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Archive for August, 2008

street art in Montana

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's Girl with a Pearl Earing

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.
I was disapointed but not surprised to see that the Grey Cancer made it to the SF Broadway Tunnel, defacing Moose’s work.  I’m not so upset that the cancer is on the wall, but that some asshole who thinks he’s a graff artist (You know who you are, troll) would tag such beauty.  Anyway,  Check out what Moose did on San Francisco’s Broadway Tunnel to advertise Green Works:

Moose gets green on San Francisco's Broadway Tunnel

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

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.



Filed Under (Photography, community) by Marc Moss on 25-08-2008
The Sidetrack Cafe, Alberton, MT

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.



The Leaving and the Left Series - Sometimes Dangerous, Often Beautiful
The Leaving and the Left Series – Sometimes Dangerous, Often Beautiful



Filed Under (Art, Photography) by Marc Moss on 23-08-2008
Bolsey B2 Syncomatic Film Camera

Bolsey B2 Syncomatic Film Camera



Filed Under (Art, Photography) by Marc Moss on 22-08-2008

Remember film?



Filed Under (Art, Photobooth, Photography) by Marc Moss on 20-08-2008
2783513770 4d43b1ec4d m 1/365   Suppers Ready
1/365
Originally uploaded by love not fear

How Dare I Be So Beautiful?

Wandering through the chaos the battle has left,
We climb up a mountain of human flesh,
To a plateau of green grass, and green trees full of life.
A young figure sits still by a pool,
He’s been stamped “Human Bacon” by some butchery tool.
(He is you)
Social Security took care of this lad.
We watch in reverence, as Narcissus is turned to a flower.
A flower?

–Genesis, Supper’ s Ready

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.



Filed Under (Art, Photography) by Marc Moss on 20-08-2008

2780546557 86573649ca m Kodak Camera Instamatic 304 (front)



Filed Under (Art, Collaboration, Life, Social Commentary, community) by Marc Moss on 19-08-2008

grottoMary boVine Inspiration

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.

BathtubMary boVine Inspiration

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.

Bathtub Mary


boVine Inspiration

Originally uploaded by love not fear



Filed Under (Life, Music) by Marc Moss on 15-08-2008
2755586181 dc27021b5d m All You Need is...


All You Need is…

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
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one….

What say you? What’s the best love song?