Harlem artist Marivel Mejia was making a painting, but she wasn’t using a brush. Nor were any of the other creatives gathered this past Saturday at Manhattan’s Bond Street branch of Blick Art Materials. That’s because they were vying in the GRAFF CAPZZ graffiti hat competition, where markers and spray paint were the mediums in play for crafting their entries.

Held from noon to 8 pm, the East Village shindig produced a colorway of wearable works that rivaled anything in East Harlem’s Graffiti Hall of Fame. Like Mejia, the talents behind these caps were answering a citywide call to all graffiti artists 18 and up. The earliest 80 got the worm: admission to the joust and a blank cap.

The stakes? A Blick Art Materials store card and sponsored gifts from marker and spray paint maker Molotow valued at $100 for first prize, and at $50 for the two runners up. Champions will be announced on October 29, giving the judges — any Blick customer who swings by the store to vote — nearly two weeks to weigh in. May the All City Best Graffiti Hat designer win.

“Caps are the first thing of fashion that people use to express themselves,” pioneer graf artist James Top told thalo.com. “Instead of walking around with a canvas, they can walk around with a cap.” Besides his hosting duties at GRAFF CAPZZ, the Graffiti NYC cable show anchor and City College instructor also offered guidance to the contending “writers” in attendance. Continue reading here:

http://www.thalo.com/articles/view/1286/graff_capzz_new_yorks_first_graffiti_hat