"We work with kids
painting murals. We also teach kids drawing, painting and computers (so far).
We work with kids in tough neighborhoods (at least they are tough in my eyes,
even though the kids would argue differently). We have full time jobs and work
in the city Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday (about 30 hours a week). Our goal is
full time.
"In October 1994 I read in the
Philadelphia Inquirer about a store in Philadelphia that had been
"tagged" two to three times a week for as long as the manager had
been at the market. Ogontz Ave. is a particularly hard hit area of
Philadelphia. Jeff, the manager of the market, wanted the Anti-Graffiti-Network
(a wonderfully over publicized and under funded government organization) to
come to paint a mural on his wall. With 100 to 200 thousand walls needing
help... lets say Won's Market was a low priority. I called the market, said I
was an artist who had done inside murals and volunteered to paint a mural. Jeff
said, "the wall's yours whenever you want to start". I thought it
would take about a month and I'd get some good experience and get out. I'm a
spoiled brat suburban artist working in an MIS department (to get money to pay
for two kids in college). I went into Philadelphia unprepared for what was
going to transpire. To say the least my art and my life changed
dramatically.
"I met an 8 year old kid named
Joey the first hour. In the second hour his 5 brothers were helping me paint
out the graffiti. By mid afternoon I had at least 15 kids come and go. The
third day I asked Jeff to give me the back of the store that faced the alley
for the kids and from there a hundred plus kids visited the two walls from
October through April . In April, we expanded across the street to the
Texaco Station and down the alley to two homes. We have been asked by at
least two hundred people to come paint murals and we've accepted most offers
and now have 11 murals going. We have a tough time saying no. So far there
has been over three hundred kids help us. We have three to four grown-ups in
the neighborhoods helping us. A typical day, when the weather is nice would
have 8 to 15 kids on the walls at once with 10 more kids joining the group.
Rarely are there more than 15 kids painting. Once it gets over 15, the group
seems to thin out on its own. The age range is between 5 and 14 years although
we've had older and younger. We've had a 68 year old lady and an 86 year old
man. We've had some kids under 5, but early on we found that we became a day
care center and hardly any painting was getting done. Most kids now are over 6
years.
"Our murals deal with issues
that are important to the community and if we get tagged we get it off
immediately. We make no moral judgments about graffiti. We get very angry when
we get 'tagged'. We think that the problem is a bit more complex dealing
directly with a suburban run drug businesses, unemployment, broken families,
drug addiction and an overburdened and "burnt-out" school system.
The kids are proud of their murals and will call us whenever we are tagged.
We are here for the long haul and we work very hard. We have done much more
than paint the past year. Here are some of the things that we have done with
the kids:
"Our two top
priorities are to paint in the morning and get something done everyday and to
teach the kids. Any kid who wants to paint can paint. Talent is not an
issue although when there's more than 15 kids wanting to paint all at once it
gets hairy. When it gets cold we teach the kids drawing at the local Baptist
Church. We've been invited to teach Art at the 69th Ave. Community Center for
this winter. My daytime company donated 25 computers (old AT's XT's 286's etc.)
to our company. The Police Athletic League at St. Benedicts has given us a room
to teach computer class. We teach the kids basic computer skills on Wednesday
nights and we'd love to get on the internet soon. Some comments on this grand
experiment: Casseda 11 year-old: " Mr. Pete, painting is cool but the
only reason we stay in your computer class is because we love you... this
is boring.. no mouse, no games, no kids if you don't get better stuff."
Emily 8 years: "Mr. Pete can we paint?"
"Since I was a basketball player
and coach, basketball sometimes becomes a top priority on sunny days. We got
our kids three teams in the 3 on 3 shoot around in Wilmington, Delaware for a
promise of a mural. We won the tournament and qualified for Colorado. I had no
idea how good the kids were and they had no idea that a "nerdy old
artist" could run a "bad ass city team" and actually do some
coaching. We are in a poor area so we never got funding to go to Colorado but I
was glad because we were losing our focus. (We also have no experience in fund
raising).
"We've gone to Phillies games as
well as the Art Museum. We have a future 5 AM visit to John Chaney's Temple
Basketball Practice. Most of our kids don't get up until 11 o'clock when not
faced with School. We want to expose them to people succeeding and getting up
before noon. Most kids in the neighborhood haven't heard of John Chaney and
Temple Basketball, even though Temple is one mile down Broad Street.
"We've been asked to paint a mural
in Annapolis, Maryland on the side of Riordan's Tavern in the Historic section
of town. We meet on the 20th of Nov. It would be a three story painting of Cal
Rypken. I doubt if we'd get the job because of the area but our story is
leaking out gradually. We've done the scenery for the Rowen Elementary School
play and we took some of the kids to the play. When the boys saw how many girls
were participating ... "Mr. Pete.. next year, the play ... we're
there".
"There are lot more stories to
tell but what is most important is the Art. Our talent has gotten us into areas
that we normally would not attempt to go. We are lucky that what we put down on
walls people really enjoy. Our first painting was titled "It is easier to
be a brain surgeon in America than a professional athlete". We stole the
title from Harry Edwards who worked for the Black Panthers and now works with
the NFL and UCLA. The mural is based on Pernell Whitacker going nuts after he
just floored his opponent. We painted in Meldric Taylor from his fight with
Chavez after he was knocked out. Meldric is from North Philadelphia and if he
happens to catch our mural Mr. Pete may develop a new talent ... running. We
incorporate the kids paintings into the mural.
"The kids are amazing,
talented, loving, catty, nerdy, bad ass, insecure and pretty much like any
other kid we've run into....except there is little hope and plenty of
people letting them down. I'm from a conservative, military family. My dad
thought I was a Communist when I brought home a Simon and Garfunkel record. But
he did teach me, through his actions, that racism and bigotry will bring down a
society faster than a democrat or republican. Racism is at the root of all the
problems in the city, whether we ignore it or not, it's there and I see it
manifested at a very early age. That's my paragraph speech. There's too much
work to be done in the city to get on a soap box. I think what we are doing is
pretty neat and what we will do in the future will be even better.
"We've been painting murals in
Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. for one year. The neighborhoods include West Oak
Lane, Nicetown, and North Philadelphia. We've been working with over 300
kids and have 9 ongoing or completed murals and have requests for 200 more. We
have been invited to cities outside Philadelphia.
"Our Philosophy is simple: We
take responsibility for our talent. (We don't sit in an isolated studio
worrying about the next Art movement or bowel movement which ever is more
pressing.) We make "fine" art. Our Art is non-commercial
dealing with issues that are important to the community. We work in the
neighborhoods with the children (5-95 years). We are not funded (at the
present time) by any government or private institution. (All our funding
has been at neighborhood level.) We believe that Philadelphia's greatest
resource is her children. We paint murals in the neighborhoods and
incorporate the talent of artists and non-artists into our murals. We are here
for the long haul and would very much like to get our story out. We are very
interested in painting murals in other communities and sharing our experiences.
We welcome responses."
