A.G.N.T.S. Clothing

Painting the city of angels

10/17/2017

Until last Wednesday, it had been a few months since SVTHST and I had been exploring. Anticipation and expectations were high when we met up at his place that morning. We bent over his kitchen table mapping out our plan of attack; we knew we wanted to hit some spots by the 405 freeway as well as a few other random places I had scene on the drive over. Once the plans were finalized, we headed out.
The first location, a spot we had been to many times before, lasted us about a solid hour. It was as if the artwork were reveling in the spotlight, begging us for each flick of the camera. When we had exhausted the site, we moved on. As we were driving past an empty lot with scattered splotches of graff, we decided to make a little detour. We pulled over, got out of the [Car brand?], and walked along the train tracks until reaching the art. We flicked some quick shots but kept moving; it was well into mid-day and it was getting hotter and hotter.
We finally arrived at our last location at around 3 PM. It was exactly what we were looking for: bombed-out walls and full productions— Perfect for panoramic shots. It seemed as if every turn of our heads led us to a new fresh piece. We must have spent a few hours capturing the resulting shots, posted below. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Panoramas

All Photos Are Owned and Copyrighted By A.G.N.T.S. Clothing and Stephen S.

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following the tracks

9/10/2017

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We gathered our camera gear and headed out for a day along the dusty LA Train Tracks.

It had been a few weeks since I had had enough free time to go exploring. Feeling the itch, I phoned White-Mike to see if he wanted to join. Sure enough, a few days later, he was in the passenger seat of my Cadillac. It was around noon when we took off for this stretch of rail lines that I pass every morning on the way to work.
As soon as we finished climbing up the embankment, we knew we were going to get some great digital and 35 mm shots. For the next three hours or so, we strolled along the tracks in the dusty LA heat, taking shot after shot after shot. (We recorded the whole journey with a GoPro; enjoy the videos posted at the bottom of the page.) When we were satisfied, we got back in the car and decided to grab something to eat. On the way to [insert restaurant name here], we happened upon a graff-covered abandoned building in a construction zone. Just as we pulled over, a train rolled to a stop some hundred feet away. We hopped out of the car, whipped out the camera, and booked it over to the train. We got there just in time to capture some sick shots of several of the cars. All in all, a great day of flicking— Enjoy the shots below.

digital shots.

35mm film shots.

AGNTS into the yard

We had the GoPro strapped to the backpack and just let it catch everything we saw no fancy edits or cuts just straight from the camera with a little added love.

AGNTS Catching a live train

All Photo Are Owned & Copyrighted By AGNTS & Stephen S.

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just a sunday thing

8/8/2017

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I had been wanting to do something with the back of the studio-- something that stood out from the rest

I mentioned this to Clown while he was tattooing my calf one Sunday afternoon. We discussed a multitude of possibilities, but then finally agreed: why hesitate? We'll just bomb the whole trailer!
Clown and I spoke to my boss, the owner of the studio, and then began planning our design and color scheme. At 8 AM, the following Sunday morning, we met outside the trailer. Clown was already setting up the ladder when I pulled in. Once Mews arrived, it was go-time. I placed the GoPro on the tripod, and set up my camera. I wanted to capture shots of every movement and every stroke. The process of creation is just as important as the final art piece.
After a few hours, we received a call from Kano, who happened to have an art space on the next block. He came over, took one look at what we were doing, and picked up a can. Around the same time, Mews got a call from SPE136; we still had an opening at the front of the trailer, so we invited him over. Our two artists had quickly become four. One thing I love about graff, is the way it spurs collaboration. As classic rock blared from the speakers and the sun shined down on us, we couldn’t help but smile— We sprayed away, knowing we couldn’t have asked for a better afternoon.
The next day, my boss was blown away by what we had done. He asked us to paint the shitty old shed and we didn’t hesitate; we made plans for the following week. When 8 AM, next Sunday morning rolled around, I was greeted by Clown, and his two buddies SELF and STRAE. After catching up and figuring out who would do what, we got right to work. For hours, all you could hear was the shhrrr of spray-cans. Halfway-through, Kromahtaic, our friend from AUS, came over to catch some of the action with his camera. When the three of them finished the shed, they moved onto the dumpster. Five hours later, the deed was done and the time had come for everyone to go their separate ways. To see the time lapses from the two Sundays, look under the photos at the bottom of the page.

All Photo Are Owned & Copyrighted By AGNTS & Stephen S.

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The 57 ditch

7/6/2017

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Saw a few photos from this place and knew instantly that I wanted to shoot here.. After talking to a few people and figuring out the location, we packed up our gear and made our way to the 57 ditch...

Scrolling through Instagram one night, I came across this super-chill looking spot right off the freeway. It had been a while since my boy and I had been flicking, but after speaking with a few people and learning of the location, we made plans to drop by.
As soon as we arrived, we knew that we had found a fresh spot. Truckers lined the road and just behind them, about (fifty?) feet back, we could see graff peaking through the heavy brush. We parked further down, under the overpass and gathered our camera gear. After surveying the land and getting a feel for our surroundings, we headed towards a fenced-off area and got a sneak-peak of the amazing scape that awaited us.
We walked around for another few minutes before finding the best way to gain access to the artwork— there was an opening just off to the left of where we had parked. Because it had rained that week, the ground was soppy and slick with mud; we had to be careful as we maneuvered through the thick foliage. But it was worth it. On the other side of the brush, away from the noise of the freeway and the haze caused by the dusty gravel, was a magnificent view. Everything we had expected and more.
We started underneath this little bridge and followed a creek to the right. Walls were dripping with work— both great and shotty, both old and new. After exploring the area and taking in all the sight had to offer, we got to flicking. Five hours later we came away with around 800 photos: some pretty dope individual shots as well as some sick panoramas. Another afternoon well-spent.

Panoramas

The Panoramic photo you are looking at is a visual representation of a single moment on the grind. Capturing the color and the creativity of the particular space in time.

Each Panoramic print is a culmination of ten to forty photos –depending on the shot- threaded together using traditional methods as well as the latest in digital photograph technology. The photos are then printed on Fuji photo paper with a Lustre coat, combining the shine and the feel of a gloss print with the durability of a matte finish. Embossing the print and placing it in our custom-made wood frame adds the final touches.

Anyone out there can take a picture with their phone, but A.G.N.T.S. brings you art from the eye.

All Photos are Owned and Copyrighted By Stephen S. & AGNTS Clothing..

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exploring with krohmatiK

5/17/2017

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Back in March we got a message from the homie outta Australia, KrohmatiK, letting us know he'd be blessing our beautiful city with his presence. Not only were we able to spend some time with him, but we were able to take him to some of Los Angeles' dopest spots and view the world through his lens as only he can capture them.

When he touched down and got settled in we hooked up and headed out to the first spot. As we came up to it you could see the artistic gears turning in Krohmatik's head as his eyes opened up to the walls laced with letters, characters and colors top to bottom. He pulled his camera up to his eye, took aim and fired away. The clicking became constant from then on as we captured and documented every step it seemed. With each hole in the fence we ducked through, the endless tracks we followed for hours, it was unbelievable to see Krohmatik interact with the the scenery through his art and to hear the amazement and disbelief in his words about the immense amount of work there was to see.

After a full and successful day we headed back to the studio to unload our gear, drink a few beers and see what we captured. We hope you enjoy.

As told by: Stephen Sletten
Written by: Jeremy Wallace

panoramas

All Photo Are Owned & Copyrighted By AGNTS & Stephen S.

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track antics

3/27/2017

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We have been wanting to visit one of our old spots for a few months now. We finally got the chance to go back and were able to walk the tracks.

PANORAMAS

All Photo Are Owned & Copyrighted By AGNTS & Stephen S.

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The Heights Of The City

11/25/2016

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Nothing like just grabbing the camera and hitting the streets for a few hours..

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The Wash a gallery

7/24/2016

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This Particular wash gave us are own personal concrete gallery for a few hundred yards. this is what we caught..

digital Shots.

35mm film shots.

We also had our 35mm Minolta camera on deck and were able to capture a different side of all the graffiti. We shot all different ISO's when we were flicking and used all different types of film.

The Wash A gallery

We had the GoPro strapped to the backpack and just let it catch everything we saw no fancy edits or cuts just straight from the camera with a little added love.

All Photos Are Owned And Copyrighted By AGNTS Clothing & Stephen S.

Come Visit Us..
AGNTSclothing.com

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Pow wow Long Beach 2016 a Recap

7/18/2016

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pow wow made a stop in long beach and blessed the city with some pretty amazing murals for there 2016 takeover...

Here's the list of all the muralist who came to bless the LBC..

123KLAN, AARON LI-HILL, ANDREW HEM, BRENDAN MONROE, CINTA VIDAL, DAVE VAN PATTEN,
DEFER, DRAGON76, EDWIN USHIRO, ERNEST ZACHAREVIC, EVAH FAN, FELIPE PANTONE GAIL WERNER, GARY MUSGRAVE, HITOTZUKI, HULA, JAIME MOLINA, JAMES HAUNT, JEFF MCMILLAN
KAPLAN BUNCE, KASHINK, MR44, OG23, OG SLICK, PANTONIO, SARAH JONCAS, SKET ONE,
TELMO MIEL and YOSKAY YAMAMOTO

*Photo are not in any certain order.

During are walk we also stopped by some of the murals that were done at last years Pow Wow and a few other murals and graffiti that we found along the way.

Click For Full Album

All Photos Are Owned and Copyrighted
By Stephen S. & AGNTS Clothing

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TEACHR... 2 TEACH PEACE

5/17/2016

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Los Angeles based street artist, Teachr, stopped by the studio and spent some time with AGNTS to discuss his game-changing stencil design, give us insight into the name and Teach Peace movement, AND lay down some fresh designs on canvas. when THE PAINT SETTLED, a new friendship was created and the I Spray LA collab was born.

We now bring you one of the very best.

So what’s with the name Teachr? Where did it come from?

When I first started doing it I didn’t even think about having a name. There was a guy that was running a street art blog called Melrose and Fairfax. I had gotten in touch with him and it was funny because he was like “Yeah, we are familiar with your work” and I was like, “You’ve seen my stuff?”

So he says, “What do you want to put the work under? What name do you want?”

I was like, “Oh...well…the first piece I did said Teach.” And basically, to me, I thought about it philosophically also: Anyone that puts something out on the streets and the people that get something from me, your kind of a teacher. So to me, all street artists are teachers.

And I wanted to have a simple name. I didn’t want a fancy fuckin’ name because I knew somewhere down the line that I was going to do some shitty work and I actually wanted to make it easy for people to make fun of me. So I was like, You know what? There you go.

So what prompted you to invent your style of stencil as opposed to what you were using before?

Strictly for street art. I wanted to make something that could hold floating pieces and that was one layer. Because I figured, if I have kids and if I do these two layer, three layer and four layer fancy stencils which through time guys are like, “Man, you should try these multiple layer stencils. You would probably be awesome at them”. Maybe? But I have twins and shit disappears. And what do I do if one of those layers is gone, you know? I guarantee you one layer or more is going to be lost somewhere along the way.

I get what you’re saying with the crazy multi-layer stencils; it’s fantastic and it looks amazing but…

But it’s not street realistic.

Exactly

These are very street. They’re tough too.

They can handle a beating and everything, that’s why the idea of gluing it to the fiberglass window screen, I just tried it. I didn’t know if it would work or not. And dude, the first times that I did it, it was very, very basic and simple. The design was just a face, my daughter’s face, very graphic, and it said “Teach” across the top and there was very few floating pieces. So what I did was put it down on the floor of our garage, cement floor, and then I very carefully rolled this fiberglass screen over it and then went around and taped it all the way around with duct tape.

Yeah, that’s what it started off with and then I figured out the spray adhesive really helped the whole process to become a lot more elaborate. You get a lot more elaborate pieces.

How long does the stencil usually last now that you have the fiberglass on it?

You get about maybe twelve or fifteen sprays before it starts getting kind of built up on that. You can still see the image though. I mean, to me, certain stencils look kinda cool, especially like the dollar bill when it gets all clogged up and stuff on certain spots ‘cause then it looks like it’s kind of rough. Sometimes I don’t even spray complete. You just spray like this (the sound of quick bursts and arm movements signaled by can rattles). See what I mean? Just barely hitting it. You hit it and do prints like that, you can do a bunch more. But see, like the gold one (Teachr points to a special one-off Bukowski he laced). If I do all those the way I did his, it’s not gonna last that long.

How long have you been doing stencils as an art form?

I actually did stencils a little while I was airbrushing back when I was fucking fourteen years old and then I started doing the street art stencils, what was that, almost five years ago.

Do you have any crazy chase stories or run-ins?

Yeah I do. I had just moved to where we are now in Los Villas and I was hitting this billboard at Hollywood and Wilton. And I’m coming down –and I had to take a ten foot ladder up a twenty six foot ladder basically—and so when I was coming back down I had the ten foot ladder set-up next to the, there’s a little lip like this going down. So I stepped over onto the twenty six foot ladder and right as I stepped over and brought my other foot over this cop was driving down Wilton, passed by the alley and slowed down. I’m like, Oh, shit. There is no doubt in my mind that he fucking saw me.
So I go, ledge, right over to the side and sat there and watched him turn around and pull back down the street and then slow back down in the alley, look, and then kinda slowly creep up to the light. Then the light changed and he went across Hollywood and then turned around and sat there at the light, facing Hollywood on Wilton on the other side. I was like, mother fucker. I seen a spot where I could hop around this fence, climb down the fence and I could go in ‘cause there’s an open door and then just walk down the stairs and come out. So I was contemplating that. In the meantime I went back over and looked and he was gone from where he was sitting. So I was like, Okay, time to haul ass.

I hop over and I come down and I’m walking out and –luckily, for some reason—I had my white construction helmet on. Always had white pants. White. White. I took my helmet off and my truck’s parked right there on Wilton, soon as you walked out. So as I’m turning like this and walking, a car was coming up like this. And just because of the timing and where I was walking it didn’t see me. So I walked around the back and came up like this, up around the side of the truck and it stopped. It was an unmarked cop car and it stopped and it was looking up the fucking alley. And then I hop in my truck and I’m sitting behind it. I’m going, Okay. Do I just fucking sit here until he fucking leaves? Or do I go? You know? He could be there a long fucking time, whatever. I’m like, Just fucking start the, just fucking go! Go! Go!

So I start the car up, pull out and I go. I’m just sitting there looking in my rearview mirror, then I make the first turn possible and go around the turn and then, vrrroom. Pull around the corner. Change my clothes ‘cause I always have a change of clothes for missions. I’m walking back around the corner, walk up and I see that he is gone. So I’m like, Okay, they know that I’m gone now. So I went back, got in my truck and pulled back around, parked right where I was, walked over there and looked up for a second at the ten foot ladder and thought for a second, Oh man, I should go grab that. And it was a piece of shit ten foot fucking ladder that we had that was left in the last house we were in. Like, I payed nothing for this fucking ladder. Nothing. And here I am going, Maybe I should go grab the ten foot ladder? Luckily, something inside of me’s like, Get the fuck outta here. Get your god damn nice twenty six foot ladder and get the fuck outta here. So I pulled that fucker down, folded it up, threw it in the back of the truck and hauled ass, and left the fuckin’ ten foot ladder. Went by there the next day, evening, and it was gone already.

Have you gone painting with a lot of those guys in the DVD, Artists Templar?

Thrashbird. I’ve done some billboards with Thrashbird. I did one of the most elaborate billboards by anyone, with Thrashbird. We did a Thor billboard. I did a massive paster speak bubble that said, “Teach Peace Thrashbird Style”. Then he got up and went over and it said The Dark World, like over on the side, he went over and made it say, “Teach the World”. Then we also had, I made a stick person, full size stick person, and we put clothes on it and like a head and everything, a hoodie, and we had it holding a phone like it was taking a photo of the piece. I even did a little painting on the phone that looked like what you would see if you were looking. I even have pictures of it and everything. It’s ridiculous. No one’s ever going to see that shit, but, what the fuck.

I hauled that mother fucker up there. First I got up top and I was pasting that thing down and Thrashbird was over there spraying. He said that every time I came over like this, he said that thing dipped down about a foot and a half. ‘Cause he was on the end, you know, the swinging end. I got done and I came back around him and then I stood the guy up and wired him down and everything and Thrashbird –oh, and a photographer came up there with us also—so there was three of us up there.

So we had a 3D figure wired to the fuckin’ billboard, we had a burner piece that he did, and then a massive paster that I did. You’ll never see that again. And he and I will never do it again. Because it was crazy.

That’s Awesome!

On that same billboard and the billboard next to it there was a Captain America on that one that faces north and south and on the other one there was a Maleficent; Angelina Jolie. I had her saying, “Hey, Captain America, let’s Teach Peace”. And then on the Captain America, he said, “Okay, let’s teach peace”. So I made two billboards talk to each other.
You’ve never seen that before, right?

Fuck no!

I know (enter any name here) and all these guys do some fuckin’ bad ass shit and you know what, dude? If I really wanted to I could spend a couple months and start doing stuff like that and could do it just as good, but it's not part of who I am. It's not my message or anything. It's not my steeze.

How did the Teach Peace come about? Was that at the same time you started the street stuff?

No, no, no. The street art stuff started when the kids were born. The Teach Peace actually developed from, I wanted to do something with the symbol of the red cross. It was gonna be Teach and then Teach. Because I figured a good way to teach first aid is to teach what you learn. It's good first aid. But sometimes I didn’t feel that good about it. It wasn’t that thing where it was like, Oh yeah, that’s fucking it. It sat for a little while and then this friend of mine sent me this color thing that I’ve had dozens of people send me since and it has like something like that (Teachr begins drawing the first designs of his iconic symbol on a scratch paper) and it's in color and it's cool and everything. I was like, Wait a second man. That was the perfect first aid Teach Peace. So that is what is started out as.

The whole Teach Peace thing, it's a message that you want to spread in different forms to different audiences it seems. What’s your feelings on it?

My whole idea, Teach Peace, basically anyone that is like an entertainer, or a comedian or a teacher or anyone that helps you learn how to deal with your conflicts, then they’re teaching peace. So that’s why I’ve had all the different entertainers and people that inspired me. It’s because they’ve, in some form or another, they’ve taught peace.
See, there is always going to be conflict. Until the end of fucking time there’s going to be conflict. So I’m going to be teaching peace until the fucking day I die and rest in peace.

Thank you for stopping by. It’s been much appreciated.

Teach Peace, bro, I gotta run.