I've been volunteering at The Mess for the last couple of months. It's run through Youth for Christ and teaches art to homeless and at risk youth downtown. They meet every Wednesday at First Christian Reformed Church on Talbot street. An open meal is served at 5:30pm and the art kicks off at 6:30. And the other day I made #6 on thier newsletter.
"6. the Wall was officially unveiled last night. After 3 weeks of training by local graffiti artist Richard (tag name “Battle”) Phillips, we opened up a “free wall.” This is a place where we can learn, practice, and express ourselves (legally) through spray paint. Over 20 people added their painting voice to create the art you see on the left. We will be doing this weekly at the Mess."
They really like me at Youth For Christ and the director asked a staff member to put out a feeler to see if I'd be interested in working for them. I like my current job but I'm still gonna try and be a part of whats going on at YFC (just not in a 40 hour work week way). On a side note the director knows Joel Stigale who I worked with in New York a few weeks ago.
A few days after that I go back to the same spot and start painting annother piece because the guy I was with wanted to paint there. Well we start laying out our paintings and who should come by but "Dave". Dave does not want to talk Dave wants to fight. I explained that I meant no disrespect but he grabbed me by the throught anyways. I was thinking of fighting back at that point but suddenly something popped into my head and said "do not resist an evil man". Dave threw me on the ground and kicked me. I told him I wasn't going to fight him and he stomped on my head and pushed me into a bird crap puddle (that part was gross). I got up and tried to talk it out with him but everything I said made him more upset. He came after me again I started walking away and he punched me from behind in the side of the head. I told him I still love and respect him. He told me to get out of the alley and not come back. I was still trying to talk it out with him when the guy I was painting with (who was pretty silent up untill that point) said "lets just go" we packed up our stuff and left. I've never felt so good after getting hit. I felt a strange peace while I was getting hit and I felt good about what went on that day. The only down side is that it hurts to chew.
We arrived in Saskatoon alive and roughly on time met up with the people from the church and Sonz. We started laying things out but we had a few little hiccupps from the church pastor who wanted some things changed at the last minute. Camer patiently went through it with the pastor and agreed to some changes he suggested the crew wasn't peticularily happy but we started sketching out the changes and eventually started painting. 
I took my time and didn't really start doing too much I was taking it easy and just letting Cowboy and Camer and the pastor make the decisions. At one point cowboy looked over at me and asked my why I hadn't started and I told him I was just taking my time. I figured that honestly camer and cowboy would be painting most of the wall and that I would run out of things to paint and eventually just stand around waiting kinda like I had earlier on in the trip. So to make sure I was painting for the next 3 days I was gonna take those three days to do the one section entrusted to me. However, both cowboy and camer suggested I really move fast and then start on such and such. We met our host family but to be honest I was exausted by the end of the day and I felt really bad about not making small talk but I just crashed on the bed they provided they seemed really nice though. 
We started off in the morning by loosing the keys to the school whichis a big deal because when that happends the entire school has to get re-keyed and all the locks changed. We all searched the house for an hour but in the end my wife saved the day and found the keys. We started painting the school today and we had two more changes scince the 3 from yesterday. Its a public school so we are not allowed to paint anything christian. Ironic because we're painting a room based on diversity and its ironic because there is alot of native american spirituality and they wanted quotes from religious people like gaundi but nothing christian, wheres the dirersity? I think christianity isn't trendy enough or maybe you can be influenced by any religion but can't acctually follow any religion. Anyways five of us painted 3 different rooms, one at a time. To me it felt kind of constricted doing somebody elses design with people staring over my sholder making sure I didn't mess up thier idea or do something too original that a school principal, teacher or parent wouldn't like. It took a long time and at the end I was tired but the five of us had to paint 20 personalized canvases. I'm not a big fan of canvases and again it felt like work. Tomorrow is supposed to be better were painting a place called the Oasis which sounds like a really cool place more up our alley with more individual and religious fredom. And I refuse do anymore canvases this trip or paint anything just to earn money for a job!
