Graham Moore is a graphic designer, teacher at FIDM, Art Center and Woodbury University, and artist. He said he visits Amoeba Hollywood weekly to purchase bargain bin vinyl for his art, which involves collage technique to reconfigure old LP covers — some famous, some forgotten — into the creations currently seen hanging in the Ivar St. window of Amoeba Hollywood. I spoke with Moore a bit about how he creates his pieces.

The Beatles' Abbey Road reimagined

PST: Did you find all the records you used at Amoeba? Were you looking for specific titles or was it more about the way they looked? What records did you end up using?

Moore: I would say that a good portion of them came from Amoeba (hurrah for the $1 vinyl sections), but I am also constantly scouring thrift stores, estate sales, yard sales, swap meets, etc. and even have friends find stuff for me when they are traveling or working in different parts of the country! I never look for specific titles, it’s more about the colors, shapes, textures and typography and having a vision as to how I can re-interpret the imagery!

Today is the date traditionally recognized as the birthday of one of my favorite Japanese artists, 葛飾 北斎 (Katsushika Hokusai). Without a doubt he is one of (if not the) most famous Japanese artists of all time. His best known work is the ukiyo-e woodblock print series 富嶽三十六景 (Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji), published around 1831. The collection includes his single most recognized work, The great wave off Kanagawa.

The great wave off Kanagawa

Hokusai was born in the Musashi province of Edo (now Tokyo) in 1760. The exact date of his birth is somewhat uncertain although it is often said to have been the 23rd day of the 9th month of the 10th year of the Hōreki era, which would be the 31st of October in the Gregorian calendar. His adoptive (and likely biological) father was Nakajima Ise, mirror-maker to the shogun. Since Hokusai wasn’t named as his heir – it is sometimes assumed that his mother was a concubine. Hokusai’s childhood name was 姓は川村氏 (Kawamura Tokitarō). He later went by 鉄蔵 (Tetsuzo), 中島八右衛門 (Nakajima Hachiemon) and about thirty other (usually quite colorful) noms d'artiste.

Simeon Solomon was a Jewish Pre-Raphaelite painter. He was born 9 October, 1840 at No. 3 Sandys Street, Bishopsgate, London, England. Were he alive today he'd be turning 172.

Solomon was the eighth and last child Michael (Meyer) Solomon, manufacturer of Leghorn hats, and artist Catherine Levy. Two of his older siblings, Abraham and Rebecca, were also painters. It was Abraham, in fact, who first gave painting instruction to Solomon around 1850.

In 1852 he began attending the Royal Academy where, that same year, his sister's work was being exhibited. At the Academy, Solomon became friends with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the other Pre-Raphaelites, their associates, and Dandy and Decadent poet, Algernon Charles Swinburne.

His first exhibition at the Academy took place in 1858 and, until 1872, he continued exhibiting -- also at the Dudley Gallery. The subject matter of his work was in many ways typical of the Pre-Raphaelites although also drawn from The Tanakh. In 1865 he contributed illustrations to Swinburne's posthumously-published pornographic novel, Lesbia Brandon. Some of his high-profile patrons included Eleanor Tong Coltart, James Leathart, and Lord Battersea.

The sad reality is that cancer is something that many of us can directly relate to; having either lost someone close to us to the deadly disease or else know of someone who has been diagnosed with or died from cancer in its many forms. This year in the US alone a total of 1,638,910 new cancer cases will be diagnosed with a projected 577,190 deaths from cancer predicted by the end of 2012!

Among those to die from cancer this year was 47 year old Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (aka MCA) whose death five months ago followed the artist's three year battle with salivary gland cancer. His shocking death further reminded hip-hop fans of the disease that can strike out at anyone at anytime. Four years ago 30 year old hip-hop artist Camu Tao died following his two year battle with lung cancer. This year his friend/musical collaborator El-P dedicated the acclaimed album Cancer 4 Cure on Fat Possum to Tao's memory. Two years ago Guru of Gang Starr died from cancer related causes. Everyone affected by cancer deals with it in their own way. In the case of San Jose writer Sanae Ponce, who lost her mother a few months ago to cancer, she decided to organize the Graffiti Against Cancer benefit series of fundraising events that will be happening at various galleries throughout the Bay Area later this month. For such a large scale project Ponce is not working alone. "Marito El Nicoya is my right hand man through all this. He's from Cali as well. His family is from Nicaragua. Mario Guitron is also a big part of this event, he's been helping us with the itineraries for these events," Ponce told me when I caught up with her this past week to ask her about her mother, the benefit series, and what folks can do to participate in this timely worthwhile event, that will pass along all proceeds to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

If one dollar had been donated for every photo taken at the Berkeley warehouse street art exhibit Endless Canvas' SPECIAL DELIVERY enough money could have been generated to purchase the warehouse building that housed this wonderful, temporary grassroots art exhibit and to keep it open indefinitely - not just in pop-up form. The exhibit ended its all-too-short 3 weekend run yesterday with another extremely well attended day of photo-happy street art fans. For many the temporary nature of SPECIAL DELIVERY  only added to the vibrancy of this exhibit of revered but disposable art - and another reason to document it.

I stopped by yesterday - Sunday September 30th, the sixth and final day - to be simply blown away by the wonderful art on display. About a 100 pieces by such local artists as Swampy and Plant Trees graced near every available corner of this cavernous, two-level 36,000 square-foot abandoned warehouse space down on Fourth Street near Gilman.

Anyone I know who attended this event, like David Ford who worked at it or E-Lit from Amoeba Berkeley who patiently lined up on the very packed opening weekend three weeks ago, were equally impressed by SPECIAL DELIVERY - from the caliber of the art on display to the perfect location of the exhibit. Berkeley's Carbon Warehouse – down near the railway tracks at 1350 4th Street - is a funky and raw building with only natural light. (Hence the darkened, shadowy, shuttered downstairs art area takes a minute for your eyes to adjust to).