With Gospel music vibrating through my bones, I joined other artists
and festival goers in the East Bay community to paint a mural designed by Jamie Treacy from Pro Arts.  Sunny skies and the wind factor made painting the mural a challenge.  As music more than filled the air from the Gospel stage at  the 11th Annual Art & Soul Festival, I was able to mix a pretty melon color  pigment to outline the red circles in the mural.  This brings back memories of my first job as a mural photographer for Cityarts workshop on the Lower East Side in New York City.  I travelled all around Manhattan, shooting both muralists and finished murals in the mid 1970's.  Murals made it big in New York, like Mexico, Italy, Spain, Paris and London.
It has always been a good way for an artist(s) to convey a large scale message to the mass public.  This mural will be on display at the Fox Theater in Oakland when it gets finished. Guiding small kids and teens to paint in the designated areas on the mural (a never ending challenge of paint and mess control) was fun and of course, very very colorful!
A splash of green, a dab of yellow, and lots of purple.  
I taught a child how to mix crimson blue and sky white to make a soft blue background.  She was growing impatient because she hand a big paint brush in hand, eager to make contact with the surface.
She kept mixing the paint and sighing, her anticipation reaching a peak.  When her now light blue paint brush made contact, I saw the satisfaction in her face.  "Im doing good, right", she beamed.
We told her "yes, beautiful bold textures,great job"! She filled the oval space with her paint with a sense of prideful accomplishment.  As her mother strolled by, she excitedly pointed out her finished painted piece.  Her mother smiled back at her and she left to enjoy the rest of the festival.
She sang along to a song that the gospel choir sang, she knew all the words because she told me she sang at her church.
Keeping the paints wet, the brushes in water, the paint on the wall was of course all part of the process of working together as a creative community, this is what Pro Arts is all about and they do  a great service to the arts community in Oakland.  They are located right there at 150 Frank Ogawa Plaza, and exhibit art work at their gallery. You can also become a member, volunteer, or particpate in the annual open studios.
check it out for more info : www.proartsgallery.org
As the hours passed, I  can see progress, the cactus leaves I painted took on more form, they looked like avocados to me though, maybe I was getting hungry!  Standing in one place grew too so very painful, so I had to stop, sit down and look at the progress of the mural
from a distance.  It is a good practice to do this anyway, because its hard to gauge when you are painting so detailed and close-up. It felt good that I can join with others to paint on a cool Saturday afternoon.


 


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