Street Art

I will never forget when I fell in love with street art.  I was nineteen and riding a bus through Boston.  I loved how the laundry was hung high above the streets–delicate, colorful cotton prints swaying against the back drop of black steel and gray concrete. I was even more impressed with the big murals covering old brick buildings.  I took it all in and wondered what it would be like to paint on a giant wall that people passed by everyday.  That’s when I started studying bricks and learning how to draw the texture and the richness, because really there is no such thing as brick red. And whenever I get a chance to be in a big city, I try to see some street art.  While my companions are taking pictures of landmarks, I’m taking pictures in alleys and the sides of buildings.  Museums and tourist attractions are cool and all, but I’m just as impressed with a mural flashing by in the train window.  

A few years ago, Larry Weaver, the pastor at the church on 7th and Macon asked me to paint a mural on the church stairs. I was pretty happy to be asked to paint on an old crumbly stone and concrete surface, It was my first chance at street art.

7th and Macon is about as far as you can get from a big city street.  It’s quiet and shady and no one walking by is any hurry to get anywhere else.  I started with the steps.  I’ve never done steps before, so it was super interesting to learn how a to unfold a panoramic, cascading scene.  I wish I could do it again, because now that I understand all the nuances, I’d do it better.  But once you lay down color on a surface like concrete, do overs aren’t that friendly.  Must of the time I was pretty absorbed in my work, but I did talk to everyone who stopped to admire my work.  That’s what you do in a small town.  Or at least that’s what I do.  I learned right away that if you are doing work at a church, people assume you are part of the church.  I got asked all kinds of questions.  Where is the pastor? Do I have gift cards or vouchers for meals?  I told one guy I was just doing the painting, but I gave him my sandwich.  He sat down on the sidewalk and preceded to tell me his troubles which mostly involved drinking too much.