But there were not many of them. Interpret as you will. Note that the artist has a conventional small paint brush in her right hand to lay in detail. No spray can. Also, this shot was framed to feature the artist. The figure on the right is wearing a Palestinian head scarf. It's below the crop, but she is holding an automatic weapon. I got a picture of the whole panel when I went back a week later.
It looks like the Paint Louis artist is about to be squeezed hard by his own creation. This one had the good sense to put up an umbrella on his hydraulic jack platform to protect himself from the brutal afternoon sun. Speaking of which, we expect 38 C / 100 F again this afternoon. And, you know, it's September 15. Didn't use to be this way.
A lot of the artists at Paint Louis use electric-hydraulic jack platforms to reach the upper parts of the wall. They must be quite expensive to rent, and then there is the question of moving them from the rental facility to the riverfront. Some of the budget-minded painters just used tall ladders, which struck me as rather dangerous.
That's what it amounted to, in a way. This photo was taken a week ago, on the second day of work at Paint Louis. Lots of spectators, despite the heat. I went back yesterday and took pictures of the finished products.
Say what you will about the designs themselves, but it takes an awful lot of planning and skill to create all the images that go on the flood wall during Paint Louis. Do these people go to art school or learn as apprentices? They use paint rollers for background color but I've never seen stencils or masks used for the details. But when I'm shooting someone near ground level I have to remember to stay upwind of the spray cans. It could ruin a lens.
Every American who is old enough remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. It is indelible. A few months after the attack, we were flying into Newark to see my family in New Jersey. The usual approach was north to south, parallel to the Hudson River. Seeing the hole in the Manhattan skyline, once so familiar, was one of the few times in my adult life that brought tears to my eyes.
There is an event on Art Hill in Forest Park this week called Flags of Valor, https://flagsofvalorstl.com/. There are something more than 7,000 flags, all in precise rows, each representing a victim of that day and the military personnel who died in the response. Even crusty old me was deeply moved.
The Guinness Book of World Records says that it is the largest graffiti wall anywhere, about 2 miles / 3.2 km long. It gets redone every year over our Labor Day long weekend. I went down on Sunday, the second day of painting. It was hot and my back was cranky so I didn't get as much as I would have liked. Enough to start.
