|
|
|
|
|
|
879 Main Street
This delightful rendering for California Fruit Market was rendered in 2002 as a Graffiti Art Programming project. The artists were Nathaniel Bunn, Chad Reeves, and Dave Bezilla. The building was sold and completely renovated, and the Mural was sandblasted off in early October of 2010.
Original notes follow:
Dave Bezilla: “It was a big job! For Chad and Nathaniel, this was their first big job after they had graduated from the training program at Graffiti Gallery. Although I was their instructor, I wanted them to carry the ball on this, so we treated each other like equal partners. We sat down with a four by eight piece sheet of plywood and we had a vote as to which images would be chosen to go onto the wall. We had two or three different versions of the grocer walking with the tomatoes; we had two or three different backgrounds of buildings and stuff. After picking the ones we wanted, the next as was putting everything together into the scene. The brown or sepia section of the background is based on something we found at Manitoba Archives, as are the streetcars which Nathaniel and Chad also chose.”
“We did a computer digitized mockup of the wall, and then the maquette on a 4 by 8 board. The final rendering on the wall did take all summer to do, but it looks exactly like the initial design and the maquette! The colours, the shading, perspective, everything!”
Steve Wilson (Graffiti Art Programming): “This project is a perfect example of training young people from the neighbourhood and then putting them back in the neighbourhood. Nathaniel Bunn used to get chased out of this store. We get them here (at Graffiti Gallery) and show them a few skills and then put them back into the community to paint a Mural. Danny (the proprietor) did not know Nathaniel was one of the artists on this wall until he actually saw him outside. Then they had a chance to talk, and Nathaniel told Danny about some of the positive choices that he had made in his life, and Danny really gave him a second chance.”
This Mural was featured by CTV nationally on a W5 piece on Nathaniel Bunn’s life and story and how Nathaniel’s decision to get involved with the Graffiti Gallery has helped to turn his life around.
|
|
|
