I'm happy to share that after the course of several scattered Saturday afternoons, the second permanent mural of what I hope to be an ongoing series of public art pieces, has been completed. I'm working on a date for an opening party for that mural, at the end of the month, and then I will post photos.
I also have a HUGE project to announce called RAW POWER, which will be a large mural art installation that will wrap around an entire building in downtown Jersey City. My goal with the project was to introduce, promote, and gain support for creative public art, by providing an outdoor location that would serve as a large canvas for different street artists from around the country and world to gather, paint, and display their art together.
The perfect location was found in downtown Jersey City's Powerhouse Arts District, a building that spans an entire city block, offering 4 sides of available wall space. The developer of 350 Warren (aka the Morgan Building), liked my idea, but out of concern of an anti-graffiti backlash and the decaying state of the bricks, we came up with an idea that would wrap the building with a band of murals created on panel, installed to the building about 15 feet up from the ground.
With the location secured, I began inviting artists to come to Jersey City, where the owner converted the interior loading dock into large stations so the artists would have plenty of room to paint comfortably.
In late July, Gaia was the first on the scene to contribute. That afternoon, he made the project really feel alive by painting the first piece for the show. He was the only artist painting in the huge space, and I imagined what it could look full and busy, an organized chaos of different artists working simultaneously side by side.
Jump ahead to today, and the action at the building was in full swing. About 15 different stations were set up outside AND inside, with approximately 20 artists working on the panels all at once. It was a great and positive experience to watch all the artists painting. So many of the artists expressed their gratitude for this platform to share their artwork with the community, and I expressed mine back for their amazing contributions. While thanks are being mentioned, I should mention a big thank you to the folks of Montana Colors for supporting this project with a generous donation of their all season, UV resistant 94 Spray Paint.
Next weekend on September 26th, 350 Warren Street will host another outdoor painting session. Visitors are encouraged to come out and watch the artists work on their pieces. There are still some guest artists that will be contributing artwork before the end of the month in time for the opening on Studio Tour weekend of October 3rd and 4th.
Now on to the pics from today's event (not every piece is shown here. There still needs to be suprises!):
