A Fieldtrip Through Local Underground Art Scene

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San Francisco may have the Upper Playground, mimicking the hustle, the seasons and scenes, and aesthetics and pitfalls of The City, just as the Los Angeles SA Studios reps and reflects on the life and times of LA's ghettos, gangsters and greasers, reminiscent of Los Angeles: Now and Then.

But for San Diego, which is but a toddler of a "city," it may take an exploration into the underground to discover our artistic roots and see into the soul of who we are and where we come from.

The artists are out there, piecing psychedelic frescos in back street alleyways, posting bills on construction site passageways that run through downtown like a maze of plywood tunnels. They're laying down secret codes, messages and murals under highways, suspended above precarious freeways, breathing a bit of life into the city.

Yet you don't have to take a trip to the graffiti pits or the ghettos just to get a glimpse of the underground art scene shaping into form around town. Those with the interest and the desire to see San Diego "happen," are making it possible for the rest of us, who usually wouldn't have access, to get a first-class pass to the show.

It has been relatively one year since Fieldtrip, a promotion and production company dedicated to bringing their creation of fresh entertainment into the San Diego scene, staged their first collaborative art and music show. Since that first production, Fieldtrip has been very busy, rapidly moving toward the next "big" event. In that significant, but small, amount of time, The Fieldtrip Live Art Show, has become a staple of Fieldtrip Entertainment, and has brought interesting and formidable talent to the forefront of the art scene. And this, dare we say, underground art movement has begun to erupt like an earthquake all over San Diego, of course, if only minute on the Richter Scale.

Dave "DVICE" Weidetz, the mastermind behind The Fieldtrip Live Art Show, has found a way to put his passion in the front seat, with business riding passenger. Weidetz, who began drawing, "since I could walk," graduated from the San Diego Art Institute in 2001 and quickly realized that, in order to enjoy his vocation as an artist, it would require a creative time frame, one which would enable Weidetz to be the boss of his own creativity. After being involved with several business ventures and commercial graphics projects, Brett Fischer approached Weidetz with a fresh perspective that would allow Weidetz to enjoy the best of both worlds. Fischer, Weidetz's partner in crime and the other half of Fieldtrip Entertainment, brought his background in music and entertainment together with Weidetz's artistic ideas to spawn what would soon become Fieldtrip Entertainment.

"When we started Fieldtrip," Weidetz explains, "we wanted to try to inspire other people. The original purpose was to give the public a backstage pass to the creative process and put together a cool crew of artists." It would seem that this inspiration has certainly been realized, and has become life-size in the form of The Fieldtrip Live Art Show. The "show" consists of a crew of artists who deliver a live, six-hour art instillation in show format with mediums from spray paint to acrylic, wheat paste to stencils and Posca pens. These mediums merge on a gigantic masonite wall, constructed in an area of the chosen event venue for the patron's viewing pleasure. Add that to the pumping sounds emitted from a wide range of headlining electro, indie and rock stage talent, local and imported, and you got yourself one heck of a show.

Weidetz, whose half of Fieldtrip, includes putting together the crew that will be performing The Fieldtrip Live Art Show, also contributes his artistic ideas as well. The pieces he creates are inspired by his life experiences, vintage pop culture, the counter culture led by Timothy Leary (Fieldtrip's calling card), as well as the art of Andy Warhol, Rick Griffin, Ed Roth, and pretty much anything that strikes him as "epic."

Fieldtrip, as a platform for exhibiting art, is not just for the public, but for the artists as well. By participating in the Fieldtrip Live Art Show, every artist chosen gets an opportunity to experience and learn from other artists.

Tocayo, who met Weidetz at the "One Night Stand," art show in Golden Hills, put on by Reef, participated in several Fieldtrip Live Art Shows in 2007 and 2008. Of the experience of painting in the Fieldtrip Live Art Show, he notes, "[The Fieldtrip Live Art Show] is a great place for exposure, as well as seeing other artists' techniques." Tocayo, whose influences encompass artists like Dave Kinsey and Andy Howell, began his artistic journey as a kid with good old fashioned pencil and paper. Born in Cuba, and raised in Miami, Tocayo made the journey across the country to sunny San Diego not long after high school and began his study at San Diego's Art Institute from which he is a graduate. Tocayo's degree, as he describes it, is in "leisure activities, surfing, painting and stunt driving." Though one might recognize Tocayo's art on many a surfboard, perhaps most notable, would be the rendering of Bob Marley, his preferred canvas is wood, upon which he is currently doing his "Homeless Series."

Recently, Tocayo was a contributor in Fieldtrip's Hanger Banger, an event put on at Airport Lounge in April of 2008. Hanger Banger consisted of an art instillation in the form of wooden canvases shaped like airplane windows upon which artists painted their renditions. In true Tocayo style, one of his two pieces included an illustrated scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in which he drew Mr. Hand and Jeff Spicolli holding a sign which read, "Hey, Bud, let's party." Yet, some of Tocayo's paintings are not so light-hearted, as many are influenced by his Cuban roots, with messages in Spanish encoded in the background.

As far as the starving artist motif, however, Tocayo, who has been a contributing artist to various commercial companies, explains that it is not that easy to make your art your work. "If you can do it, it's awesome," says Tocayo. "But sometimes art requires sacrifices, like relationships and finances."

Richard Arthur, another contributor to many a Fieldtrip Live Art Show, whose bright pieces, and incredible renderings of stars like Kate Moss and Rosario Dawson, knows all too well the sacrifices of the starving artist. Self-described as an "art school dropout," Arthur identifies the struggles of the artist trying to make art into work. "[I worked at an] art material store but it didn't work out. Oh the irony. My passion is my art and for me it's difficult to make my passion into a commodity. But life finds a way." Arthur has been recognized by Kat Von D, for a portrait he rendered of the tattooed LA Ink star, a portrait which still hangs in the shop.

As for Arthur's influences, which pop up in his vibrant and colorful pieces, Arthur explains, "I am recognizably influenced by pop artists like Warhol and also outsider artists like Jean Michel Basquiat [as well as] fantastic portrait artists and contemporaries like Robert English, classical European painting, and some of our Fieldtrip collaborators. They blow me away. A lot of the time I am inspired by the work I don't understand. Like, 'how'd they do that?'"

As for the starving artist, Arthur just shrugs it off. "You definitely need to pay your dues at first," he says, "as in any industry. You know P-Diddy started at Capitol Records as a freakin' janitor and check his flavor now."

One particular artist who knows how important it is to hustle, and is also a constant participant in the Fieldtrip Live Art Show, is Exist 1981. You may not know his name, but if you have ever driven around San Diego, or pretty much any major city, you have seen the mark of EXIST, generally in the form of a stencil resembling a mysterious female face. EXIST, who has held various jobs in graphic design, which include marketing, advertising, silk screen and apparel design, is known for his intricate paintings with combined mediums as well as his signature apparel, usually representing the stamp of EXIST.

Staying true to this medium, EXIST works like a mad scientist who is always discovering new ways to lead a full-out assault on the city with his guerilla tactics, whether its in the form of a gigantic balloon floating from a lamppost with the branded face, or slapping stickers on every possible electric box, light pole or stop sign. Though you can see him just about everywhere, San Diego holds its own uniqueness in the street art world. He explains, "As far as street art goes in San Diego, it's a very tight group of people and it seems like we put pieces for each other to notice and appreciate. Every once and a while someone else will notice and mention it."

And forget about starving, it's all about the love. "I Love being an artist," he says, "I work twelve hour days, but I set my own schedule and pick the projects I want to work on.You don't starve if you work hard and hustle."

Take it from one who knows as there is no hiding from EXIST. Influenced by Barry McGee, Daim and Robin Banksy, EXIST's evolution from isolation into all-around-town existence, can be credited to his love for "markers, paper, cans, walls, computers, paper, and paste." EXIST has also revealed his subsistence at several Fieldtrip Live Art Shows, bringing his own brand to the ever-evolving mural wall. And if you're wondering whether or not you can catch sight of him at the next show, count on it. "Fieldtrip is boss," he says, "the cheese to my macaroni."

Check out the Fieldtrip Live Art Show at the San Diego 91X Fest this Friday, May 16. And, stayed tuned for JEEPERS! Show this July, on the weekend of San Diego Comic Con 2008. For more information, check fieldtripentertainment.com.

See Fieldtrip parties in action at: 4th and B, Hard Rock Hotel, Airport Lounge, Beauty Bar.