Look, Ma–I’m painting on city structures and no one’s stopping me!
Don’t worry–it’s all for a good cause! Last week, I had the honor of joining hundreds of travel and tourism professionals for Tourism Cares for Detroit. This revitalization effort, organized by Tourism Cares, featured Detroit as one of four cities in 2017 to receive some special TLC. From urban farming and gardening to youth enrichment and artistic projects, seven teams came together to help clean, beautify, and contribute to the overall well-being of Detroit.
Our group was given the task of working with renowned urban artist, Fel3000ft, to complete a graffiti mural in Detroit’s Lincoln Street Art Park. With over three decades of experience in graffiti writing, Fel welcomed us with a tour of the park (we’d be working under a train overpass) and some tidbits on the park’s history (the park provides a creative outlet for inner-city kids to legally express their art). Also notable was our walk up “Fisher Canyon,” a former produce loading dock that runs parallel to the train tracks and looks straight toward Detroit’s famous Fisher Building.
Above: “Fisher Canyon”
The mural we’d be working on that day was a tribute to two of Fel’s friends (and legends in the urban art community) both of whom had passed away a week earlier. Already in progress, the mural featured a young boy camping in the woods, caught in the middle of reality and his dreams. Everything that took on a “pixelated” look was either a figment of the boy’s imagination or presented itself to be scarier to the boy than might be perceived by outside observers.
After a quick painting tutorial, Fel turned us loose to fill the wall’s unfinished portions with cubism-inspired blocks of color. While we had our share of drips and oversprays, the project came along quite nicely and turned into something I’m excited to say I was a part of.
Above: Our very professional warm-up “writing”
To learn more about the organization and all that was accomplished during this year’s event, click here or watch the video below.
