Hello, this is a funny entry and it is directly connected to my last post here the one of the Motorcycle called HECATE. Showing how everything we do has something todo with everything else.
This started right after the gas tank was finished and in its way to be given by a raffle. My friend Henning, called me he wanted to know if I could come with him to what is called in Norway Youth house or youth center. its places they have with activities for young peeps from 10 to 17 basically. places to do stuff and keep them from wondering around into bad habits and shit. this places have a shitload of stuff to do, form games and social interactions to music, arts, dancing and more stuff. They are a lot of fun and always full of young people wanting to do and learn new stuff. In this case the one we were visiting is one made by and for mechanics, so a car guy opened it to teach youngsters to fix cars and learn from the basics. its an awesome place full of life curiosity and fun.
We drove together to the site, Henning got a nice bike for them to customize, he planned it as a challenge for the kids there, and brought the casting I painted to show them. It was an awesome afternoon. one of the guys included in the project runs another youth place called Ungflimmer, this is a huge building with actual audio studios, recording equipment and a lot of workshops for kids to learn and develop different skills. Well he contacted me and asked me to develop a workshop for them over 8 days 2 hours per day. in Streetart. you need to know that at his point this was my first paid work ever in Norway. I have sold paintings but never being hired for anything.
A little background, I have been involved in Streetart since the 90s but not really active from about 20 years. I use to graffiti back in Mexico City for some time and left some tags and bombs around after that. But this project was the one who threw me back to it after all this time. I always followed the Graffiti scene and with the internet enjoyed a lot of it. But I didn't hold a can for at least 10 years before this Workshop.
Well after the call and request of the Workshop I got really exited I made a full pdf with pictures and sales pitch. designed the poster for the place and presented it. They loved it.
I went and gathered my materials, made a presentation in the computer and everything starting form the very beginning, ancient civilizations and the story of graffiti, modern graffiti from the 70s and so on and so on... the kids were falling fast asleep, I didn't considered the age of my audience at all. it was a nightmare so I skipped all over the show fast till we got to the 90s the Rap scene, hiphop, west coast... So I needed to change my strategy to a more active workshop so we started doing excesses on how to draw things and how to design letters. note that my writing graffiti capabilities stay in the page. I'm so bad writing in the wall, that I actually do it very seldom. I should practice but I prefer to make wrestlers.
It worked they designed their letters and some of them got the concepts but specially one, his name is Robin he is a 17 year old kid with fuckloads of talent he is a freking natural. the days passed and they all keep coming and having fun making their sketches in some notebooks I got them and they enjoyed it a lot.
The last day we went out with some spray cans and they went crazy in the wall behind Ungflimmer. they sprayed and sprayed and sprayed, nothing in particular just the joy of spraying... trust me it exist. this day I got support form one of our local Graffiti celebs TRI21, I told him I knew about graffiti but I have been away for long time so he agreed to show up and help me with that and he did, he showed the ropes to this kids explained them everything they asked and had a lot of fun. With him came the MADMAN a fucking weird photographer with a good attitude and a fucking amazing sense of humor. this guy is the one who use to Run STREETART BERGEN. an amazing project he started just for his love of Streetart. he has taken more than 44,000 pictures of Streetart just in the Bergen area.
Well in the end of the workshop we were supposed to make a graffiti piece all together but one day before they told me there was no way to spray paint inside because of safety regulations and security and stuff so we got acrylics, and everything winded down pretty fast, the only kid who show to make the piece was robin. and he killed it.
it was a fun project it shows me a lot of stuff and it opened my world to this underground scene that I enjoy so much. all in all it was an amazing project we had a fuckload of fun.
cheers.
Mr. Adolfito
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