Minneapolis, Day 10

Visiting Minneapolis is always a highlight for me. Most notably because it's when I get to hang out, paint, live, barbeque, and experience the duo known as Broken Crow. These guys make great work and they are even greater people. But you already know that.

Today we just finished this wall and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. It's a perfect mix of our work and it was so great to take part in their process of large scale holy fuck-sized stencils from the beginning. Here's a little bit from the process...

Shade and toilet paper, what else do ya' need.

Day 1. Find a wall. Check

Make a sketch

Mike's not just good at spraying paint through holes. He's a good model too.

Angel and Mike make for happy hand models

After a few dozen x-acto blades and a couple days we successfully transformed the attic into a hamster fortress.

Outline up, woot, woot!

In response to a lady asking me if she could park her car in the lot during happy hour.

If you live in Minneapolis check it out in person. It's right between the Modern Cafe and the 331 Club. Thanks to Drew for the wall, Mike Bishop for being a smooth talker, and John Oulman for the endless entertainment.

Rapping with Broken Crow in Gambia

In the not-so recent news the always impressive Broken Crow were invited to Gambia to paint villages galore (Tons of amazing pictures here). During their layover on the way to "The" Gambia I was fortunate enough to hand them off two wheat pastes. I was even more fortunate to have them take the time to paste them up for me. As the story goes, they used a strange African bread paste concoction that someone recommended. Upon putting this one up, the family of the house wondered why they were spreading food on the wall. Mike of Broken Crow said they gave the family the remaining paste to make bread. That really puts it in perspective.

Big thanks to Ian Cox of Wallkandy for the pics!



And on a funny note, one of the paintings that i gave Mike to paste up was in two parts. This was his interpretation of how they should be joined.


And this was mine.


I still can't tell which one is better.

Old News is still Good News

Before coming back to a full house of relatives and friends I was in Minneapolis for an event called the Art a Whirl. Every year Minneapolis does a huge art event throughout the city and for this year I painted a mural for Shuga Records with Mike Fitzsimmons and John Grider of Broken Crow. Between scarfing down burgers, throwing back brewskis, and assembling scaffolding we painted the mural in 4 days. Paul Schmelzer of Eyeteeth made a video of the process that is below and also wrote about the mural on his blog. (photos by Paul Schmelzer via his photostream)
Aside from the mural for Shuga Records we were also part of an event called the 24-hr art making marathon hosted by the Walker Art Center. We got in and painted a quick 3-hour shift at the conclusion just when the all-night art'ers were painting like zombies.

The event was amazing and a big shout out to Whit who organized the event!!! Check out the time lapse video of the process below to see the chaos that ensues when you put a handful of teenagers in a room with art supplies and a little anarchy.

Minneapolis in the House

Painted with my favorite visiting homies Broken Crow today at the Espeis Gallery in Williamsburg. More to come in the following days. Just someone tell this rain to stop.
//////////UPDATE ///////////
Maria Juranic's timelapse video of our mural was recently featured on Juxtapoz, Animal New York, Upper Playground, and Eyeteeth.

More to come this weekend after my trip to Minneapolis for Don't Sleep On It: 24hr Art Making Marathon for the Walker Art Center.

Broken Crow and Overunder Street Art in NY from Maria Juranic on Vimeo.

Date Update

Just had a great visit by John Grider who was on vacation from being Brokencrow. After cutting millions of focused stencils his hand is on the verge of tendinitis and his doctor put him on Xacto hiatus. So what a surprise to have his Minneapolis-ness wit-nessed. Eventually we all escaped the city and made a winter pilgrimmage to Coney Island. Hit it right at sunset, hand in hand, with girlfriend (<---big up Tae Tae), friends, and adorable dogs (that's right, I'm talking bout you B00!) One of those friends was our new buddy Luna Park, who has got a shutter fire like John Wayne's got a trigger finger. John made his way back earlier this week and we're still missin him.
But soon enough John and I will be releasing a big project in the works poppin' off this summer and more than likely coming to a city near you!

(clockwise top left: Espo signage, Russian fisherman at Coney Island, Luna Park catching fresh Imminent Disaster piece, me catching Luna Park catching a fresh Imminent Disaster piece.)

Mural in Bushwick w/Brokencrow

I was so caught up with my favorite people in the world that I didn't have 2 seconds to chill out and put a link of the mural we finished. Done in a mad-dashing 2 day period, Brokencrow and I cranked out this 20' x 80' wall for the Brooklyn Garment Washing Co. and our neighbors near the Jefferson L stop. Hopefully just the beginning...