Los Angeles, CA
“Reflect & Inspire” by Marcel "Sel" Blanco

Individual miracles

The title of the work, Reflect & Inspire, is a reference to the magical interaction with the element that is water. A figure, immersed up to its neck, looks down into the largely still and clear water that is rippling around it. The scene is completed by birds and the word REFLECT in capitals. 

​The artist Marcel "SEL" Blanco draws his energy from a combination of the hardcore punk that is typical of California and Far Eastern meditation techniques. A mixture that is charming yet also highly idiosyncratic, though not unusual in such ascetic hardcore circles.

SEL already began designing flyers and t-shirts for local punk/hardcore bands in Los Angeles in the early eighties. While searching for new inspiration, he discovered graffiti art and became part of the early L.A. graffiti scene and the WCA (West Coast Artists) crew, one of the ground-breaking graffiti crews in Los Angeles. He later made his talent available to the music industry, designing covers and advertising material.

These days, his work frequently expresses the introspective reflection of one of the depicted characters. His works portray small individual miracles, magical moments that are not particularly cryptic and are easily accessible so as to establish as far as possible a direct – emotional – connection between the work and its viewer, who regards the aesthetic pleasure as a secondary effect. 
 

SEL's Homepage

Other finds from the West Coast

As indicated above, we discovered so many wonderful works relating to the subject of water that we were spoilt for choice, so we decided to showcase a few others here that we simply liked too much not to present to you.