CRP Desertland visits CRP Oakland... pt. 1

Building on the works in New Mexico, CRP Desertland and A Toda Madre sent a team of artists, including Mike 360, Faustino Villa, Release, and Kate, along with 2 dogs, to Oakland to continue to build the connection between the two programs. The group began with improvement to the pieces in the Funktown Arts District. They began with painting over an unfinished mural on Al's Autoshop. The original mural, by Mario Torero and David Kim, was never fully completed and had sat there since the summer. The new mural worked with the huge window in the middle of the wall and turned it into Stunna Shades. On the right we reproduced an image from an early George Clinton album and on the right, Release painted a sacred wheel that spins when you look at for too long...

New Piece by Gen (Arrow-Soul Council)

This is not my first piece I have done and surely not my best or the last I will ever do. But this experience those introduce me into these Montana Paints that are crazy good, best can ever to use to create a piece. I love the way it flows with what you do and it is stable enough so that you can be able to control the movement. This piece also rocks out my name and more practice for me and a way to improve my bars. The hard part is the way to do a filling that doesn't look sloppy or whack! And the outline was also hard to do but it's all about practice. Everything about it is fun but the most part is the way to put the colors together and make it look beast! I didn't choose the colors but I made the best of them.

Salma's first Piece

My experience with this piece was that it was hard. It was my first time doin a piece by myself. I chose the colors because i think they look good together. I wrote "twix" because i love that. The weather was so cold and there was a lot of wind. The photographer, Kathy, helped me on some parts too. I think that the piece is heka whack because I didn't feel it at the end. Probably if I had more time, I would do it better. Now that I see what I did, it motivates me to do better, to go outside the box.



Photos by Kathy (Arrow-Soul)

Concrete Jungle - Santa Fe NM - The Last Mural of 2010

The final stop on Mike 360 and Desi W.O.M.E whirlwind week-long mural tour was the Concrete Jungle in Santa Fe. Desi's last mural, Warriors Of Mother Earth, had recently been destroyed when the wall was been upgraded, so it was important to create a new prayer.

Mike and Desi experimented with drips, even painting with snow, to create the background. Then they created two pieces, say Mikitzli, the day of the mural on the Mexica sunstone, and Tochtli, the year on the sunstone, in the shape of the Ollin, a Mexica symbol representing movement.

Evolve Thrift Store, Albuquerque NM

While hosting Desi in Albuquerque, Mike introduce him to Dionisio Tafoya, who had relocated from Los Angeles as a set designer for major hollywood projects to open a shop in the south valley of Albuquerque. The three men collaborated on a new mural on the building housing his shop. At the request of P.H.A.S.E 2, elder practitioner and pioneer of the aerosol culture, the mural included a portrait of Richard Lee Cisco, the Cisco Kid, a hip-hop legend featured in the movie Beat Street, who recently past away. P.H.A.S.E 2 also contributed an outline to the mural.

The mural also depicts legendary New? Mexico potter, Maria Martinez, a youth mariachi, and the newborn son of Ahki, a local emcee who recently passed away, in front of a stormy vortex.

More Photos of the final mural coming soon!

Desi W.O.M.E and Mike 360 at Las Plazitas Institute, Albuquerque NM

Desi W.O.M.E returned to New Mexico in December and reunited with his painting partner, Mike 360,a master muralist and spray paint innovator. Their first stop was Las Plazitas Institute, an important community center in the south valley of Albuquerque. Mike and Desi contributed new works to an evolving mural representing "La Cultura Cura" or the culture cures. The mural depicts breaking through the mental and physical traps set up in our society through the connection to culture and ancestry.

Movimiento Salvadoreno Mural on Lupita's Pupuseria

In the summer of 2010, a group of students from a youth organization travelled to El Salvador as part of a program called Movimiento Salvadoreno. Upon their return, the group decided to paint a mural to reflect their experiences and the history that they learned about this beautiful country. CRP founder, Desi W.O.M.E, sat down with the group to facilitate the mural design. The mural was painted on Lupita's Pupuseria, located at 34th and Foothill.

Lupita's is an incredible restaurant and tamale truck run by Salvadorean members of the community who love to make traditional food from their homeland. Lupita herself became featured on the wall making a pupusa. Lupita was like a loving auntie to the artists, and feed the group the entire time that we were working there.

CRP was also visited by sacred geometry artist, Release, from New Mexico, who painted several young children playing throughout the mural. Desi took over the back wall of the restaurant and created a 40-ft masterpiece which he used to train several local youth in the basic of spray painting.

Another mural on the 34th side of the building is coming in 2011, so stay tuned!

Great story on last Monday's community mural with clients at St. Vincent de Paul:

"Volunteers from Community Rejuvenation Project, a mural and beautification program based in Oakland, first painted a blue background color onto the 8-foot high by 20-foot wide piece of waterproofed wood, then divided the panel up by lightly painting on a grid of small individual blocks. Each block is assigned a different color and then anyone can paint whatever design or image they like onto the blocks. When done, the final painting will have the effect of a multi-hued quilted pattern."

By Dara Kerr, Oakland Local, February 2, 2011

Read the full article here.