Archive for August, 2008
 What would happen if the Greyman had nothing to paint over? Not that there wouldn’t be graffiti, but that it was done without paint? Missoula being the environmentally friendly “green” town that it is should have no problems with this, right? Let’s first have a look at the existing “green” art we already have here in Missoula, namely, SponCon. Spontaneous Construction is one hell of a lot of fun, and, when it’s all over, there’s some great art that gets produced out of recycled materials found out in the Home Resource yard. Often, as was the case this year with the solar shower, the art is quite functional. I can’t think of any other environmentally friendly art that gets produced in this town, especially not on such a large scale in plain view for public consumption. The fact that the building of the art at SponCon occurred in the street does not make it street art, of course. That would be a stretch. But it started me thinking about alternative ways to make street art. Then I remembered a FWDed email my ‘ole man sent me about Scott Wade, who, using a special Jedi mind-trick lightsaber brush, works in caliche covered cars to “unpaint” them into art. How fun would it be to do something like this on some dirty Suby that’s just come back from the woods? Or the back of a dirty UPS truck this winter? Next summer, should we have an awful fire season, I’d like to see folks come out en mass and do reverse graff on car windows around town.  Scott Wade does Johannes Vermeer I was hoping to dig through my old email to find the photos, when a good friend of mine sent me over to Environmental Graffiti, where they spotlighted the 35 Greatest Works of Environmental Graffiti. The dust paintings I’d seen before, and many of the stuff done by “the public” I had also seen before. Yes, it’s impressive, but I really liked the reverse graffiti done by a guy who goes by Moose. Oh, Man, I thought, when I saw Moose, how great would it be if some architecture firm in town or maybe a sustainable building supply company contracted with a local artist in town to do a reverse graffiti ad somewhere.  Moose gets green on San Francisco
Then I started thinking, Where in Missoula would we find a building dirty enough to do something of that scale? I can’t think of any building, but the Orange Street underpass might be a good place. Or not. But it is well suited for something along the lines of the work that Alexandre Orion does. A transport tunnel in Sao Paolo, Brazil isn’t that far of a stretch from Missoula. OK, well, maybe it is, but I would love to see the faces on some of those SUV driving soccer moms if they were greeted by an Orange Street underpass that had piles and piles of skulls the entire length of the tunnel. Do you think they’d think at all about the detrimental impact their emissions have on the planet, on our economy, on the lives of our men and women dying in the desert?  Alexandre Orion - Skulls in Brazilian Tunnel
What type of reverse graffiti would you like to see in Missoula? And how would the Greyman handle it? Would he clean the rest of the building? Would the artist still be arrested for defacing property, even though he was cleaning it? Would the punishment be that the artist would have to clean the rest of the building? If you want to do a little reverse graff and need inspiration, check out the captures from everyday Joes that EnviroGraff has.
 The Sidetrack Cafe, Alberton, MT Alberton is a town of about 375 people, most famous for the train derailment in 1996 that has caused continued health problems to the inhabitants of Alberton to this day.
 Bolsey B2 Syncomatic Film Camera Remember film?
Plowing through an old todo list I found “365″ and Self-Portrait Day. Figured I’d give it a whirl. I won’t post the self portrait here every day, just on Flickr and the SPD site. Wanted to let you know I’m doing it, though. Tomorrow: more cameras.
Catholics are known for their devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and traveling throughout Italy there is much evidence of this along roadsides, where one might find a grotto shrine dedicated to Mary every few miles. Often, the grottos are very elaborate and have all kinds of candles and rosary beads, Bibles and memorabilia from the faithful. People in the Midwest of the United States have taken that concept and made it their own, creating these same kinds of shrines in their backyard gardens, with the same fervor and passion. The big difference is that these folks have chosen to make their shrines out of bathtubs they bury vertically in their yards.
As the Daryls and I were trying to decide what we would build in this years Spontaneous Construction, the annual fundraiser for the local non-profit home Resource, we decided to honor that tradition, and yet make the shrine a little more Montana, and a little more functional. We decided to build ours out of a circa 1970s style bathtub (pink), and whatever we could find lying around in the yard. And our sweet little addition was to create a functional BBQ out of a discarded sink. Mary would be holding BBQ tongs and a spatula, presiding over our meal. The SponCon event, for those who don’t know, is a fundraiser in which contestants have five hours to construct a spontaneous piece of art from the riff-raff they find in the yard. Once the constructions are completed, some of them are entered into an auction, the proceeds of which benefit Home Resource. Daryl (Lucas Dupuis) is the Board President, and as such has had many responsibilities in previous years, and had always been unable to participate in the actual building event. I have never competed because in previous years I volunteered to help in the setup and running of the event. This year, we decided, however, that since our otehr friend Daryl (Lucas Grossi), was moving to Park City, UT, we should have one last hurrah (we had many), and form a team and compete in the event. The glorious result was the creation you see below, complete with a fully functional BBQ grill. Mary’s arms are made from a toilet seat cut in 1/2, and her shawl is made from a fireplace chain curtain.
Originally uploaded by love not fear Sitting around the bar last night, the question arose: what is the best love song ever written? There were four of us sitting there. One had no answer. I said it was Springsteen’s Rosalita (Come Out Tonight). The only lover I’m ever gonna need’s your soft sweet little girl’s tongue Rosie you’re the one… J. said that all songs are love songs, so the question is really what is the best song? OG said that the best love song is John Lennon’s Imagine. You may say that I’m a dreamer
What say you? What’s the best love song? |
