Blazefest 2008: Day 4

The second day of camp kicked off and when I got to class there was nobody in my class. Ray came around to the different classes to see if anybody needed anything and there was nobody in my class I was half ashamed and half confused. Which is really stupid 'cuz I can't make people sign up for my class. But again more people trickled in until I got about 6 again. I taught a review for the the new kids and moved on to 3D for the one repeat student who is showing a lot of promise. One of the staff has a car that he lets people sign if they give him a dollar it's to raise money for a new car. Ray paid him $40 so that we each paint a piece on either side of his car. I painted one side real quick and then me and Ray painted the other side together.

Blazefest 2008: Day 3

We got up at 6:30 to be at devotions early, finished up and the kids started to arrive for the first part of blazefest which is like a summer camp in the morning. When I got to my class there was one kid. In previous years Graffiti was by far the most popular class, so when I got there I was totally shocked but we started up and I started teaching the class and more people trickled in until I had about 6 in my class but I felt real nervous when it was just one kid. I taught them about bars and letter structure etc. In the evening time we go to an inner city park and have a kind of outreach-show-performance thing. They set up speakers, a DJ booth, tables and chairs, they had a prayer table, and they put a trailer in the center and me and Ray started painting it.

Blazefest 2008: Day 2

Well it was the first day of work at blazefest Ray set the tone by calling this an urban missionary week and eluding to the bible verse that we come to serve not to be served. We started by cleaning up the centre where we would be holding the summer camp part of the week. Then I got to painting, setting the theme for the building I was drawing graffiti all over the building which transformed the old church into a hip hop training ground. The other artists arrived and I got to meet Bam Bam the liquid robot who was our breakdance instructor, Jaz our MCing (rapping) instructor and also DJ Exo and B-boy B-bop from last year who were back from the previous year to teach DJing and help teach break dancing.

Blazefest 2008: Day 1

Annother year of Blazefest and Ray the director of Blazefest invited me again to teach the instructional area of Graffiti for my third year. I took my wife along and we arrived in Schenectady NY late. We called up Rayski and he took us out for dinner and took us to a hotel. At the hotel they only had smoking rooms available, so they said we could check it out before we paid. We go over to the room and there's some strange looking woman wandering the hall and coming from the next room are VERY loud sounds of a woman. We all looked at each other with a confused look and then with a look of embarrassment as we realized what the sounds were. We quickly left and headed to the holiday inn. I guess it should be noted that my wife is an extrovert and struck up conversations with two of the toughest looking bikers as well as every fast food worker she could find.

Piece #44

graffiti at church

I just got back from church where I was asked to speak about my graffiti, they had the communion table laid out with the wine and grape juice glasses and bread, a nice sash and... a can of spraypaint. It was fun just like I thought it would be. The speak is available here and for those ubber curious and I've posted my notes in the comment section. After, I took some members of a walking tour of the downtown alleys which they seemed to enjoy. I also went to Gateway church where I have donated some canvases which the church is now selling for $30 a pop with all proceeds going to overseas missions. If you show up next week at sir fredrick banting highschool by the Auquatic centre you can probably pick one up. That's about all, I'll be going to NY again this year so stay tuned for that. Peace!

Piece #43

No message this time just having fun with a buddy of mine painting and fooling around. He hasn't decided yet on a name. So we painted until late being joyful, talking about art and drinking pop. I hope I can paint with him again it was fun.