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.
Some of the wall art at Paint Louis is pleasant fantasy, some political, some social commentary, but to me a lot of it is deeply disturbing. Sure, I’m in my 70s (okay, boomer) and would not understand lots of what’s happening to younger people. Nevertheless, much of the work communicates - to me - a dark, distorted, even apocalyptic world. It is so skillfully executed, but what motivates it? Some of it reminds me of the well-known English artist, Francis Bacon, https://www.francis-bacon.com/paintings, whose images curl my toes and make me look away.
Other than that, have a nice day. 😃
I went back to the flood wall yesterday afternoon. Monday was the Labor Day national holiday (nowadays sometimes a bitter irony) and Paint Louis was officially to run through the afternoon. Almost everything had been wrapped up by the time I arrived. Without crowds, I could cruise up and down, looking for what caught my eye.
An awful lot of it to my old eyes was, as usual, elaborate, illegible tagging. A new trend seems to be block capital letters, three to six to them, that might be initials or acronyms but never with an explanation. Lost on me. A few sections had strong imagery, some blunt, some subtle. That's what I stopped to record.
And this one? Well, this is the United States.
Another section of the flood wall at Paint Louis. I'm not sure what the scarlet pipes are for. Maybe something to do with a natural gas pipeline, but that's a guess. They fit nicely with the new paint job and the cloudless sky.
First image from Paint Louis 2023, the 27th year for the event. Artists come from all over the world on our Labor Day long weekend to redecorate a 3.5 mile / 5.6 km stretch of the Mississippi River flood wall any way they wish. It was just getting started yesterday and continues through the Monday holiday.
There are still more pictures from The Fringe to work in somewhere but we also have the big Japanese Festival at the botanical garden this weekend.
Something easier to read from the newly repainted section of the flood wall. The stylized STL on the top of the box is part of the logo for the baseball team, the Cardinals. The bowl and spoon are full of little cardinal heads, the winged blue note of the hockey team, little arches and, um, bullets. That's a very serious issue around here. The gun violence in parts of the area is appalling.
Gods of the air willing, I'll see the Atlantic Ocean by this afternoon.
I don't know if this person is one of the people who painted the panel or just sitting on a rail looking at the image. I also wonder if the blue parts of these figures are some super-stylized letters - this old codger wouldn't know. The numbers 314 are written under the bill of the hat near the left. That's the local telephone area code, which is a symbol of local pride in some parts of the U.S. Not many people realize we just got a second, overlapping code to handle the explosion of mobile phones.
Tomorrow is a travel day, which may or may not affect posting. I'm going to one of my favorite places on earth, some place I have not visited in 10 years. Unfortunately, the weather looks bad at the city where I change planes.
Snow doesn't usually last that long around here. Warm temperatures and blue skies create a stream along the riverfront, reflecting a railroad bridge and the graffiti section of the Mississippi flood wall.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
Robert Frost, Mending Wall
Artica head guy Lohr Barkley leads the annual parade by the Mississippi River flood wall.
A wide view of some of the flood wall at Paint Louis. The Mississippi lies a short distance behind. This is freshly painted - you can see one of the artists in the left background - but I have no idea what it means. Not the first time that has happened to me with a painting. I just like the color and scope of the scene.
A large section of the Paint Louis mural wall. The times we live in may be the inspiration for the work.
The artist dangling from the ladder at the far right makes me queasy. It was interesting to see how ladder design has changes for improved safety.
Back to Paint Louis. I may need to use pictures from there until we arrive in Seattle next week. (We were going to arrive in Prague today but that went down the drain.) Lots of colorful things to look at so no problem.
The wall faces roughly west so on a sunny day it becomes brilliant in late afternoon light. Of course, dramatic shadows, too.
Something new on the Paint Louis section of the Mississippi River flood wall.
