ARTIST PROFILE - GIVE UP

GIVE UP is a Houston based artist that works mostly with oversized, enlarged, manipulated and tweaked photographs. His imagery is eerie and dark, and can be seen all over Houston and neighboring cities. "Horror Business" will be the second show that GIVE UP's work has been featured in. His piece in our "Public Domain" show was one of my favorites.


In the words of GIVE UP "I shoot photos then take them to a photocopier and cut and paste them together with scissors and glue sticks then blow up the final product into poster size screen prints and larger. I like the degenerative effect making photocopies has on the original photos. I don't steal other people's photos or rip shit out of magazines or the internet for reference. I don't use photoshop or illustrator or any other programs. I'm not a fucking graphic designer. I started doing this 'give up' stuff back in 2001 after getting washed up and burned out on real graffiti. I thought I could do something more with my 'art' than just write my name. I sucked at it anyway. I don't consider myself a 'street artist'. Fuck street art. I just do this shit and that's it. Internet fame is bullshit, but the web has become a necessary evil for getting people outside of my city or travelers to see this shit."



Here is a video of GIVE UP at work