Street Art. Yall there is a whole world to this and it is one that I knew nothing about until a few weeks ago. Each week we have class on Monday and Friday; the Monday classes are geared more towards self-growth, where as the Friday classes are focused on the urban community and expanding our cross-cultural competence (basically a fancy word for understanding other cultures). Two weeks ago we got the amazing opportunity to meet Maristo. He has been doing street art since he was 12. While he started out doing it illegally, he now is an incredibly successful professional artist. He took us on a tour around downtown to view different pieces. Mars explained how when a piece is done professionally and well done people will respect it and typically not tag on it. A tag or slap is an artist’s way of letting other artist know they have been there—he explained in a way of getting insta likes. It’s a way to get your name out either with a can of spray paint or a sticker (slap) but you also are trying to have more tags than other people. Most young artist start out this way, just trying to spread their name, so when they do get the chance to do a mural and their name goes on that piece, others will have already seen their name. So after we learned about street art we got to actually create a mural. Let me tell you I was hecka stressed. We worked with Mars and one of his friends Chad, it was neat to see how they both had different working styles but were able to work together, and with us to create something. Mars talked us through how he sets up his paints, preps the wall, and makes sure everything is organized, yeah yeah yeah. At this point I was freaking out because in case yall didn’t know I’m a people pleaser and don’t like to be bad at things, so here is Mars talking about how much he loves his paint and how each can costs about $11. And all I can think about is screwing up Mars paint’s. He wouldn’t be mad I just know what it’s like to have something you are passionate about and someone screw up the materials you need—its purely frustrating. After showing us how to do it, it was our turn. AND YUP you guessed it, I had to go first with everyone watching me. To my surprise I enjoyed it and sort of got in a zone. I was even kind of good at it. I can see why people are so into it. I can now say that I have done street art and tagged. Who knows this may just be the start of my tagging career. Be on the look out for the tag SueZ cuz its yo homegirl, me!! The story behind this mural is pretty cool; we painted it at Joshua Station in west denver. Joshua Station is apart of Mile High Ministry. It is a two year transitional housing program for families or single parents transitioning from homelessness to housing. Joshua Station used to be an old motel that was actually used mainly as a brothel. It's now a place where peoples lives are transformed for good. HOW COOL. So each family has a room, or two if they have more than 3 kids. There is a community kitchen where families can cook meals. The community kitchen is a neat aspect to Joshua Station because most people coming out of homelessness suffer from shame and don't want to be in community. By being forced to share a kitchen with others is just another restorative step taken as they transition to housing. When it is time for the families to move on to their own house or apartment Joshua Station pays for their down payment and first months rent as a way of saying 'You can do this, but we still want to be there to help you.' Mars asked all of us to pick a motivational word and write it on a piece of paper, the word was then drawn from a hat and thats what the mural would be. So Shine it was. Oh yeah Mars told us after we finished tagging that he was painting over all of our work once we left, that made us all very sad, but hey we still got to try street art. And honestly I'm kind of glad, Mars will make the final piece look SO much better. Here is a link for Chad’s art. Check him out!! https://chadbolsinger.squarespace.com I sadly cant find Mars’ website but you can just google ‘El Marsito Denver’ to see more of his work.
4 Comments
9/28/2017 07:47:29 pm
What an incredible opportunity, Go Girl!
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Eileen Cocjin
9/28/2017 08:18:29 pm
Thank you for sharing. Learning so much stuff and not be in school sounds pretty cool.....We miss ya!
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Dad
9/29/2017 03:23:26 am
Very cool. The opportunities you are getting for personal growth are amazing. Glad you are taking advantage of all the learning situations KIVU is offering you.
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Nana Karen
9/30/2017 02:46:20 pm
Amazing and wonderful variety of things you are learning and experiencing. And you are just in the beginning of this trip!! Love and miss you!
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