"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."
