TheLegendsLeague | Bryan Espiritu

DJ Wristpect: Bridging The Gap Vol. 4 (hosted by The Clipse)
artwork by yours truly.

I completed this artwork a couple of days ago, but had to wait until all the right people got their hands on it in order to officially put it up on my blog. I’ll admit that it is flattering to see the response from readers at 2DopeBoyz and NahRight, saying that the artwork that I’ve created is “better” than what KAWS did for the official “When The Casket Drops” album art, but at the same time it’s a bit upsetting.

When I conceptualized my “Fully Wholly” characters, it came from drawing and admiring Pokémon characters with my daughter and our love for Spongebob. I was most intrigued by the creative way Cubone‘s eyes were shown beneath a mask and how Larry the Lobster‘s eyes seemed to come out of holes in his head.

I did a bunch of simple sketches of the concept and showed my daughter. She loved the idea, and soon after I did an Easter Bunny Wholly in full colour for her to see. The inverted heart nose I used for the character was from the “LoveHate tee” I created years ago. I toyed with 3D style rendering and versions with no outlines, but we both agreed that the black outlines and full colours were the best. So I ran with it.

There have been a lot of people comparing my Fully Wholly work with KAWS, and I don’t argue it. He’s done a tremendous job utilizing the nostalgic values of familiar cartoon characters to create fantastic contemporary visuals that consist in large part of blocks of fresh and vibrant colours. My work is also largely represented by cartoon characters blocked in flat colour. He does abstract representations of 3D forms and shapes that look like close-ups of indecipherable objects, and I show close ups of my Wholly’s in my presentations to show the character details.

I am very much inspired by KAWS in many ways. His humbleness and soft spoken manner is admirable when seeing his success as an artist. He also has a clothing line that I think is dope as hell. But I don’t look at him as the creator of the Fully Wholly concept at all. That is something that I strongly claim and give all due credit to my daughter for her help conceptualizing with me. But I do agree that his style fathered the close-up presentation of my Fully Wholly work. Besides that, I would argue that those who claim my work is comparable to KAWS’s work are looking at execution and not content or representation.

I felt that this opportunity to do a mixtape cover for Wristpect that was hosted by The Clipse was a chance to put things on the forefront and not dance around the comparisons anymore. Did I think about the possibility of him seeing the cover? Of course. Did I use the hands on purpose to show respect. You fucking bet. But if there is any question of whether or not Fully Wholly’s need to be compared to his work, I think it’s time we put it to rest.

I look at these pieces as therapy. They are my last channel of expression that bring me true, uninhibited joy. And the last thing I need is to be put under interrogation about them.

Shout out to Wristpect, Pusha-T for the blessing, KAWS, and all the blogs that posted up the artwork.

Limited Run FullyWholly Tees coming soon..