“You’ve pretty much walked every hall in this museum?” asked correspondent Kristine Johnson.

“Every hall, all behind the scenes, everywhere, yes,” Archable-Frederick replied.

But during that time, they say most visitors just see their uniforms, not necessarily the person wearing it. “I think some visitors just don’t even know we exist, to be honest,” laughed Koo. “A lot of us hope that more visitors will ask us and have conversations with us about the art, rather than asking us where the bathroom is. Like, we are kinda shadows of the museum.”

Koo hopes that’s about to change, thanks to an exhibit opening today. The show, called “Guarding the Art,” was organized not by the museum’s curators, but by its very own security guards.

Johnson asked, “When you’re approached, ‘We want you to help curate this exhibit,’ you think to yourself, ‘I’m not qualified to do that’?”

“Yeah, definitely,” laughed Koo. “‘Cause there’s a clear separation of every other department in museum versus security. We were very intimidated at first. But look, like, where we are now!”

Of course, getting to where they are now took months of preparation. The team oversaw every detail along the way, from the wall color to the works of art. Each participant selected pieces from the museum’s permanent collection that spoke to them personally.

Koo chose paintings by Philip Guston and Mark Rothko. “It kinda affects you in a really deep, emotional way,” he said of Rothko’s 1957 work, “Black Over Reds.”

Archable-Frederick selected a more contemporary piece: Mickalene Thomas’ “Resist #2,” a collage of racial protests.

Johnson asked, “Now that it’s up on the wall, this is still the one you wanted up there?”

“No regrets, no regrets,” Archable-Frederick replied. “I’m very proud of this piece, as if I did it myself. There’s so much going on in the world and this country, all the turmoil and social injustice, that this is speaking to everything that I wanted to say.”

Board of Trustee member Amy Elias came up with the idea for the exhibit, along with the museum’s head curator, Asma Naeem.

“Guards spend more time with the art than anyone in the museum,” said Elias. “They’re around it day and night, looking at it, observing it.”

Naeem said, “It’s a simple idea, but it’s asking profound questions: Who is art for? What are museums for? Who gets to talk about art? This show overall is telegraphing to the public art is for everyone.”

A reminder to museum-goers everywhere that, if you have questions about art, look no further than the person standing next to it.

Archable-Frederick said, “For other visitors who come here, now that we’ve done this, they will see us totally in a different light.”

“You’re no longer a shadow?” asked Johnson.

“No longer, no longer!” she laughed.

    
For more info:

“Guarding the Art,” at the Baltimore Museum of Art (March 27 through July 10)

    
Story produced by Sara Kugel and Julie Kracov. Editor: Joseph Frandino. 

The post Where museum guards pick the art appeared first on My Blog.

“Does what you’re listening to inspire the painting?” asked correspondent Rita Braver.

“Oh, definitely, definitely. A deeper color, a more brilliant color. That translation, that interpretation is part of what goes on.”

There’s a lot going on in Woodson’s paintings: Bold strokes and vivid colors are hallmarks of her style.

Braver said, “When I saw your work, I thought, this is done by some wild woman. She much be just out there. And then, I met this lovely schoolteacher. What’s going on?”

“Well, I multi-task,” she laughed.

And now, this 85-year-old-multi-tasker’s work is being celebrated in her first one-woman show at her hometown museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts. 

The exhibit, composed of paintings that Woodson made over three decades, is called “Shield of the Nile Reflections,” which she says highlights the river’s importance to civilization.

Describing her 1984 work “Shield of the Nile No. 2,” Woodson said, “I wanted to place these figures in an environment of healing, of restoration, of pleasure — all the things that water represents.”

The paintings display some of Woodson’s recurring themes: water, fish, shells, horses, and human beings, sometimes painted without facial features. “I put the viewer to work,” she said, “to keep them imagining, just to say, ‘Well, why didn’t she put in a face in there?'”

Her work “September Wave” includes a small self-portrait of Woodson alongside her late husband, Edsel Reid, an art collector and curator. The two met after he saw one of her works.

Braver asked, “So, did he want to meet you?”

“Oh, yes, oh, yes. And he bought a painting!”

“The way to a woman’s heart?”

“Absolutely, this woman’s heart!” Woodson laughed.

The couple had two sons. Woodson, who studied art at Wayne State University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, spent 26 years teaching art to both high school and college students.

Braver asked, “Your work was selling. Your work was being acquired by some museums. Why did you keep teaching while you were still seriously painting?”

“Teaching and working as an artist for me was like two-fold; one kind of fed into the other,” she replied. “I just enjoyed seeing people grow. And I was learning through the process as well. I painted at night, I painted almost in every room of the house.”

In fact, she said, her paintings try to replicate the way we all juggle many things in our minds:  “You’re thinking about what happened this morning, you know, you’ve got to pick the kids up, or you remember this, so all of these things are going on.”

Woodson has won numerous local and national awards, yet she believes that recognition has come slowly to her, as well as to other women artists of color.

“Do you think it’s been discrimination, in a way?” asked Braver.  

“Of course.”

“On the one hand, it’s so great that you have a solo exhibition at what is maybe the most prestigious art gallery in Detroit. On the other hand, what took them so long?”

“Well, they’re not the only ones,” Woodson laughed. “It’s about survival.  It’s about keeping those goals that you have in play, and proceeding, moving forward.”

     
For more info:

“Shirley Woodson: Shield of the Nile Reflections,” at the Detroit Institute of Arts (through June 12)

     
Story produced by Sara Kugel. Editor: George Pozderec. 

The post Artist Shirley Woodson: Life captured in bold strokes appeared first on My Blog.

“You’re a night owl – you usually paint and draw at night?” asked correspondent Tracy Smith.

“Yes, nighttime,” replied the artist. “There’s no magic to that. It’s simple lack of visual stimulation.”

He makes intricate pen-and-brush images, all of them done freehand in ink, based on a centuries-old formula. 

And while you may not be familiar with the sumi-e technique, there’s a good chance you’ve already met the artist in another life.

For rock music fans, David Lee Roth needs no introduction. As the original lead singer of the Hall of Fame supergroup Van Halen, he was “Diamond Dave” on stage – a human cyclone of crazy energy.  

But the heart of the band was co-founder Eddie Van Halen, who died of cancer earlier this month at age 65, and who was arguably one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived.

David Lee Roth performed with Van Halen for the last time in 2015, and shortly after Eddie’s death posted this tweet: “What a long great trip it’s been.”

These days, at home in California during the pandemic, Roth’s artistry is a bit more nuanced. But it didn’t come easy; in fact, he spent two years in Tokyo trying to master this technique.  

Roth said, “I spent the first six months painting bamboo because it was in spring/summer. And I said, ‘When are we gonna paint something else?’ And he looked out the window and said, ‘When the weather changes.’ And he wasn’t kidding. So, for about four months we painted a little house with snow on top.”

Smith said, “This is fascinating – you took two years of your life and went to Tokyo to study Japanese painting and drawing?”

“You have a look that is a bit, ‘That’s unusual’? ‘Unexpected’?”

“Both?”

“Is it unexpected good, or unexpected eccentric to you? I’m curious.”

“I think a little bit of both,” Smith said. “I think it takes remarkable patience and discipline that most people, let alone a rock star who could be doing a lot of other things, would take the time to do.”

Roth said, “If you were a rock star and you had the money to do – let’s just add that – to do whatever it is, and I beyond all, I’ve always wanted a giant boat. If you can get past that, what would you use your rock stardom for?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve always used my celebrity as a passport for travel, and let’s go get into it.”

And here’s something else he got into: In 2004, Roth became a certified emergency medical technician in New York City. He was 48 years old, but he said answering life-and-death emergency calls in the Bronx was the thing in life that made him feel, well, like a rock star.

“I wasn’t someone until I put on that 511 uniform and went on my first calls,” Roth said. “I’m not gonna kid ya’. I knew I was in for the humbling experience: ‘Oh, White boy rock star thinks what, this is an easy gig?'”

“But you wanted to do it anyway?”

“Oh, that’s extra. You bet.”

He also learned that in a crisis it helps to have a little sense of humor. “That is your only weapon; that is your only life preserver that you can give somebody who thinks they’re gonna die,” Roth said. “Nobody calls 911 just to wish you Happy Hanukah.”

These days, it seems his time as a paramedic is behind him. But Roth is still very much a performer. Before COVID he’d been touring as a successful solo act. 

But now, he said, he’s going to take it a little slower.

“So, you’re gonna space it out a little bit,” asked Smith.

“I’m on my, what, 45th year, something like that?” Roth said. “It’s great to see me, but not every year. Like family!”

And for now, there’s only his solitary art. But just because his medium of the moment is pen and ink, it doesn’t mean David Lee Roth will ever lose his voice.

He asked, “Who has the most impact on history? Government? Or the historian?”

“He who tells the story, right?” said Smith.

“Hello! That’s Yiddish for ‘Yo!'”

“So, is your visual art, storytelling?”

“My visual art is complaining,” he said. “It’s graphic therapy. I say through my graphic art everything that a lotta folks say to the TV set when you don’t think anybody’s actually listening.”

For more info:

davidleeroth.comView David Lee Roth’s artwork on his Twitter feed

        
Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Ed Givnish. 

The post David Lee Roth’s brush with art appeared first on My Blog.

I’d been wanting to do a “Sunday Morning” story about those viral videos (among the few joys of the coronavirus crisis) made by actors, musicians, comedians, dancers and magicians who are stuck at home. During the Great Lockdown, they no longer have access to stages, live audiences, lights, or props. They can no longer tour. And yet the best of them have still found ways to perform, using ingenuity and technology to produce stunning, moving, and wildly entertaining videos of their work.

One day, it hit me: What if I presented the story in the form of an awards ceremony, and interviewed each “winner” on a screen next to me?

I do, after all, have a green screen in my basement. As TV and movie fans know, a green screen is the basis for a common special effect: if you film someone standing in front of a green wall or sheet, then computer software can replace every spot of green with another image of your choice. Like, for example, a fancy awards-show set!

I emailed my bosses to pitch this utterly bizarre story idea. Incredibly, they immediately said yes. To me, that indicates some seriously open minds and a good deal of trust; in the 40-year history of our show, I’m guessing that this would be the first to be filmed entirely against a green screen.

Producer David Rothman was a key collaborator. He kept coming up with ideas to make the story funnier and better: Each award should have a funny name (like “The Von Trapped Family Singers Award”)! There should be four judges, who are all played by me! We should get glimpses of the “live audience,” which would actually be hilarious, black-and-white, 1940s-era film clips of people clapping in their finery!

In the original plan, we’d find one spectacular performer in each cultural category: Music, Dance, Theater, Comedy, and so on. In practice, though, some of the best videos were uncategorizable. Jack Buchanan, of New Zealand, wrote, arranged, filmed, starred in, edited, and choreographed “Family Lockdown Boogie.” Which category would that be?

In the end, we gave up on the strict categories. We chose six wildly different performances – a combination of my own discoveries, Rothman’s finds, and suggestions from my Twitter followers. (Thanks, you guys!)

Rothman ordered trophies from a custom award-design place and shipped them to our winners. Meanwhile, I had to figure out what our “awards ceremony stage” would look like.

I visited Fiverr.com, an amazing marketplace for really talented artists all over the world who work incredibly inexpensively. For example, for $5 or $10, you can find someone to retouch a photo in Photoshop for you, or draw you as a caricature, or copy-edit your résumé. I searched for “3-D set designers,” and found a young man in the United Arab Emirates who made a gorgeous design for the Sunny Awards set.

He surprised me by delivering pictures of the virtual set in four different angles, which meant that I could address the “audience” standing in one spot, and interview the winners in another “spot”!

The shoot

I planned to interview each winner on an iPad mounted at eye level, so that we could have what looked like a natural on-stage conversation; but the iPad’s screen was too small; it looked like I was interviewing a shrunken head.

Instead, I set up a computer monitor. To bring it to my eye level, I put the monitor on a music stand, which was itself on top of a wicker trunk I found in the basement. It was a little wobbly.

But if you think that setup sounds complicated, wait ’til you hear the instructions I gave our winners! They went something like this:

“You’re going to need a laptop in front of you, so that we can see each other over a Zoom call. Unfortunately, video calls are grainy, washed-out, and low-resolution; we don’t want to show you on TV that way! So, we’d also like you to tape your smartphone to the laptop lid, and use it to shoot video of your side of the interview. (Your phone has much better audio and video quality than a Zoom call.) Later, you’ll send us the captured video to incorporate into our story.

“Oh, and one more thing: When you’re answering my questions during the interview, please face front but turn your head so that you’re ‘looking at me,’ because I’ll be ‘standing next to you’ on the stage. And I’m 6’2, so you may have to look upward a little bit, too, so you’re ‘looking me in the eye.’ Oh, but not all the time – during your answers, feel free to look out ‘into the audience’ from time to time, too, which means looking forward toward your laptop and taped-up phone…”

That may not make total sense to you as you read it, but never mind: All six of our winners grasped what we were going for (maybe because they’re all experienced performers!).

Some of our winners, like actors Tony Shalhoub and his wife Brooke Adams, and dating comedians Sam Morril and Taylor Tomlinson, are already celebrities; others were amateurs who’d done amazing work. But all of them joined this crazy, jerry-rigged shoot with patience and good humor.

The highlight of each interview was the moment when I “handed” the trophy to the winner “through the screen,” as though I could reach across space into their homes. Here’s the secret: Duct tape! When handing off the trophy, my hand went behind the computer screen, where it stuck to a wad of duct tape, so that I could pull my hand away empty.

At that moment, each winner “took the trophy from me” by reaching off-camera to receive it. The result looked so smooth, I burst out laughing the first time we tried it.

The edit

I edited this story on a Mac laptop running Final Cut Pro X, a fantastic video-editing program. I spent a week of 12-hour days editing the story – much too long, of course, but what else do I have going on? It was a great chance for me to dive into video-editing features I’d never used before, to learn (by watching YouTube tutorials) how they work. How do you clean up green screen glitches? When you’ve filmed in your basement, how do you remove room echo from the audio? How do you make the stupid music stand stop tilting?

Now I know!

Comedians Morril and Tomlinson made their interview extra hilarious by wearing silk pajamas for their interview, in front of their own green screen in their apartment! The joke was that they intended to replace the green areas with a picture of an over-the-top fancy L.A. apartment interior.

Of course, what this meant is that I had to replace their green screen with the fancy-apartment photo, and replace my green screen with our stage set. It was green screen Russian nesting dolls, but I finally figured it out.

Producer Rothman found some fantastic silent stock footage of vintage audiences, some applause sound effects, and even some brassy awards-show music to complete the effect.

My software replaced the green screen background with the “photo” of our stage. I replaced the grungy, tilted music stand with a nicer-looking pole I found on Google. I gave the background a tiny bit of blur, so it would look like it was far away. In the end, the video shot in my basement looked for all the world like a glamorous TV awards show. No social distancing was violated in the making of this story!

I have only one regret about this project: that the Sunnies aren’t an actual awards broadcast, hours long. I would have loved to have shown more than an excerpt of each winner’s work, to have included more of each interview, and to have spotlighted more brilliant performers. (After the story aired, viewers sent me links to brilliant talents I’d missed. In particular, I wish I’d known about the work of Mary Neely, who, living alone during quarantine, has single-handedly re-created scenes from classic Broadway musicals, even those involving multiple characters, men and women, with hilarious use of wigs, costumes, and impeccable lip-syncing. In her “Beauty and the Beast” opening number, I counted 43 different characters.

But never mind that. I was trying to use the same kind of at-home improvisation and creativity to conjure up the “Sunny Awards” story that its recipients had exhibited in the first place. The coronavirus may be keeping performing artists (and TV correspondents) at home, but you know what? The show must go on!

To watch the final Sunny Awards video click on the player below: 

The post Behind the scenes of the Sunny Awards appeared first on My Blog.

You can read an excerpt below, as well as listen to Knighton read this excerpt from his audio book recording of “Leave Only Footprints”:

Yellowstone was the world’s first national park. The first sentence on the park’s website makes sure you are aware of that bit of trivia. To be first is to be remembered.

Every journalist wants to be the first to publish a story. Every company wants to be the first to market with their product. Every kid in my first-grade class in West Virginia knew local hero Chuck Yeager was the first pilot to break the sound barrier. Who was the second? They didn’t teach that in school.

But first does not always mean best (although in Yellowstone’s case, it just might). Still, a first kiss, a first love, a first date – these are the moments that we memorialize, even if they end up not being all that great. First equals special.

That may be why there are so many spots that claim to offer the first view of the sunrise in the United States. The sunrise marks the first light of a new day, and town tourism bureaus across the country claim that they alone are where you can see that light before anyone else. Of course, with the sunrise, being first is just a matter of seconds.

Guam bills itself as “Where America’s Day Begins.” Out in the middle of the Pacific, closer to Japan than to Hawaii, Guam is fourteen hours ahead of the East Coast, since it lies just west of the International Date Line. But to count Guam as the first sunrise almost seems like cheating, especially since, fifteen hundred miles farther east, there’s Wake Island, an Air Force base where the sign on the runway once read “Where America’s Day Really Begins.” Dang, Wake Island. Way to throw a little sunrise shade.

After passing over Asia and Europe, the sun eventually shines on Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park in Maine. From mid-September through mid-March, this is where the first rays of sun are said to hit the contiguous United States. Even that honor is true only during the winter months, since the tilt of the earth affects the sun’s position on the horizon. In the summer, Mars Hill, Maine, sees the first light. (And since both spots are pretty remote, Eastport, Maine, advertises itself as the first city to see the sun rise.) Perhaps there’s a reason an asterisk looks just like a sun.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, on January 1, the highest peak of Acadia National Park is the first place in the contiguous United States to see the sun rise. The first sunrise on the first day of the year. And so that’s where I decided to kick off my quest to see every national park in the country. I knew it was going to be a busy year – I wanted to get a head start.

In the summer, tour buses can drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain in a matter of minutes. But in the winter, the road shuts down. Everything shuts down. In the nearby town of Bar Harbor, even big chain hotels put up “See you next spring” signs. Only a few restaurants stay open, feeding the locals who have decided to brave the winter.

Those who stay have a national park to themselves. Acadia gets 80 percent of its visitors in just four months of the year, but it’s gorgeous in the winter – crystal blue lakes become bright-white ice-fishing destinations, hillsides become ski runs, and the road that leads to the top of Cadillac Mountain, covered in snow, becomes a dangerous, slippery hike.

Excerpt from “Leave Only Footprints” by Conor Knighton, published by Crown, a division of Penguin Random House. © 2020. Reprinted by permission.

     
For more info:

“Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park” by Conor Knighton (Crown), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazonconorknighton.com

The post Book + audio excerpt: Conor Knighton’s “Leave Only Footprints” appeared first on My Blog.

Telluride, Colo.: Telluride Fire Festival (December 6-8)

Inspired by Burning Man, the Telluride Fire Festival features the visual magic of fire art, fire art cars and fire dancing, as well as a Fire Ball, and fire-related workshops. At venues across Telluride, including the historic Transfer Warehouse, Reflection Plaza in Mountain Village, and the Great Room atop the gondola.

Workshops and Ticket info

Miami, Fla.: Art Basel (Through December 8)

Leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia will display significant works from the masters of Modern and contemporary art, as well as a new generation of emerging stars. At Miami Beach Convention Center, 1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, Fla. Public shows December 6-8.

Ticket info

Palm Desert, Calif.: Desert VegFest (December 7)

An all-vegan festival that features vegan food vendors, speakers, live music, entertainment and more. Sorry, no animals allowed on site! At UCR Palm Desert (75080 Frank Sinatra Drive), Palm Desert, Calif., December 7 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Ticket info

Flint, Mich.: African-American Children’s Book Festival (December 7)

The free one-day event provides families and organizations with ideas to increase their book rich environment, and resources for great literary works that have Afrocentric themes or are by African American authors/illustrators. With storytelling, games and activities, essay contest, arts & crafts, face-painting, a young authors/illustrators writing workshop, and vendors that support children’s/family causes. At Sylvester Broome Empowerment Village, 4119 N Saginaw St, Flint, Mich. Dec. 7 from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Stateline, Nev.: Tahoe Adventure Film Festival at MontBleu Resort and Casino (December 7)

“The next best thing to doin’ it”: The 17th annual Tahoe Adventure Film Festival is a showcase of newly-released films of daring exploits and epic adventures in some of the most remote places and harshest conditions that test the human spirit, from skiing, snowboarding and kayaking, to rock climbing, surfing, mountain biking and BASE jumping. And it’s not just outdoor adventure enthusiasts: featured alongside the films are go-go dancers and entertainers on stage. At the MontBleu Theatre, 55 Highway 50, Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets available by calling (775) 588-3515 or via TicketMaster

Can’t make it to Lake Tahoe? Starting in January 2020, the film festival will go on tour to such cities as Petaluma, Park City, and Reno.

To watch a trailer for this year’s festival click on the video player below:

The post Take Five (December 6): Check out the “Sunday Morning” listings of art openings and events this coming week appeared first on My Blog.

It’s not uncommon to see that people in New York City have left their marks on the side of a building … until you realize where that building is.

“I’m literally living out every graffiti artist’s dream,” said Dylan Bauvez. “I’m up there painting what I hold closest to myself legally here in the heart of New York City, where New York’s heart was broken.”

The World Trade Center is undergoing a transformation, by way of street art. Bauvez calls his mural “Wild Things,” and dedicates it to his sister and mother who are fighting cancer. 

He showed Salie his Twin Towers tattoo. “I was in the fourth grade when it happened. And my mother was supposed to be here that day, but she called in sick and she didn’t show up. And then the next time she ever showed up to the World Trade Center grounds was to see my painting on the fence. She got to come see it, and it was an emotional thing.”

All across this construction zone – more than 20,000 square feet of corrugated metal – every surface tells a story of mystery, acceptance, and love.

One, painted by artists Chinon Maria and Sebastian Mitre, blooms audaciously in the shadow of the 9/11 Memorial. Its flowers suggest new life and hope. “You want to do something that honors the area, that brings hope, that brings life to a place that has gone through such tragedy,” said Maria.

“That is a key word: rebirth,” added Mitre.

Reviving this site, one can of spray paint at a time, even from 30 feet in the air.

For developer Larry Silverstein, the images that bathe his buildings illustrate just how far he’s come … and how much further he has to go. The graffiti, he told Salie, “brings life, it brings zest, it brings activity, it brings a feeling of togetherness: Hey, we’re part of something that’s wonderful.“

The art project started when earlier this year the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey asked Silverstein to liven up his construction zone.

“You could have hired anyone – why did you choose street art?” Salie asked.

“Maybe because it was the coolest kind of art we could find!” Silverstein laughed. “And I’m saying this to you as an 87-year-old guy!”

“What is it, Larry? What’s ‘cool’?”

“It’s this art. Look at it, enjoy it, take from it, and be blessed by it.”

“Decades ago, businesses would never want someone spray painting their construction sites, right? That would be vandalism. And you’re going out and buying the spray paint cans for these artists?”

“And saying, ‘You all come!'”

“The things that we previously were scared about, we now embrace for its beauty,” said Alejandro Velasco, who teaches an “Art and Politics in the City” course at New York University’s Gallatin School. “The question is, how can we preserve the aesthetics without using some of its politics? That’s the real challenge of street art in the 21st century.”

Velasco says graffiti emerged in New York City in the 1960s as a way for impoverished groups to find visibility, to literally make their mark in society. 

Turns out, graffiti goes way back. Velasco says that when Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was plundering the Americas in the 1500s, graffiti offered expression to his otherwise silenced soldiers.

“They would paint messages on the walls of his palace,” Velasco said. “And he would write back on the wall. So, this became a site where they would exchange opinions.”

And closer to our own time, remember those pictures of New York in the 1960s, when impoverished artists quite literally used almost anything to make their mark?

“It’s fascinating to realize that graffiti is sort of like an early version of social media: Hear me. I get to have a voice,” said Salie.

And it’s social media, say artists Stickymonger, Boogie, and Todd Gray, that’s helping spread the popularity of this public palette. “The pictures that they take with it, they jump with it. The action, the motions that they give. It’s everybody’s artwork. We all made it together,” Boogie said.

Still, for all the joy their art brings, the artists say they haven’t forgotten their canvas is hallowed ground.

For all the joy this art brings to its audience, the artists will never forget the history of their canvas.

“To have all these murals, to me they’re just these metaphors of wildflowers, just kind of growing through the rubble,” said Gray.

Chinon Maria got emotional saying, “You think about the location and how it is our job to really focus in and create something to respect all the lives that were lost, and to know that there is hope and there is a way for us to all unite together, and that is through the arts.”

Salie asked, “Does art heal?”

“Absolutely,” said Bauvez.

“In so many ways,” added Boogie. “Mind, body and soul.” 

      
For more info:

Dylan Bauvez on Instagram (@bauvez)
Chinon Maria Studios
Chinon Maria on InstagramSebastian Mitre on Instagram
toddgray.com
Todd Gray on Instagram
Johee Park (stickymonger.com)Johee Park on Instagram (@stickymonger)Risa Tochigi and TC Weaver (boogierez.com)
@BoogieREZ on TwitterTC Weaver on Instagram (rezones)Risa Tochigi on Instagram (@riiisaboogie)
Silverstein Properties
Street art at the WTC (wtc.com)Alejandro Velasco, New York University’s Gallatin School
World Trade Center street murals (Frommer’s)

      
Story produced by Robbyn McFadden.

The post Decorating hallowed ground with street art appeared first on My Blog.