Take an Imagination Fueled Walk Downtown *
It was either 95 degrees or raining every day towards the end of June. Myself and more than 30 other artists busted ass and completed the Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival south of the Capital, across from Eyedrum. We all came together to cover up a couple of city blocks with artwork of all colors and styles.
There were vendors, drinks, art, and the crazy artists all there living it up on June 27th for opening day. We also hired some off duty officers and some parking attendants that helped with security.
515 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard Southwest Atlanta, GA, 30312United States
This thing formed like a tumor
Dosa Kim asked me to join High Contrast and help where I could with the Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival, although I'm not mentioned on the website (ahem). It was really Chris Wright and Dosa that rounded up the artists. We all went down there and met up with the building owners, some folks at Eyedrum, and a bunch of vendors to get this thing launched. Chris' contact at Eyedrum turned him on to one of the building owners across the street. We eventually got a couple of building owners to allow us to paint. Then we got a few business owners to agree to give discounted paint to our artists. Dosa and Chris came out of pocket and rented a bunch of equipment. My buddy Bradly, at Weber Landscapes, came out and we chopped down a bunch of overgrowth. This place looked like a jungle. It's still kinda rough, but it was unapproachable before we all got out there and cleared the property. Chris, and his girlfriend, Judy busted ass buffing walls, and hosting gatherings with good eats. Judy stepped in to crush it on the social media. Chris Wright was onsite every time I went down there to paint - early or late, he was always there. Dosa, who has a studio across the street, showed up sometimes too.
There are three buildings that all the artists painted on and a metal fence. A lot of cool work that went up pretty fast. All the artists had two weeks to do the work. It's an eclectic mix of artists and styles. If you or someone you know is in search of a mural artist, I'd suggest you come out and see this massive display of talent. By the way, my piece is the Space Frog.
Here are some of my original Mural ideas
These three images of Spider Biggie didn't make the cut, which pissed me off at first, but hey, that's show business. Then I did this mock up of Steam Boat Willie, but it got nixed too. I didn't even pitch my last idea, I just did a sketch, took it out there and threw it up. The idea for space frog came about sketching with Dosa, Lawrence Nosewalker, Mike Mauldin, Raz City and some other folks one night over at the High Contrast hang out on spot at Art and Industry (Big thanks to Chris Bates for letting us cause a ruckus there every Tuesday night).
Oh well, at least I got a space frog up.
