Joe & Jess

New Flickr Site Up!

We'll be updating it as often as possible, adding lots of pictures and information from Squart #'s 1 & 2 as well as new unfolding events in the quest to finish Squart 3...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/squartzine/

SQUART #3 coming soon!

For SQUART #3 we will be taking a journey south to gather images of radical stencils and graffiti from struggles in Southern and Central America, mostly the Chiapas region of Mexico. Also, we're hoping to stop in and help at the Maya Pedal project in Guatemala,who make bicycle powered machines (bicimaquinas) with and for the local indigenous peoples. From there, wherever there are radical art projects to document our journey will take us!!