PLUTONIUM SPRAY PAINT
A buddy (non-graff related) told me about this spray paint brand as he is painting his son’s bike, but knows my life with spray paint…
Plutonium Spray Paint
https://plutoniumpaint.com/about-plutonium-paints/
Of course with “anything” I alway go to the “about” as I want to know who they are and where they started. This is a USA brand of paint so that piqued my interest as all these “art cans” are mostly from Europe. Krylon and Rustolium was caught in the crosshairs of the American “distaste” for street art in the early days, but Europe ran with it and develop spray paints specifically for “artist!” Give this story a read “The 15 Best Spray Paint Brands Available In America.”
Plutonium Spray Paint is made in USA and is a VERY EXPENSIVE paint at $17.99 per can! But quality cost, I get it… But right there on their website you see “style writing” as part of their “marketing” so I’m intrigued even more…
They’ve been around since the early 2000’s but I’ve never heard or seen them…
But their opening statement is such, “It all started in the early 2000s when a group of artists and businessmen had the vision to create a premium-quality spray paint.” So who are these Artists?!?!?!? Nothing to be found on their page!
Who is distributing them? From there about page: https://plutoniumpaint.com/about-plutonium-paints/
“Crusader Industries, LLC, is fully committed to building the Plutonium Paint brand, creating an online presence, and supporting our 500 retailers.”
So I look these guys up: Crusader Industries, LLC https://crusadersindustries.com/
“In the 10 years we have been providing commercial plumbing services in Texas we have completed we have completed many projects, Stein Mart, Fishbone grill, The House Bar and Grill, Abuelo’s, Grub Burger, Starbucks, McDonalds, Pilot Travel Center, Simply Storage, Smoothie King, Sugar Boo, Firestone, Orange Theory, AMC10 and multiple projects for the DOD to name a few.”
In their “Services” section, no mention of “exclusive distributor of the Plutonium Paint brand” or “committed to building the Plutonium Paint brand, creating an online presence, and supporting our 500 retailers…” https://crusadersindustries.com/services
Quite interesting…
Back to Plutonium...
Only 16-blog posts since the early 2000? What the heck! If they started in 2015 to now, that is only 7-years, (Dec 2022) thus roughly 2-blog posts per year. Strange for a brand that is trying to build its reputation! But they did say that’s Crusader Industries job.
https://plutoniumpaint.com/blog/
One blog post did catch my eye (dealing with street art);
https://plutoniumpaint.com/spray-paint-murals-a-few-favorites/
Maybe the guys listed in this post are those “artists” that started Plutonium?
Ok, lets try their social media…
I started with YouTube, second largest “social” outside of Google search and owned by Google…
Plutonium’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PlutoniumPaint/videos
Again, not a lot of videos but again, I scroll to the bottom (oldest) loaded video and the 3rd oldest caught my eye:
Press Conference: Mint & Serf (aka The Mirf) join Plutonium Paint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFrcg1XkN0c
OK, now this video has a quite strange stance compared to the other stuff seen so far, so maybe this is some weird video where the “artist” investors are trying to be avant guard with their standoffishness in the video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFrcg1XkN0c
PS: This particular video has 7,947 views since May 22, 2012
So who are these guys… Mint & Serf: https://mintandserf.com/Contact-1
Mint & Serf (The Mirf) are New York-based artists whose creative pursuits traverse private and public realms. Through their studio, street, and social practice their work attempts to seize the sensitivity, intensity, and sincerity of a fleeting moment. After launching The Canal Chapter in 2005, followed by The Stanton Chapter in 2008 Mint&Serf have continued to produce a vast range of artwork including ‘murals’, paintings, sculpture, photographs, graffiti, and nightlife experiences. Most recently, they partnered up with Coach on a capsule collection for the Fall ‘22 season. Mint&Serf have been featured in ARTFORUM, Artinfo, NYMag, The New York Post, Interview Magazine, Huffington Post, ARTNET, Dossier Journal, The DailyMail, Vice, Paper, ANIMAL, Complex, Mass Appeal, Gothamist and Blackbook. Their seminal monograph Support, Therapy, and Instability was published in 2013 with essays by Carlo McCormick (Paper) and Cat Marnell (Simon&Schuster).
Lets dig further…
Mint & Serf Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themirf/
Private page: I might not be worthy enough…
To be seen if I am granted access…
But they do have the link to Interview magazine in their profile.
“Graffiti Gods Mint & Serf Tell Richie Shazam About Their Coach Collab” from September 1, 2022:
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/graffiti-gods-mint-serf-tell-richie-shazam-about-their-coach-collab
Within that story, Interview has a hyperlink to a story “Mint & Serf’s Fine Lines” from July 31, 2013:
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/mint-and-serf
In this interview, Interview Magazine tells us the artist their given names:
• Mint – known as Mikhail Sokovikov
• Jason Aaron Wall, nicknamed Serf.
If you watched the Youtube video:
Same dude? The flame image is from a “Jason Wall” https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=437162106312353&set=pb.100000557032166.-2207520000.&type=3
PS Side Note: Andy Warhol started/owned Interview Magazine. Artists are great fabricators and shapers of media. So much so, that over the past 10 to 20 years, “big biz” has bought up all the major media outlets, but that is a whole other story!
OK, Next social media outlet: Plutonium’s Instagram page…
BOOM! Right there – the latest post is their “collab” with FUTURA!!!!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVBD3NkpU6i/
OK, quite the interestingly mysterious brand. But maybe, just maybe they would be interested in our story and would consider working with us for ATL Style Writers Jam 2023?