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!

And some more stuff...

Once again it has been a busy month for the CFY machine, with a series of great projects underway or completed, and a stack more booked for coming months. Below are a couple of works, with many more underway and some which still pics, more on the way!


Drug Action Week 2010 saw CFY artists on hand to make a artwork at the Hurstville mall Drug Action Week event. The theme for this year is Look After Your Mind, and the 'brain' design below entertained numerous young people who had a fun and social afternoon decorating it.


CFY Illawarra teamed up with a group of school students to produce this set of back drops for the Dulwich High School of Visual Art and Design production of The Sound Of Music, painting to a series of rough concepts designed by students and staff at the school. In spite of horrendous weather, design changes and the sheer magnitude of the Alps back drop (The pic does not do it justice, it is about 5.5m high!) all the sets were completed on time and worked perfectly during the performance.



CFY Illawarra artists were also privileged to have the use of the Street University complex at Liverpool as a venue to run a beginners aerosol art workshop for the Salvation Army. Besides helping out with space to operate at the last minute (Cheers Naomi and Matt!) it was a top opportunity to check out the space and the young people I brought along thought it was awesome. It features legal graff walls, MC and DJ production and rehearsal space, basketball and soccer court, breaking area, youth café, the list goes on and on. The Street Uni has hit on something special here, check out the space and support it if you can. I have a couple of quick phone pics below for anybody who still hasn’t seen the spot, it is really something else, and the most innovative multipurpose youth space I have seen to date, nice one!




Punchbowl Boys High has featured me as a guest mentor artists for a number of young people using aerosol and street art referenced designs for their HSC works, the guys had some great concepts which I assisted them in producing, progress shots of two interesting pieces are featured below. The series of canvases are a pop art/stencil interpratation of a series of iconic pop identities, and the table is a representation of nations at the negotiating table, and different nations all yelling over the top of one another, and they are coming up pretty good.



Verona School in Fairfield has also recently completed a new artwork in its grounds. CFY Illawarra artists facilitated students using their favourite aspects of school and elements of the logo to come up with the design, which was then painted by the group under artist supervision. Pretty cool and painted in about 3 hours flat!

CFY Illawarra is currently flat out on a series of projects across Sydney, some highlights include a number of NAIDOC week projects, more school murals, some street art outreach and more- stay tuned!

More, More, More!

CFY has been continuing on a roll, with the jobs lining up and the high turnover of projects we are now training up extra artists to facilitate work, and we look forward to the year getting even busier. The past month has seen a variety of great projects for a diverse number of clients, including some return visits and also some aerosol art activism.



Kicking off the month, May 2nd saw the launch of ‘Keep Australia Colourful’, a collective of dedicated street artists, academics, community workers and aerosol aficionados who want to promote some of the mad art that is being produced across the city in the face of initiatives such as the ‘Keep Australia Beautiful Graffiti Action Day’. Some of the CFY artists were involved, and one mural produced on the day featured in the Sydney Morning Herald (Overshadowing the efforts of the cleanup!), check out the following link, talk about some stylish thwarting! To keep up to date on future KAC projects (and there are some really interesting ones in the pipeline) check out www.keepaustraliacoulrful.org or look them up on Facebook.




The recent school holidays saw another successful workshop at Punchbowl Boys High to mural over a series of dingy walls in the playground. CFY provided the artistic support to a number of young people who volunteered their school holiday time to rock the series of nature themed murals shown below also featuring a slogan for the young gamblers in the place. The young people did a fantastic job, the entire space was completed (including a panel featuring the school log which is not shown) in approximately 4 hours, which has to be some kind of record. The young people involved didn’t stop there, managing to also rescue a bird trapped in a metal section of wall, it was a top day of fast painting, fun and good people.





In between painting jobs there is occasionally time to relax and paint, and in a rare moment of downtime CFY artists were invited to rock a wall with a young ex-workshop participant who had scored a wall and needed some extra aerosol firepower. The CFY crew were happy to get some wall space to do their thing, and after consulting with the owner who requested a flower theme and even sponsored some paint, the lads got to work. Shown below are some details of the wall, which featured bold typographic pieces intertwined with a trompe l’oeil continuing the ivy and plants across the background. The owner of the wall was stoked and we were stoked the young bloke who lined the wall up was happy with the result and the neighbourhood all came out with nothing but positive things to say.






But the down time never lasts long, and the following day it was game on with a series of art workshops at Dulwich High School Of Visual Arts and Design. The school has had CFY artists involved with a variety of projects and workshops for over 5 years, and this latest round saw CFY provide a mentor artist to help young people produce a series of artworks based on tribalism as it relates to art movements and their subcultures as young people. The students designed and then cut out of plywood a series of tribal artefacts and these were then assembled and painted. A team effort totem pole based design gave the group an opportunity to learn new skills and watch a professional aerosol artist in action, and to complete the day a signage based piece to promote the annual event and exhibition were even painted. Once again, CFY Illawarra produced a comprehensive arts programme which engaged a variety of clients and resulted in a range of great finished products.







Some time back CFY artist helped out with a series of pieces in Glebe, and when a local set of Glebe hip hop heads scored a gig at Megaphon Studios as part of ‘The Nest’ live music sessions they contacted CFY to supply a set of back drop boards to decorate the show. Painted in about an hour under extreme rain conditions on the studio rooftop the boards came up a treat and provided a cool backdrop to the performance. CFY specialises in painting fast under any conditions, and the company prides itself on the skills and professionalism involved in getting these jobs turned around in minimal time.