Secret’s out

They are highly secretive artists and dangerously crafty. I can’t reveal too much about their identity because I fear if I do, they will art-bomb the heck out of my house.

I will, however, say that guerrilla artists Deeply Superficial People, or DSP, consist of two people. One is a man, SewJaBoy, one is a woman, Owl_or_Nothing, and together they have a penchant for free beer, knitting, construction paper and graffiti. A few months back, Owl_or_Nothing came across an old photo album while rummaging through a bookstore. As an artist, she found herself inspired and wondered if the photos might stimulate other virtuosos. So she took scissors to the album and mailed the photographs out to tons of artists around the country, asking them to create a piece of art roused by or containing the photograph—and to return the product via mail to her. The amazing results will be on display at Bodytribe Fitness (920 21st Street) on Saturday March 13.

How would you describe Deeply Superficial People?

We are a mysterious duo, shrouded with a veil of mystery. … A bit of magic, suspense and mystery. There is, like, a mysterious fog of magical suspense, filled with a suspenseful mystery that hangs magically around us, as if we were in a dense fog of mystery.

Wow, mysterious.

We’re a two-person team that began crafting last year in Sacramento. We had heard about knitting graffiti a while back and thought it would be a fun thing to get involved with, but we also didn’t want to limit ourselves to a specific medium. We ended up settling on the broad term of craft graffiti. A harmless alternative to all the spray paint and stickers. Instead of putting up tags of our names on a wall, promoting God knows what, we hope to promote arts and crafts awareness.

What sort of photographs will be used in the Mail Art project?

Nineteenth-century images, or up to the early ’20s or ’30s. They ranged from being very abstract photographs to being very famous ones that you would recognize by artists like Ansel Adams. It is essentially a history of photography-type book, so it shows the development of the art, ranging from the really still-type stuff to architectural stuff in Europe to Ellis Island. … It’s really all across the board. All of the photos were sent via mail, and the artists returned their finished pieces via mail.

How many photos were sent out?

A total of about 50 photos were sent out, and we have about 40 artists participating in this show. Some people didn’t return a piece, but even so, we still had an overwhelming response to the project. We have a good mix of local and out-of-town artists.

Describe some of the pieces to me.

Some pictures are on our site at deeplysuperficialpeople.com, so anyone can head over there to check out some pieces that will be featured in the show, as well as our “art bombing” pieces that are our norm.

We received everything from photographs to mixed media to acrylic. Someone sent in a dance piece that will be projected and looped through the night; we even have someone working on a soft animation piece that we’re hoping will be completed in time. It’s really all across the board. My ultimate goal was to represent all types of art forms and styles, and I think we did a great job incorporating all of these elements together.

What’s your personal favorite so far?

Someone created a top-secret, classified file that included the actual piece on one side of the file, and a story on the other that talks about some UFO landing and a classified document that has been retrieved by the CIA. It’s really fun getting the packages back, opening them up and seeing if I can figure off the top of my head what their photo was and comparing what they actually got to what they came up with. It’s really interesting to see how people’s creative process works and what direction I would have gone vs. what direction they went.

Will DPS still keep their identity under wraps, despite putting on this show?

Absolutely. That’s part of the whole graffiti aspect. DPS are graffiti crafters, and part of that is staying true to our ways and remaining anonymous in a sense. This show is no exception. … Our identity will remain a mystery.