SPAIN-

I spent about a week between Barcelona and Costa Brava.  The work was much more sporadic and less refined among the smaller coastal towns, but Barcelona was very cool.  All of the businesses had metal roll up doors, and every single one was full of graffiti ranging from pretty refined burns to scrappy scrawls.  Strolling through the city at various times of the day provided different views of the work as businesses would open or close their doors with their businesses.  On sunday, nearly everything was closed and the city was an incredible graffiti gallery.  On the last day in Barcelona we stumbled into a park of extremely well executed work that I captured every single piece of.  Kim got frustrated as I walked like a zombie through a park mesmerized by this spectacular show; the park was home to the homeless and she’ll never let me forget the human feces on the sidewalk.  I told her to focus on the positives.

The inspiration for this installation was a graffiti street scene.  I started with 8 wood panels – made by Mr. Jeff the Canvas man, then added drywall mud to create the brick surface.  I added conduit, electrical distribution, hose bibs and a window frame to really create the feeling and look of an alleyway.  I mis-aligned the panels and used different sizes to further the unique and uneven display.

Jay was the idea man behind this piece, he was inspired by the trains waking up the city of corvallis early in the morning.  A lot of people are angered by the morning wake up calls, however I was on Jay’s page big time.  I lived on 8th and Washington my last year of college with a balcony that I could clearly see the train from.  Everytime I heard the train I’d rush out to check out the graffiti.  It wasn’t long before I found my new neighbors doing the same thing as they were graff writers as well.  I have heard trains called “rolling art galleries”  If only everyone was on that page and painting them was not illegal but encouraged…

We got a lot of people involved in this mural.  The Alchemist sent out someone for an interview and a photographer to cover the session.  Check out the interview in this issue, and we made the cover of this issue. For an absurd amount of pictures check out Will’s flickr.