paint your faith

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.

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.

So I arrived last Friday to Vancouver and after a five hour flight which wasn’t bad, I headed to rent my car so that I could drive to another rental company in North Vancouver so I could rent the passenger van that could hold all the paint we were going to pick up in Seattle, our film crew, Indigo and myself. You might be asking why didn’t you just rent a passenger van at the airport, well a) there weren’t any available at the airport and b) any passenger van in the area wouldn’t allow us to go to the USA with the vehicle. Now that we got that out of the way, on to the adventure.

So I hate to disappoint you but no drama here to talk about. We made it past the Canadian customs with a camera crew, artist, producer, and a big white 15″ long passenger van. Sound odd to you?

We decided to drive out to Seattle instead of shipping the paint because the order was quite large, shipping would have been pricey and who knows what would have happened at the border with customs, although I probably could have used a clearing house or broker but it isn’t a bad drive to Seattle and its beautiful when you are in a car driving through that great city.

Indigo forgot her passport, Jason forgot a cable, I was late picking up the passenger van because my GPS wasn’t working properly, so we were late leaving and Art Primo (http://artprimo.com/catalog/index.php) our supplier was closing at 5 pm.

It was a 3 hour drive and it was 2:00 pm when we left. We called Dan from Art Primo and he was amazing and waited for us to arrive. We rolled into Seattle around 6 pm however the traffic was deadly and we finally got to Dan’s shop around 7 pm. We had to leave the film crew at the side of the road because Art Primo didn’t want any filming or camera’s on sight and respectfully so, it was cool and we understood.

Indigo and I drove into the warehouse area, while the film crew had to find shelter from the rain, so they hung out under neath a flat bed trailer. Awaiting us was all of the paint we would be using for the wall. Between Faith47, Titi Freak, Indigo and Peeta we are using over 500 cans of paint in a multitude of colours. The colour palate makes the Wizard of Oz movie once it went colour look passive. It is like sunburst meets skittles meets a fresh fruit market in the caribbean. We are using Montana MTN94 and Belton Molotow amazing aerosol’s and the best you can use for this application.

We met up with Dan and he helped us load up the truck, after that we grabbed the crew, went and grabbed some red bulls and chips for the road trip home and headed out of Seattle.

We made it to Canada safely and no problems at the border. We got back around 11:00 pm, so it was a pretty long day.

So the paint got here safe and sound, it was a successful film shoot and we got to meet Dan at Art Primo http://artprimo.com/catalog/index.php and get our 500 little ones.

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