Title
Defer
Medium
spray paint, paint markers and 24k gold leaf on wood panel
Dimensions
8 x 10 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
Year
2014
Private collection, Hawaii
Gajin Fujita produced this painting for his close friend Defer (Alex Kizu), who is also a fellow member of Fujita’s graffiti crew K2S (Kill to Succeed). The video below documents the making of this painting, but moreover highlights Fujita’s process for piecing together the stencil components to reconstruct the initial drawing for the piece.
Fujita begins each painting with a preparatory drawing, or drawings, through which he determines scale, composition and palette. He then actively uses the drawing to make the painting: cutting away its components to create intricate stencils. After gold leafing wood panels and tagging with graffiti, Fujita lays the stencil over the painting’s surface, securing its placement with small weights. He then sprays through the stencil, building and layering color until he achieves the desired result. (This process is akin to the traditional Japanese art form of ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking, which employs a form of color separation.) After Fujita has finished using the stencil, he reunites it with its cut-out components to form the original drawing composition, and mounts it on a paper support.
