Museum Days

Shaun and I are now painting in the Museum of Contemparay Art Jacksonvile, or MOCA, for their atrium series. The wall which we are working on is fourty feet tal by sixty feet across. We work the wall in vertical strips from side to side, as our industrial lift permits. Today Shaun had a video interview for the museum's documentation video. I was handed the list of questions to ask Shaun, which I read off verbatim for the most part. The questions were somewhat dry and implicit of answers that all parties who have contributed to the project would be comfortable hearing. One of the benefits of the interview process was that the museum was closed down for the duration, and that the privacy curtain ( which we have been working behind to keep intact the secretive nature of the project) was pulled back. It was the first time in two weeks that Shaun and I had seen the space from a distance greater than fifteen feet. We were both thrilled to see that the mural looked incredibly healthy. After the interview came to a close, Shaun and I worked with an uplifted spirit. 

I must say after working with Shaun for the past few weeks, we still get along incredibly well. He is a gentleman who works to give more than he takes. Positivity is the name of the game for him. There, I said it. :)

Where I Live

This was originally drafted as an email to introduce my family to Jacksonville for their forthcoming travel plans, then edited for the blog:

Here's a cropped map of Jacksonville. 

My warehouse is in the mid-left at the corner of Rosselle St. and King St. 

Moving to the right, you can see my location indicator dot. I am writing this email from a great cafe called Bold Bean (Jacksonville is known as the Bold City of the South). 

A few blocks to the right and down at the water's edge is a square park- Memorial Park- where the riverside bicycle trail begins. (one block to the northeast is five points, with plenty of great restaurants). Four blocks to the northwest is the Cummer Museum. 

The YMCA splits the difference between the riverside area and the downtown area, which begins at the Jacksonville Landing (where you can shop). North of that is the Museum of Contemporary Art, where I am currently spending my days assisting my friend Shaun in installing a large mural in the museum atrium. We work on the mural together with a forty-foot lift behind a large curtain. The mural will be revealed to the public during the One Spark Festival- a city-wide crowd-funding event where public and private funds are pooled then democratically distributed to artists and innovators through a ballot process. This will be the second year for the festival and it feels like Christmas in the air talking about it. Shaun and I have painted four walls in the downtown area to compliment the one which we are currently installing, garnering attention from a few local newspapers and one tv station. Shaun has been interviewed several times about his latest campaign (he has been creating public art in Jacksonville for about ten years.) This is what many consider to be his highest achievement to date, and I feel blessed to have been a part of it.

Dream Job

It's hard to document daily what I am doing, but broadly I am serving. I feel a sense of calm to my day. I believe I am in line with my path. Jacksonville is incredible. So much opportutnity to serve others, so much potential. 

Shaun and I have gone out daily to paint murals throughout the town. I organize his paint, create color palettes, discuss processes, and 'hold the spot down'-this means in short but not limited to talking with and understanding the public response to the murals, documenting process, and faiclitating positive vibes. We eat well. We talk with beautiful and friendly people. We make art. It is a dream job. 

I am still living in my studio, it is a lovely temple where I can get rest for the coming day's work. 

Murals in Downtown Jacksonville

I spent the night in a guest room at Shaun's house. We both agreed that I would be much more rested that if I'd slept in the freezing warehouse. (Indeed, sleeping in a warehouse is not always pleasant). We woke up fairly early and were out at the wall before 10. Dean arrived soon thereafter to document Shaun's process in video. Dean was a cool dude, he was a big mellow surfer with a booming voice and charming personality. He directed and filmed a few sequences of Shaun and I walking up to the blank wall and pointing at it, planning. Then a shot or two of us taking our jackets off in the midday heat. I began to feel as though I shouldn't have been in the shots, as this was Shaun's gig which I was fortunate to be a part of. Nevertheless, the shots were taken, and the beginning  of the film will likely look like Shaun and I were more collaborators than is truthful. Upon realizing this, I took some time to reassess our dynamic, then took my place shaking cans and organizing paint for an efficient workspace for Shaun. This felt like a much healthier work environment. 

We painted for ten hours. There were few people on the street which was nice for our workflow. One  gentleman named Daniel Sparks sat down at the bus stop in the late afternoon. The bus had not stopped there all day, and upon informing  Daniel, learned that he was not from here and needed to get to a shelter in a few minutes. I gave him a ride to the shelter. Daniel is very passionate about drawing, and requested that I come by his shelter before Tuesday to see some of his works. I promised Daniel that I would come back. He pulled out a new fleece blanket from his pack and gave it to me. Shaun and I continued working on the wall until just after sunset. We went to his place, then out to dinner at Moon River Pizza. Our pizza tasted incredible after such a longs day's work. 

Back to Jacksonville.

I finished up a mural which spanned two walls in my friend Shane's boxing gym. It depicted two martial arts warriors in fighting stances under two cherry blossom trees and in front of an oriental mountain-scape. 

I went to hang out with my friends Riley and Drew before leaving town. I realized that I'd forgotten my wallet and turned around. I was fortunate to have noticed it before I got on the interstate. I turned around, went back to Sarah's apartment an found it after opening up my suitcase in her living room. 

Upon arriving in Jacksonville, I made a bed and slept hard for the day ahead. 

Shaun woke me up with a phone call. We went to take photos of some walls that he was to paint. 

Tomorrow Shaun and I plan to develop a rhythm to painting together, across four large exterior walls in downtown
Jacksonville.  

Attached is a photo of my meal tonight. A beautiful, nutritious salad. 

Pyramid Inc.

Last night, I was granted open access to Pyramid Inc's new building, which is in mid-construction, to begin painting a mural in their daily living room.

I set up and spent at least an hour mapping the mural. This one was designed for a very process-based install, meaning that I had limited room for error because my supplies were limited. 

After mapping, I studied the value painting that I'd made in gouache, then began mixing colors. I used one five-gallon bucket for the majority of the painting- mixing one color, blocking it in, then mixing the next color directly from the one prior. 

I deviated from the value study with unsatisfactory results, so I spent a lot of time remixing colors and re-painting large sections. Periodically, I would snap a photo of the wall, then set my camera display to monochrome grayscale in order to get the values singing as I intended. It was 4:45am before I finished the painting. I felt as though I had just run a marathon, it felt incredible. 

Martial Arts Gym

I began work on a mural at my friend Shane's Mixed Martial Arts Gym. I'd painted this gym several times before and have always had a wonderful experience. Shane has had a vision of owning a warehouse gym with completely painted walls since he can remember. Back in 2009, he bought his first space, and soon after found me to get the walls singing. This most recent mural was a diptych and a request, portraying two martial arts fighters, poised toward each other, in front of a traditional-style Asian landscape. I made study drawings of two of Shane's fighters, Seth and Bailin, then studied books on martial arts and Chinese painting at the FSU Library. It took a couple days to get everything lined up for this mural. Once I had my studies and supplies in order, I went to the gym and began painting. Six hours yielded a painting which I consider one third finished.

Jacksonville to Tallahassee

I moved into a warehouse space in Jacksonville, Florida. There is something magical about Jacksonville. I feel in love with everything. It's like home, but full of new friends and incredible recourses. I befriended a crew of homeless traveler kids who refer to themselves as 'The Dirty Kids'. I gave them shelter for two nights in my warehouse-studio in exchange for some help with painting. We put down three coats of primer, turning the space from a puke-green den into a bright white sanctuary. I still had nothing for furniture, so I walked around the neighborhood looking for scrap wood. I found two beautiful heartily constructed boxes, which I picked up with my car and brought back to the space. They worked perfectly for table supports, as well as storage containers. I found an old door which I laid across the top of the two wooden boxes, creating a lovely work bench. Shaun gave me a roll out rug to lay in front of it. He said it would keep my feet warm while I worked through the cold nights. It is very exciting building a studio, it is close to all I can think about, how to optimize a space for art-making.

I walked across the parking lot (my warehouse is one of five light-industrial spaces within a gated complex) to the Blue Buddha food distribution warehouse to study pallet construction. I thought it would be efficient to use pallets for the construction of shelves, tables and flat files. My friend Adrian came over to inquire what I was doing, then referred me to a pallet refurbishing company just one street behind my warehouse. Chris, the owner of the pallet company was very accommodating, offering free pallets to me. I took four beautiful pallets ( I did not know there were so many different varieties of pallets!), and began disassembling them as preliminary work to building a flat file box to store my works on paper.

The warehouse space has an alarm system, which should be set every night. Such, I have been sleeping in my car so the morning crew can walk into their shops with assurance that the alarm was set upon my exiting. I believe after some time I will talk with my fellow tenants about sleeping in the warehouse itself.

I bought a great camera, in part to document my own work, and in part to document process painting shots for my friend, Shaun Thurston. I spent several days out on the north side of Jacksonville with Shaun, documenting his installation of five animal portraits on the exterior wall of a thrift shop. The murals were pro-bono, as the thrift store is an annex of a local humane society which has made Jacksonville a 'no-kill' animal rescue area. The documentation went very well. I got some good shots and Shaun and I established a rhythm to our dialogue with passers-by. It was incredible how manny folks pulled their cars over to talk about how beautiful the paintings were, most knew Shaun's work already- he has built quite a reputation for himself over the years in Jacksonville with his prolific mural and gallery presence. So many people wanted their buildings done, or their homes, or portraits, or their cars, or churches. Shaun, being a busy man, appreciated my talking with the potential clients, tapering the offers to those that were interesting, for a good cause, or likewise.

I made a trip to Tallahassee to begin painting two murals for Pyramid Inc., an education center for adults with developmental disabilities. Upon arriving on Friday, I went straight to the wall to have a look at the spot. I met with Gary who owned a concrete finishing business. He'd just finished a job in the Pyramid building, and notified me that it would be four days before I could enter the building to begin the murals. This represented a setback which has become somewhat recurrent in my art-making practice- one in which a domino effect of scheduling errors stems from the corrected assumption that everything will go as planned.

I can become stir crazy without a project, so I hit up a friend of mine, Shane, at World Triumph Martial Arts to propose to him a diptych mural. I drew for two walls, (which were not even finished being constructed). I went to the hardware store and bought supplies to finish construction on the walls. The sun seemed to set early. That night, I went to the library to study for the now four walls which I am to paint.