paint your faith

Some of you asked to see pictures of Chor on the rooftop! Here are a couple. Plus shots of Titi Freak and Indigo at their show at the Ayden Gallery.

This is a short blurb and I’m sorry i haven’t responded to comments on the other blogs, we’ve been going at it hard… but I’ll get to responding this weekend as I unpack and filter through all that we’ve shot and experienced with this amazing crew of artists.

So in the final days of the Paint Your Faith mural, the artists worked hard in hail, rain and all kinds of weather, including finally sunshine on the last day. Chor Boogie climbed up 2 rooftop levels to get to the main steeple of the First United Mission at Hastings and Gore. Balancing on a couple ladders, he started painting his colour magic on that steeple that looks onto one of the busy intersections of DTES. Lots of people stopped by to watch him add some colour to this part of the DTES.  The rest of the crew finished up at the wall at Abbott and Hastings, in time for a press conference.

I’ll write a proper blog to fill you in on the other goings on in the next couple days. Peace.

Ann

It is with great pleasure to present to the city of Vancouver, the community of the downtown east side and the rest of the world with an amazing piece of collaborative art work created by Indigo (http://indigosadventures.wordpress.com/), Titi Freak http://www.tfreak.com/, Faith47 (http://www.faith47.com/) and Peeta (http://www.peeta.net/).

On April 28th, we hosted a reveal to press, First United Mission stakeholders and staff, the public and friends from the neighbourhood.  First Mission United (http://firstunited.ca/) announced an amazing building project that will help them continue the amazing work they already do in the DTES.

If you live in Vancouver or are visiting please get down to the corner of W.Hastings St. and Abbott and view this spectacular piece of art work.

Visit us at www.paintyourfaith.com and leave a comment and share this with friends for your chance to win a print from one of the artists.  We will be giving four people a chance to win one piece.

Paint Your Faith Vancouver Mural Completed

It has been a gruelling week for all of our artists, and our film crew who are here shooting a treatment for the potential documentary we hope to do.  We have survived the crazy weather out here, one of our DP’s made it threw a beer can to the head, and we still managed to get in a few good dinners, some drinks and got to know each other better.

Here is a pic just before the final last touches. Big difference from where we started just last week.

mural just before completion just a few more touches and a bit of work

What an experience it has been.  We started with an empty canvas, a messy and dirty lot filled with needles, garbage, weeds and completely neglected and we are now at the end.

Below is Indigo putting the final leaf and finishing the mural.

Indigo putting the final leaf on the mural and we are now complete

Below is where we have started. Titi arrived last Wednesday and on Thursday he helped frame the mural because Faith47 was arriving a day or so late. This is where it started.

Titi starts the wall

The development of the mural on the wall at W.Hastings and Abbott has become more than just an art mural. Things have become more about the community than we ever thought.

Last week Dominique, who is originally from Quebec was in the lot cleaning and removing needles, debris and leaves. She flew from Quebec, found a area in a city in need and has shown up to clean, make friends and create change. If anyone ever thinks that you can’t change anything as one individual well Dominique is a good example that you can.

Dominique our friend from Quebec here in Vancouver to clean up the DTES.

The progress and development of the wall has gone quite well. We affixed a tarp because the weather in Vancouver has been so unpredictable. One minute it is raining the next minute it is sunshine, then it rains again and so on and so on and so on.

Here is Faith47 in action on the wall and trying to finish her section.

Faith47 finishing up her section of the wall

Indigo working on her section of the wall. She has been amazing at her stencils and so good with her work.

indigo in action on the wall at W.Hastings and Abbott

Peeta has been smooth and chilled while doing the wall.  He does amazing work and is quite talented.

Peeta and his pinecones beauty and intellectual art

The wall has become more than just an art mural development project. The community has stepped up more than I would ever imagine.  We have Dominique and her friends cleaning up the lot. They took hundreds of stones and have created a peace symbol. They have moved so much garabage and debris. Bruce and Larry two local fellows have been pushing and asking for a community garden. Locals from the DTES have been coming by everyday and thanking us and congratulating us. I think the DTES is a misunderstood place because I’ve never felt such a sense of community like I have here while doing this project.

Here is a pic of some of Dominiques friends. What a great bunch of people from the area who want to see more for this area.

dominique and her team of friends from the DTES area

We are almost there and close to completion, but I believe our work will never stop in this area and somehow and someway we will keep this project living for many years to come.

One of the key partners in the Paint Your Faith project is the First United Mission in the downtown east side of Vancouver. They do some phenomenal work in the DTES as a church that from its early days served as a mission. They’re open 24-7, 365 days of the year. They are so focussed on serving the needs of their community that the main chapel doesn’t hold any pews. Instead of wooden pews there are rows upon rows of bunk beds for homeless people to sleep in. I went in at about 2pm for a location scout and half the beds were full with people slumbering, or dazed and resting. First United not only gives people a place to sleep, they provide 3 hot meals plus a night time snack, and they provide essentials like condoms, footcare, ‘girlie things’, and squares of soap which have been painstakingly hand cut from a regular sized soap bars. On an average day they have 500 people coming through their doors. It’s awe-inspiring. In an age when people talk of empty churches, this is one church that is in constant demand.

Wall vs Mural

We are a few days away from the production of Paint Your Faith Vancouver and the anticipation is overwhelming, exciting and it is a great feeling to know that all the work we’ve done over the past six months is now coming to fruition.  We are in the midst of also producing an artist showcase and gallery event at an amazing gallery in downtown Vancouver, near Chinatown called Ayden Gallery owned by Ken Lum.  Ken has an amazing place and probably one of a kind in Canada.

We are doing something new for the Paint Your Faith project and that is adding an artist showcase to celebrate the past artists and the new ones we are working with.  During that process we created a before and after canvas while I was at our reproduction printers today.  ABC Photo in Vancouver is handling all of our print reproductions, these guys are amazing and can’t believe they are pumping out so much work in such little time, thanks again guys.

So back to this before and after thought I had today.  Since we are printing the before and after shots I thought I would share this with those who can’t be with us at the Gallery event this Saturday, April 24th.

There is an adage which many of you may know, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. This adage refers to the idea that complex stories can be described with just a single still image, or that an image may be more influential than a substantial amount of text.  No matter which way you look at it, the areas which we have chosen to develop the murals are complex, misunderstood.  Places where hopes, dreams, pain, hurt all collide, thrive or die.

This wall could have been used and leased to companies like CBS Outdoor, Pattinson, Viacom or other large media companies who make millions of dollars off of advertising, but the Metropolitan United Church who owns the property decided to donate the wall to us for this project.  Lifting the spirits of the area, putting smiles on peoples faces, and giving people an inspiration was far more important than just profits. It is something you don’t see every day in the mass consumption world we live in.  Imagine replacing a few advertising billboards with artwork created by the type of artists we are working with, or having more organizations taking proactive approaches to improving a local area with this type of project.

I had lunch today with Sandra Severs who runs the First United Mission Church and  is one of our local partners. She asked me why we choose the downtown east side in Vancouver. The obvious answer was, the wall is at Abbott and W.Hastings St. which happens to be in the DTES, but more importantly, this mural has a chance to brighten up the area, get people to talk about the work, help create conversation about the theme, and it creates awareness for what First United Mission does day in and day out, which is being one of the strongest support pillars for the community in the DTES.

Back in Toronto, the wall is visited by local people, some groups come to have moments of prayer and reflection, tourists come by and take pictures and share it with their friends in other cities, it is admired by anyone and everyone who passes by the major intersections at Church and Shuter.  Even 8 months after the fact, the press are still writing about it, people are still blogging about it, and pictures and videos are being shared with family and friends.  The wall which is now are has become a part of the community and touches peoples lives everyday.

So I guess I would ask you this, would you rather have a billboard up with an advertisement or a piece of beautiful artwork in your neighbourhood.

The Paint Your Faith Vancouver empty canvas for us to paint

Just wanted to introduce the wall we are going to paint in a few days here in Vancouver. It is located at 55-57 W.Hastings St. a building which is owned by Lee Chu and her family. She kindly donated the wall but with a little bit of reservations. The city of vancouver has clauses that protects it from liability issues when these projects happen and rightfully so. We made sure our insurance named the building and also covered off any liability that Lee Chu and her family would have once we got going on her wall. We indemnified her from any liability and we have taken safety precautions and cleaned up the lot to make sure the artists will be safe.

The wall is located in the DTES, an area in Vancouver that has an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life. The wall has had graffiti on it in the past and Lee Chu had to spend money cleaning up the wall many times.

This time around when the wall is hit, it will be with amazing artwork created by our artists Titi Freak, Indigo, Peeta and Faith47.

We know this wall will do what the wall did in Toronto, it will lift the spirits of people who walk by it and will inspire individuals to look, reflect and put a smile on their face.

Finding a wall to do this type of work is sometimes the hardest aspect of putting together these types of projects.

We went through quite a lot of steps and challenges to secure this wall. We first applied for the Graffiti Management Program in Vancouver. The program was cut before we had a chance to be accepted. We then tried to go through the beautification program here in Vancouver called “Great Beginnings” we suggest people who need to improve their buildings to apply and get involved because it is a great program and Kristina Copepland at the City was an amazing help however we decided not to go with the program because of our timeline. The City needed a lot more time to facilitate this type of execution and production and we needed to do this before May because the artists were not going to be available and our sponsor wanted to have it completed before June.

Once we knew we wanted the wall it started with contacting the owner, then dealing with the city, then the empty lot owner and going through the process of making sure nothing was going to block our mural or get in the way for at least a year or more. There would be no point to do this type of project if the wall and area would be blocked within a few months.

This was Indigo’s dream wall and she now gets to be a part of it. For the artists from abroad, Titi and Faith47 have never been to Canada, it is amazing that Vancouver is their first place they will visit because it is just beautiful out here.

This wall is just not another wall, the painted bricks we coated with primer and have prepared for the artists is now their canvas and this is where their work will be done, just like any other artist who does it in their studio, however the big difference is this canvas is also the people canvas because it is outdoors in the community and accessible for those to see it develop. This form of art is pure, real, accessible and more public than other pieces of work.

The artists can’t wait to get on the wall and we can’t wait to document it.

Cheers

The Paint Your Faith artists are going to have a documentary crew dogging their heels as they put up a piece on a wall at 55 West Hastings. I’m excited to be directing this shoot in Vancouver’s downtown east side. There will be lots of great visuals. But a couple things worry me. It’s not shooting in the DTES that worries me, it’s shooting across the border. You see, the wall on W Hastings is 130 feet long by 13 feet tall – that’s a lot of wall, meaning they need a lot of paint. So Alan and a couple of the artists will be going across the border to buy paint in Seattle – hundreds and hundreds of cans. Sending in a camera crew to follow them is a headache because our cousins south of the border like to have us hire local film crews. When you’re an independent film crew, you can never predict how the border officials react. A friend’s crew – with their letters of accreditation and all – recently got turned back. I’ll keep you posted as to how we get around this.

Titi's first crack and suggestion for our wall

Its been an interesting experience working on producing a wall of this size and event with artists who are in different parts of the world. In Toronto we had Chor Boogie and Siloette flown in, Elicser and Mediah were local and when they came together they just hit the wall and it was quite spontaneous, intense but truly original the form of street art. This time around in Vancouver our approach was quite different. The City of Vancouver has a tight program on street art and we had to apply for a permit, this required the submission of what the actual art work would look like on the wall we plan to create the art on. This meant reaching out to Faith47 in South Africa, Titi Freak in Sao Paulo and Indigo and Peeta in Vancouver and somehow coming together to plan how they would hit the wall together ahead of doing the work on-site and spontaneously. As a producer, we are use to the many moving parts involved with creating projects the size of Toronto and Vancouver, there are so many variables and anything could go wrong, but we managed to bring an amazing crew of talent, work with so many great partners and supporters and we are all pretty excited about how the wall will look at 55-57 W.Hastings St. For anyone who plans to work in Vancouver, be prepared that the process is quite deep and there are many many details you need to cover. These types of projects are great for the city, community and especially the local people who will see the art everyday. I hope to share more of my experience and happily give anyone advice on doing this in your city or local community.

Titi started to give it some life and colour

Alan Serpa is producer for Paint Your Faith Vancouver and Toronto.

Spring is here, and outside my Downtown East Side studio the cherry blossoms are falling and the last rays of afternoon sun filter through a thin veil of dove-grey clouds.  The rain still comes, but it is light, intermittent.  After a warm winter, the early flowers have already hit full bloom – daffodils, bluebells, crocuses.  The nights are still cold but each day dawns warm and bright, and outside on the streets there seem to be fewer angry words exchanged between passersby.  I have been cocooned inside these four walls for weeks, x-acto blade in hand, a cup of coffee always nearby, surrounded by a quickly accumulating carpet of little bits of plastic film, and a growing stack of finished stencil layers.  It is a tedious process, but one that gives my days & nights a sense of purpose and structure.  I trace, I cut, I paint.  I change the image, repeat again.  By the time I get to the wall I will have spent hundreds of hours on these images – from concept to photoshoot to the creation of each individual stencil – but it will all be worth it.

This city is worth it.  This neighborhood is worth it.

I am so happy to be able to give this back to my community.  To take the means that I have and create something beautiful, in the company of three amazing artists, something that everyone and anyone can enjoy, if they so choose.  This will be my first public mural in my hometown, and the biggest wall I’ve ever painted.  I am excited to welcome Peeta and Faith47 and Titifreak to Vancouver, excited that the city will be hosting such brilliant artists and that I have been able to do my part in providing them with a space to paint – just a few blocks from my studio, in the part of town that needs color and positive energy the most.

Sometimes the DTES is a hard place for me to spend my days and nights.  My building has rats and roaches and mold and a distinct lack of heat and proper wiring.  But even more than that, is difficult for me to see people who are hurting – no matter what the cause – and feel powerless to help.  The energy down here can be overwhelming at times, but there is so much light to be found within the sadness if you can look beyond the commonly held preconceptions to see it.  I’ve been here for about a year and a half now, and have found that the feeling of community here is stronger than anywhere else in Vancouver.  People look out for eachother.  Everyone helps each other out if and when they can.  For many people passing through, all they see is the drugs, the poverty, the homelessness.  They fail to see the humanity in each and every individual out on the street.  Someone said to me once that this is the most honest place to live in Vancouver.  That a lot of the people down here “just wear their problems closer to the surface” than people in other parts of town.  You spend some time down here and you realize that everyone’s just trying to make a living by whatever means they have available – just trying to get by.  But there are many more hurdles for these people to jump over in order to get through each day.

The DTES is well known as “Canada’s poorest postal code”.  Less people are aware of the fact that per capita, there are more artists here than anywhere else in Canada.  Behind many nondescript doors you’ll find pockets of studios and gallery spaces, if you know where to look.  It is a large and diverse community, but seems fragmented and disconnected – a place where people can be making work day in and day out in the same building and never meet.  I hope that this project will provide a place and a reason for the arts community and the community at large to come and hang out and get to know eachother a bit better, welcome a group of international artists who are visiting Vancouver for the first time, and share their thoughts and feedback on the project, on the concept of faith, and whatever else that happens to arise.  I hope that it provides an opportunity for residents of Vancouver to get a more balanced perspective on life in the Downtown East Side, to talk face to face with the people who live and work here, instead of experiencing it from behind the windowpanes of a moving car.  I think that placing art in public spaces – especially with a large-scale project such as this – has the potential to bring people together, to provide a common ground and a reason for interaction, to get us all out of our bubbles even if it’s just for a few minutes of the day.

But as I write, all this is still a month away, and I must get back to cutting stencils – daydreaming of sunshine and spraypaint and smiling faces, and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Indigo is one of the four artists collaborating Paint Your Faith Vancouver mural.