Graff. Part #01: The Prep




































Pictures of the graff work on canvas, done by drew. Just in case you're wondering, the background is done by artist graffiti spray, the white is acrylic paint - drawn freehand, and the black outline is drawn with paint markers. Done just within a few days before he went back to Malaysia for good. he did this piece of graff for my urbanlife outreach event (Urban1000) for free. We just provided the canvas, 2 cans of spray and a few spray can heads. If you're wondering, the words (yes, those are words.. haha!) on the left says 'Apeks', that's drew's graff tag and the one on the right says 'urbanlife'! :D yayy! and nope, those are not devils.. haha! it's his concept character of a cricket that evolved through the years.

This picture below was taken a few moment after we stepped out of the art shop. He started spraying while explaining how he's going to design the piece of graff work! Amazing, I tell you: that guy doesn't even need time to think about how it should look like first.


drew at work

But more importantly, he introduced a few of the graffiti artists in Melbourne as we were talking to him that day. So, he took us around Melbourne, gave us a quick crash course on graffiti and its history in Melbourne. Introduced the names of graff artists like Teror, Aeon, Reka, Monkey, Sutra and Phibs to us (if you're going "huh?" - that's ok, that's how I felt at first too) Met with Teror at the Melbourne Artist Supply shop and was talking about the graffiti exhibition/competition that we're going to organise. He was actually a really nice guy to talk to, not too Teror-fying at all. haha :P

A few days laters, drew went back to Malaysia and I was thinking to myself, this is gonna be hard. 'cause our main point of contact is now gone. But, God proved me wrong :) which is always a good thing! when He is saying He's got a better plan up His sleeve. Thank You, Dad!

So, I went to meet the cafe owner to ask him whether it'll be alright for us to have a graffiti event next to his cafe ('cause the laneway was right next to it, and it had drew and phib's graff work on it). He was really nice about the whole idea and was telling me to go ahead, that he's got no problems with it. Now that is mind-blowing already, considering drew was telling me that he can get quite cranky at times. However, now the venue is going to be at Inck Cafe, which is heaps better! :) 'cause we couldn't get the permit from the City Council in time.

But more than that, as I was flipping through The Age magazine while I was at Stax Cafe, they had a 4 page article featuring the Melbourne street art scene! :D wow! In there, it mentioned the names of the famous graff artists like Aeon, Phibs and even Andy Mac (the guy who 'manages' these graff artists). I was thinking to myself, wow! I didn't know these guys are so big-time! and I have their numbers! which is just awesome, 'cause they're exactly who I'm looking for.


magazine article on Melbourne street art

After that, I decided to say hi to Teror, just to build a good raport with him (now that drew is gone) Went there, chatted about the event a bit, then he invited me to this event called No Comply 2. In that event, there is absolutely every graff artist that I has in mind to invite. Now, I'm thinking "God! You're blowing my mind!" This is exactly the thing I need! Here are some pictures that I took on Friday, 12th August as we went to Revolver, Chapel St for that event. The pictures are a bit fuzzy, 'cause I took them using the phone camera.


RekaOne


Rone and Yok


Close up of Phibs' skateboard design

There, we met up with Teror, which was very helpful and friendly in talking about the works of the graff artists there and also introduced people like Aeon and Reka to us. We managed to get the contact of these people and was telling them about the event we're going to do. I managed to get Phibs' number too! :) which was great, 'cause he doesn't usually give his number to people he doesn't know. I reckoned it was a frutiful trip down there, 'cause we built some good contact with these people and they were very positive about the fact that this graff exhibition is organised by a Christian body.

On Saturday night church, we did a huge promo in church for the graffiti exhibition/competition event. I was talking to Jeremy, one of my fellow interns whom I knew better. He was asking about the event when he told me that he's a good friend of Phibs, Aeon, Reka, Monkey and other guys that I didn't know. I was utterly amazed. He was giving me the number of this woman who manages a group of Christian graff artists in Melbourne, called ChristCan. And he was saying how they will be very keen on coming to something like this. So, I said "yeah, that is perfect!".

Then came Sunday, Sharene wanted to get in contact with Phibs so she did and she called me last morning saying he agreed to come for the event, as the special guest artist and was in fact, very keen! He even suggested that we should meet up during the week do discuss the work and he was also very interested in showing us his work! :) wowww!

God is absolutely blowing my mind and also the mind of the team as we're organising this graffiti event. All of a sudden, we're spoilt for choices on who to invite to come as our special guest graff artists! But, that's always a good problem to have. Come 20th August, Inck Cafe will be packed with people, with large boards pasted to the wall and there'll be a few huge canvases and spray cans for the invited guests, one of which is Phibs :) But the highlight of the event will be the winner of the competition, where the group will win a piece of canvas work by Phibs where its street value is worth well over $500. But of course, more importantly, we're painting a picture of what church is and how the church is also 'speaking the language of this generation'. Where it will be one of the events that will break the mould and perception of church and Christians, that the world has.

In the words of Mal Fletcher: Make God Famous.