Odds and end of 2012

 

 

Not much to report on the painting front, however some quick bits and pieces to stop the skills rusting up, including a 10 minute banger for ACG in Nowra with some young people

 

And some creepy Chemtrails people receiving their crop dusting of mind control as part of a wall completed in the Gong for 'Wonderwalls', good effort from the organisers and writers who turned up, a chance to catch up with some talented peeps and see some quality work in and around the Wollongong CBD.

 

This is a spec art mock up created in record time for Shoalhaven City Council as part of a project to tidy up some amenities blocks and walls in local parkland, with a complex brief also specifying no aerosol it was a long couple of days on the paint brush but overall a nice result. The brief requested that the artwork reflect the community comeing together and a theme of 'everybody belongs', the final design features and aerial view of the park and surrounding neighbourhood and uses the flora and pallette of the site, and was very well received by the locals and the council. Check the actual murals out below. Until next time....

Gone workin'...

For the last 12 months a significant amount of time (OK, every hour not at work) has been occupied by renovating my house, however this year a few more community art activities have been popping up, many as a sideline to my day job as a youth worker on the NSW South Coast. Here are a couple of the latest

 

CareSouth refuge mural based on jigsaw design- to overcome the limitations of a diverse and transient refuge population the mural was broken down into jigsaw pieces- many elements which could be worked on by the participants and then assembled as a whole.

 

Headspace Nowra also opened earlier this year, and CFY Illawarra supplied an artist to work with local young people to create a mural to promote positive mental health. Young people created an awesome design based on the ‘lightbulb moment’ you realise you can seek support and change your life, and the artwork now takes pride of place in the Headspace office.

 

As part of Access Community Groups ‘Connect the Dots’ Youth Week event a CFY Illawarra artist was on hand to produce event signage and an interactive artwork with local young people. This was a popular event in spite of the horrendous weather, and the youth artwork was selected by Shoalhaven Council to be displayed in the council offices.

 

 

 

Nowra Youth Centre has also had a number of youth art programs running, including a series of workshops creating graphics and theming for the ACG/NYC ‘Going Viral’ event as part of Hepatitis C Awareness week. The event was a hit, including a life size interactive game board and prizes all based around safe behaviours and risk situations relating to young people. The way-finding concepts and game stations were developed in consultation with local young people, who then all helped out painting the imagery under supervision of CFY Illawarra artists. The original format and the stylized game graphics was so well received that the Hepatitis Council would like to have a proper board game made to distribute on a wider scale.

 

 

 

Another quick art project in partnership with the Nowra Youth Centre and Headspace Shoalhaven saw this Mental health Month mural painted by local young people mentored by CFY artist, ‘Stress Less’! This mural then formed the backdrop for a group of local young performers to play at the Celebrate Connect and Rock gig the following day.

 

This followed on from a previous school holiday aerosol art activity at the centre run  by local CFY artist promoting the centre.

 

 

 

 

For a laugh some actual fine artworks have been made too, including a Damien Hirst ‘For The Love of God’ parody ‘diamond’ encrusted spray can (Unfortunately not the greatest photo), and a portrait tribute to the ubiquitous Ibis. The Ibis artwork was well received in a small group show in Wollongong at the Gallery 5 Crown Lane, and was even more well received in another show in Darlinghurst where it was stolen off the wall!

...Until next time, stay frosty...

Triumphant return!

Where did he go? He went parenting! My ultimate project/most beautiful creation/the best baby ever rocked up on the 19th November, so CFY has been on an extended break… Well as much of a break as a workaholic writer can go on, in between moving house (Twice), and changing day jobs (Twice!), serious illness in the family, selling/buying houses, renovating and spending every minute I can with my lovely fiancé and awesome daughter , some painting is still getting done, here is a couple of artworks from past months, more to come!

Once again the crew at Tewnty10 enlisted the help of CFY to produce a rolling work of art as a Mardi Gras float. The them e was ‘Kids with Gratitude’ and within these parameters the team worked with GLBT young people to collect pictures of icons and people they look up to and want to acknowledge, turning these into the letters that spell out the name of the float. Jog saws, paste up, aerosol and a shed load of cable ties brought the whole thing to life, and once again the Twenty10 float looked tops!

As part of a mural produced on a large engineering workshop CFY artists got busy on some cult petrol head artwork reproductions, and finally got around to rocking a quiet Rat Fink piece, props to Ed ‘ Big Daddy’ Roth!

And some more quick artworks with the locals down at Maybanke youth centre for Youth Week and the basketball comp.

Another quick artwork on some panels commissioned as part of the new artwork installations on the Wollongong City Gallery- part Chulo letters, part gang signs, part pizza melt, 2 hours of power!

One interesting project that came out of the blue was completing some volunteer work with Canteen. Canteen does some fantastic work and as anyone knows who has their life touched by cancer, it can be incredibly tough times. With a close family member currently battling cancer the opportunity to rock a piece and have some fun painting with a group of young people at Canteen’s Berry Camp was especially significant, and the results of the quick workshop looked great. Massive props to Canteen and all the young people they support, CFY is happy to help anytime!

And finally a quick mural at Green Square School features images and cultural icons from the diverse group of students attending the school, again, a fun artwork for all involved, sure beats maths!

Hopefully some more regular updates coming soon.. famous last words!

Easy Writer...

As the race to the end of the year really starts to pick up pace CFY has continued to turn out more and more great projects.



As part of a launch of Harley Davidson’s new build competition ‘Dark Custom- Judgement Day’ launch, CFY artists created a series of artworks to decorate the depths of Kings Cross for a night of rocking out and rad custom bikes. The job presented some challenges, including aerosol production of computer generated corporate artwork, as well as some over the top way finding graphics for some of the activities on the night. As well as a kick arse large Harley Davidson logo for the entry there was a foray into chalk art to create a 5m long version of the ‘Dark Custom’ graphic on the ground- CFY will give anything a shot and make it look good! The set up looked great, and below you can see some of the artworks produced as well as the digital reference that was supplied, with all items produced in one day- speed and accuracy are the hall marks of the professional!








The week also saw another quick visit to Maybanke youth Centre in Pyrmont to complete the third banner for the Powerhouse Museum series. A fast and fun activity saw a group of local young people create a really cool artwork referencing the iconic red ladders of Pirrama park, as well as local nautical themes and the city skyline.





The Shack Youth Services also rocked a couple of pieces, below is one of the artworks knocked out with a crew of young Maroubra locals to celebrate the 21st birthday of this great little NGO youth service.




Speaking of good youth services working in the community, CFY artists stopped by the Glebe Youth Service Film Night on the weekend and pumped out two lightening fast boards to promote the event, they were a great little activity to generate interest in the lead in to the event and looked really cool.





On the topic of looking really cool, following on from the Surrealist styled mural of last year, the kids at Dulwich High School of Visual Arts and Design worked with a CFY community artist to produce this awesome Howard Arkley inspired artwork. For those who do not know Arkley’s work, see below:




The finished mural was approximately 6m long, 2.4m high and was completed from concept to photos in 4hours- a fast game is a good game! The mural is now on exhibition at Vanishing Point Gallery in Newtown, as you can see in the photo below (It was too big to fit the full mural into the shot) the work stole the show.

Where have we been? We've been working...

Again it has been an action packed month at CFY Illawarra, with the schedule showing no signs of slowing down....


After the chaos of moving last month, which included a stint camping in my own home for a month (long story) on a an airbed I had to create a pump for using just packing tape and a vacuum cleaner (Even longer story) we are in new digs. see moving hell pic below... And best of all, at the new place we now have a studio! Look foward to more complex works now we somewhere to assemble and prep, no more bodgy working on the balcony!






A last minute SOS from another painting outfit resulted in a quick search and rescue mission for a mural project in a private home, even with reference available, free style cherubs, Sydney Skylines and ‘Day of the Dead’ characters will stretch your limits, and all pumped out under a super tight schedule…




The Shack Youth Services have also run a series of small street art sessions, with many young people in the South Eastern suburbs of Sydney getting to try their hand at painting with help from CFY Illawarra artists. The result has been awesome fun and a instant gallery of works now decorating their centre, random words, quick compositions and great fun to paint!





Speaking of The Shack, I was asked recently by a client whether or not CFY does logos and graphic design- the answer is yes! Two quick examples are The Shack Youth Services 'house' logo from a couple of years back, as well as the 'Lookup' logo for Sydney hip hop heads Lookup.




Maybanke Youth Centre in Pyrmont also recently ran a fast and fun painting session for a group of local young people, resulting in a selection of cool banner artworks, including a rad yin-yang fish design and basketball artwork. We'll be heading back there in a couple of weeks, keep an eye out for more new aerosol works both at the centre and also at the Powerhouse Museum.




On the topic of the Powerhouse Museum, as part of NAIDOC Week 2010, CFY supplied a mentor artist to help a group of young people in Redfern to paint a series of banners celebrating the achievements of local community members. The banners were then put on display at the museum. Unfortunately these are not the greatest shots but the banners themselves look fantastic and the young people involved learnt all about stencilling and aerosol art as well as taking part in this great annual event.




A longer series of sessions last term resulted in a great ‘fishpond’ themed mural with students of a visual arts secondary school. The brief was to use the space to produce and artwork which had a layered and engaging design to brighten up a desolate piece of local parkland. The students compiled the basic images and stencils and then with the help of a CFY Illawarra lead artist produced this mural over the course of a couple of afternoons, with owners and locals stoked with the result.





The Church of Nazarene in Enmore recently received a grant to run a youth art project in the school holidays to decorate a worn out piece of wall behind their centre. MYRC in Marrickville organised a group of young people to take part and also sent their resident graff guru Tom along to help out and in about 3 hours flat this cool little piece based on a 'peace' theme, stained glass and a 'pece sign' tree was produced. From pencil sketch to larger than life in a couple of hours- Fast game is a good game!




The Youth Action and Policy Association Youth Conference also featured an interactive street art session this year run by CFY Illawarra, and allowed young people to rock a quick piece on the hotel rooftop and then participate in a great little forum on young people, graffiti and the law. A big shout out to the conference organisers and fellow panel members, their work to challenge the anti-graffiti, anti –public art, anti-young people stance of many government departments is very good to see. Check out the following pics and the drop sheet set up on site- not a speck of paint on the hotel!