Street Artist at Raleigh's ArtSplosure

Ed911

This is my first time posting to this forum. I'm sure a big fan...even of BD...and visit frequently. My wife and I travel from the coast to Raleigh every year for Raleigh's art festival, ArtSplosure, with many artistic disciplines represented. This includes photographers from near and far and that's the big attraction for us.

Anyways, while perusing the streets we came upon this guy...doing spray-can paintings on poster board at the far end of the festival and across the street from Moore's park...the official festival site. Other than the paint and poster board that he created his work on...everything else was stuff that he got out of the trash. He found a place in front of the shop in the images...and was somewhat sponsored by them...in that they were allowing him to be there...much to the chagrin of the art festival officials..and since he wasn't a paying part of the art festival, he was eventually expelled by the festival officials accompanied by the police.

He claimed to travel by rail...eat out of garbage cans and work only for enough money to buy art supplies so he could continue doing his street art. He had his brother and about 6 other young people in his entourage. Quite interesting and captivating. His appearance would seem to bear that out...see the color images that I've posted.

I hope you enjoy his work captured here:

I sort of pushed my way through the crowd that surrounded him and sat on the curb to get down to his level. His tool of choice...Krylon spray paint, magazine pages, a knife, cigarette lighter, poster board, and some plastic caps and covers. And, a hanging cigarette. The day was overcast with the sun popping out from time to time...making some shots a little difficult to get.



Here, he's canvassing the crowd for a cigarette lighter...his is out and he needs it to dry his paint before he goes on.


Yep, he's spaying fire onto his partially finished work...drying it before he adds more features. Crowd really liked it.



Here it is in color. Notice how dirty his pants are...it was the general state of his crew.



Even he couldn't compete with a nice looking woman entering the arena...lol. Look at the faces in the crowd...no one is watching the painter. Here, he's tearing paper for the randomness of mountains in his painting.



The constabulary have arrived just off of camera right. The guy with his arms crossed and formerly standing in the door was associated with the shop directly behind the painter and was asked by the painter to talk to the festival officials and police. But, to no avail. He's making a moon here with what looked like a small plastic plate or bowl cover that he'd found somewhere. Notice his work by the donations can. Roundness made easy.



The painting is finished...his last for this setup. The comet trails and light coming out of the pyramid were made using a white spray can that he'd popped the nozzle off of and pressed against the poster board...directing the spray where he wanted.



Another view of the finished work. He's talking to the guy that bought commissioned the painting. He not only was quite an artist, but was a pretty good showman too...entertaining the crowd as he worked.



Okay, one more...this one in color so you can see how he was able to take Krylon paint and create what I consider a beautiful surrealist painting. Here he's talking to the man that commissioned the painting. He had sold several by the time that we got there. And, he was not only a pretty good artist, he was also a pretty good showman...entertaining the crowd as he worked. All in all probably one of the standout memories of the day...and very glad that I could capture his performance.



I hope you enjoyed this post. The above photos were taken with my D700 and 24-70mm lens. I feel so fortunate to be a photographer...capturing life and history.

FlyNavy

Nice job Ed!

D_C_NC

I saw the KRYLON art done elsewhere
Damndest thing I ever saw actually.The guy I saw doing it at least had fans sucking the fumes away.
Good documentary...

KerrBear

That's a pretty interesting technique. The artwork when it was all done is neat as well. Thanks for sharing!

Richard

Interesting story and pics, Ed. The fire shot works better in color, I think, even though I don't much care for the colored lettering on the Big Boss Beer sign. But in B&W it just isn't as clearly flames.

Ed911

Richard wrote: »

Interesting story and pics, Ed. The fire shot works better in color, I think, even though I don't much care for the colored lettering on the Big Boss Beer sign. But in B&W it just isn't as clearly flames.

I agree Richard. I know everyone here likes black and whites, and me too. But, after post processing everything in grayscale, I just couldn't wrap my arms around the flame shot, so that's why I posted in color...same for his finished work...it just didn't work as well...you really needed to see the colors in the finished painting to appreciate the technique and his skill.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments.

bdcolen

Hi, Ed - Welcome! (even if even...) Nice series. I would make two comments beyond the obvious, which is that you've done a good job telling the story of the afternoon with this street artist. My first thought is that you should probably lose the black and white - this is a story about a guy who works with COLOR, and that being so, you want to show us the color. The second is that you want to get rid of the repetitive images - for example, the last and second to last are virtually identical - decide which of those you like better and get rid of the other. Similarly, the first and third are very similar (I know, one involves flames and the other doesn't. But look at the positions of the people, their poses, etc., and you'll see what I mean. Perhaps you have some other images that capture these same parts of the story, but do so in different ways?

Ed911

bdcolen wrote: »

Hi, Ed - Welcome! (even if even...) Nice series. I would make two comments beyond the obvious, which is that you've done a good job telling the story of the afternoon with this street artist. My first thought is that you should probably lose the black and white - this is a story about a guy who works with COLOR, and that being so, you want to show us the color. The second is that you want to get rid of the repetitive images - for example, the last and second to last are virtually identical - decide which of those you like better and get rid of the other. Similarly, the first and third are very similar (I know, one involves flames and the other doesn't. But look at the positions of the people, their poses, etc., and you'll see what I mean. Perhaps you have some other images that capture these same parts of the story, but do so in different ways?

Thanks for your insight and comments, BD. I agree with removing the extra shots...at least one of the last two black and white shots. I thought about posting in color, but after converting them to gray scale, I sort of be came enamored with them, and I know everyone here likes black and white...lol. I did realize that gray scale wouldn't do justice to some of the images, hence the color versions. We arrived just before the festival officials, so not too many more images to choose from.