Wall\Therapy firsthand – Part 4

Adam Francey in progress
Adam Francey in progress

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.

Gaia in progress
Gaia in progress

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!

Pose2
Pose2 in progress
Pose2 and Binho
Pose2 and Binho
Pose2, Binho and Daze
Pose2, Binho and Daze

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.

Crook
Cruk

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.

LNY in progress
LNY in progress
LNY in progress
LNY in progress

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.

Ever in progress
Ever in progress

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

WALL\THERAPY 2012 – Rochester’s mural festival

Thievin’ Stephen

WALL\THERAPY is a mural event in Rochester, NY being put together by, Dr. Ian Wilson and The Synthesis Collaborative, the same people who organized last year’s Visual Intervention. This year, artists from Rochester and around the world will be painting as part of WALL\THERAPY: Faith47, DALeast, Ben Eine, Liqen, Case, ROA, Cern, St. Monci, Mr. Prvrt, Thievin’ Stephen, How & Nosm and Siloette.

The murals will be painted July 20th-27th, so that might be a fun time to visit Rochester.

For more information about WALL\THERAPY and events surrounding the festival, check their facebook event page.

Photo by Rich Paprocki