Daniel Weintraub – Vandalog – A Street Art Blog

July 26, 2013July 28, 2013

Wall\Therapy firsthand – Part 4

This is part 4 in Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub‘s series of posts from Rochester’s Wall\Therapy mural festival. You can read part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here.

With just a few days in town left, I decided to make my Thursday a whirlwind tour through Rochester, and now that I am sitting here thinking about it, I have a feeling that Friday will be much of the same.

I started off my day almost exactly like I did on Wednesday, by checking out the progress on the Daleast mural. I was impressed by the progress that I saw but Dal still had a big section of the wall that he needed to bang out. I was told Thursday evening that the wall is complete and that I had to go see the mural in the morning.

My travels then brought me all around town, specifically the South Wedge section of Rochester. The South Wedge is where cashril plus, Gaia, Conor Harrington, Freddy Sam, Thievin’ Stephen, Cern, Mike Ming, and Adam Francy all have murals. It was really cool to see cashril plus’ mural being that the dude is still in his mid teens! Look out for this guy as he progresses though life. He has the right genes being that he is Faith47’s son.

After a quick lunch it was back into the abandoned subway tunnel to try to catch Roa finishing his North American Skunk. While I was unsuccessful in this venture, I was able to catch some graffiti legends rocking a sick piece. Daze, Binho, and Pose2 rocked a sick wall towards of the end of the natural light in the tunnel; the burner, if you will, is a sick blend of old school letters and characters, my favorite!

Wise2 from Kenya then came down and rocked a throwie as I called it. His combination of stencils and freehand spray painting brought his African mask to life in under an hour!

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Another highlight was getting to see local FUA Krew member Cruk rock a sick burner. I am much better versed in the “Street Art” game so whenever I can get a writer to teach me more about graffiti and train painting culture I am always excited. Cruk spent about a day on his burner, which includes found object that are sprayed and then used as part of the installation. While he may not be an official part of the Wall\Therapy team it is easy to see that the locals are pretty down with the cause.

After a quick run to check out the finished Freddy Sam mural, it was off the see LNY as he continued on his wall. Lunar New Year was in the zone when I showed up and I didn’t want to distract the man.

Martha Cooper then me if I’d been to Ever’s wall, and it was at this point which I realized that I had not seen it yet! My timing could not have been better. He had about 30 minutes of work left and I was able to spend that time on the lift with him as he finished a few details on the wall.

The mural is beautiful and kind of trippy, and if you know anything about me you would know that I dig on that combination. The wall itself is very wide and for someone with only an iPhone and an almost nice camera it was fairly difficult to shoot. Hope you like my picstitch!

After visiting Ever’s wall it was off for another night of dinner, drinking, and dancing. This time it included a late night bonfire with local artists, score!

Thievin' Stephen in progress — Thievin’ Stephen in progress

Photos by Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub

July 25, 2013

Wall\Therapy firsthand – Part 3

This is part 3 in Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub‘s series of posts from Rochester’s Wall\Therapy mural festival. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

I woke up on Day 3 feeling good, I had just been published in my two favorite blogs, I got a good night’s sleep, and I was preparing for a day of driving around the city of Rochester!

My first stop was to check on the progress of the Dal wall. Daleast had certainly progressed but he still had much work to do. I hung for a little but figured I would come back when he is done so I can get some good shots for the people.

My next spot was the Rochester Public Market, which serves as the headquarters for Wall\Therapy. Here I was able to capture some really sweet Instagram videos of Dal and Faith’s walls from past Wall\Therapies. Both of their old walls are easily 100 feet long and could only be captured by stop motion video.

From there it was on to the abandoned subway tunnel in downtown Rochester, which of course is within walking distance of my hotel! I had already figured out that Rochester is a pretty special place, but if there is one significantly more amazing spot in town it has to be the abandoned subway tunnel. The first thing I noticed when entering the space was that getting in was easy as all hell. You often hear about cool spots that require a bit of ninja skills or at least some huevos to get in to, however, this entrance was a downward sloping inclined plane, my favorite!

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The first Wall\Therapy piece I noticed was from the artist Freedom, a large piece of Bazooka bubble gum. The entire area is covered in burners, tags, rollers, and pieces, but the cartoonish yet realistic approach to the fake advertisement of gum really made the piece stand out. After entering the tunnel you are greeted by graffiti as far as the eyes can see, it is truly an amazing sight.

The reason I was traveling into the tunnel was because I was told that Roa was in there doing a semi-legal piece, turns out I was a bit wrong, he was indeed there but he had permission to paint in the tunnel. The rest of my afternoon consisted of watching Roa paint his North American Squirrel as well as seeing him execute the highest roller piece I have ever seen. The piece is not done yet, Roa plans on adding some “funk” coming out of the skunk’s rear end today, should be pretty sweet. Also, thanks for the signed can dude!

After the sun went down it was off to the Yard’s building for another artists’ dinner. Again everything was great! Dancing on the fire escape with LNY, Roa, Labrona, and Martha Cooper may be a memory I’ll never forget.

Before bed I took one last ride over to Chris Stain’s wall, which since last night had been painted and painted over by the artist. Chris said he got half way through the first mural, posted yesterday, and realized he didn’t like it. I think I have to agree with Chris and say that I prefer the new wall as well. Here is a shot of it in progress, a final shot should be easy to get since @LeeHalfPenny had to leave in the morning. More from the Roc tomorrow!

Photos by Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub

July 24, 2013July 25, 2013

Wall Therapy firsthand – Part 2

This is part 2 in Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub‘s series of posts from Rochester’s Wall\Therapy mural festival. You can read part 1 here.

I was told yesterday by local superhero @MagnusApollo that the government of Rochester truly believes that its community really loves driving everywhere. While the locals might protest to this idea and insist they would prefer a more congruent and efficient system of transportation, I just ignore everyone and walk. I began yesterday by not heeding my own advice, and taking a “quick jaunt” over to Faith47’s amazing new mural in downtown Rochester.

Faith47 for Wall\Therapy 2012 — Faith47 for Wall\Therapy 2011

Faith47 is a person whom I look up to both artistically and personally. I consider her and her husband DALeast to be close friends and anytime I can get some quality time with their respective brains I dive right in. Faith’s wall came together almost in the blink of an eye, and it is stunning. The wall itself and the bridge above are some of the most beautifully aged textures I have ever seen, and somehow Faith made them even more amazing. Her mural, “sic semper erat, et sic semper erit” or “Thus has it always been, and thus shall it ever be” is a beautiful mural left for the people of Rochester, and based on the number of dramatic 90 degree head turns I saw yesterday I think they like it already.

DALeast for Wall\Therapy 2012 — DALeast for Wall\Therapy 2011

My next move was to go see Faith’s other half DALeast get started on his mural (final shots coming soon). I took the advice of a local who said, “sure you can walk there, it’s pretty close!” It was not pretty close, but hey I can always stand to lose a little off the hammy thighs. When I arrived at Dal’s wall he was just about to start his outline, which was an amazing thing for me to watch. In all the times I have got to hang with Dal I never have gotten to see him paint. I was interested in the process that eventually leads to his amazing 3-D design. Much like a lot of painters, Dal starts with basic lines to get his spacing and placement right. Simplistic, well thought out, and an almost ninja like efficiency define the start of Dal’s murals. Again my presence was not helping the progress of Mr. East’s wall so after getting some much needed life advice and votes of confidence from the man I decided to press on.

The rest of my day consisted of me being passed around the Wall\Therapy crew like the proverbial doobie. Making friends is one of my specialties and I have met some really great souls already in my two days here. The staffing for this great festival has been super on point, extremely welcoming, and more organized then I could have imagined! Highlights from the afternoon and evening include checking out the progress of Gaia’ mural (pictures coming soon), seeing Adam Francy’s wall, meeting Mr. Prvrt and seeing his two animal murals, getting some stickers tagged for my 228 collections, and of course the soon to be infamous #LiftFlood #LiftProblems surrounding Chris Stain’s mural. Just a piece of advice, if you think you flooded your lift’s engine, make sure you actually have the gas turned on, it really helps starting the engine.

Photos by Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub

July 23, 2013

Wall Therapy firsthand – Part 1

It seems like all of my friends are up in Rochester at the moment for Wall\Therapy, the mural festival organized by the fantastic Dr. Ian Wilson. I was hoping to go up myself, but instead Caroline and I will be going to Living Walls in Atlanta next month. Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub is at Wall\Therapy, and he’s been kind enough to share some photos and thoughts with us. For more up the the minute updates, you can keep an eye on Daniel’s instagram. – RJ Rushmore

I arrived in Rochester Monday afternoon and it did not take too long for me to find murals from last year’s Wall\Therapy by renowned artists Roa, Herakut, and Faith47. I checked in as quickly as possible and decided to hit the streets. I popped in the homies LNY and Cern’s coordinates and realized that it was going to a lot easier for me to walk to Cern’s wall, and being a man of constant efficiency I decided that was to be my first stop of the week.

Cern, aka Cernesto, aka CernYMI, aka CernTWD, was just getting started on his mural and my presence did not help the early progress. With some artists I just like to sit and watch but when Cern is painting the undiagnosed ADD just comes out in both of us. We chilled for a bit but I figured I needed to let the man get to work so I hitched a ride from a nice volunteer over the LNY’s mural across town.

It was at this point when I realized I have a car, and I should be driving my own self around! It is just my instincts to put my car away and forget it when I get to an urban environment; just a heads up, there seems to be ample parking in the ROC as they like to call it here.

LNY, or Lunar New Year, was stationed in a very residential urban community, and his mural reflects that. In the early stages of his mural you can see Corinthian columns “holding up” the windows of the house, along with images of Trayvon Martin, and Frederick Douglass. LNY has a knack for connecting and communicating with his surroundings, with this mural being no exception. I am very excited to see the progress of this wall, especially since the community has shown such an embrace for the work in the short time it has been up. I can’t tell you the number of honks, thumbs up, and shouts I heard yesterday in the hour and a half that I was there. Community improvement though art is what Wall\Therapy is all about and it is really nice to see it in action.

Following LNY’s completion for the night we hitched a ride to dinner where the entire team of “Wall Therapists” convened for a night of food, drinks, and dancing. The project is off to a great start! Hats off to Ian and his team, you’ve already succeeded in my book!

Ricky Lee Gordon aka Freddy Sam in progress

Photos by Daniel “Halopigg” Weintraub