Gaia

Second year producing a mural project for the city of Baltimore. I am often hired as a consultant to deliver a turn key experience for my client. On the front end I help with legal documents, insurance compliance and logistics planning. Afterwards I order lifts and develop a schedule for the participating artists. Finally we receive the machinery, operate, and repair them for the participating artists. In addition I coordinate highly attentive labor to serve the artist’s needs on site and help paint. We fill in where DPW and DOT fall short and often end up cleaning, priming and preparing the surfaces in order to maintain strict timelines. My team can do the work of 20 city workers and there are only a few of us. This translates into 16 hour days regularly for days or weeks with little break in between. I do this essentially at cost in an effort to get my team as much money as possible for their hard work, and I charge a small consulting fee or end up taking a loss ( last years Art After Dark I lost money because of lift rental costs).

Here’s what I don’t do for the city: I am not a curator and I do not select the artists. I arrive after the city has made their decision and I have to work with whomever they choose. That means that I am serving people who may never have painted on this grand of a scale.

Often in this context because I don’t choose the artists and I don’t black ball people contrary to popular belief, I have to work with muralists who have cast aspersions behind my back, smile to my face, and talk down on my hard work. We still have to serve them.

Admittedly painting murals is a foolish and ephemeral endeavor as the moment it is finished inevitably someone will come and deface the work. Envy and jealousy are remarkably motivating forces. To all my haters, I’m sorry I haven’t moved: it must be annoying being from here seeing me paint so effortlessly and constantly putting people on.

Through all of this I am grateful to those who have my back through thick and thin. If anything I pride myself on acquiring contracts to keep my team fed and paid well.

I’ll probably delete this post but I am grateful to my wife, and

My piece entitled “Africa” from 2022 is available as a print to help raise funds for the . The show is organized by and the piece is available to buy as an edition through . Link is in the Bio to make purchasing as easy as possible