Wall to Canvas Graffiti Competition

From my husbands office I hear the anticipated

“Rachel what do you know about a $130 purchase to Bombing Science?”

“It’s not what you think. Bombing is when you throw up a tag. Okay… I just entered a 2 hour live graffiti contest at Magic Hat brewery, I needed supplies, and the competition is next week”

“Um… you’ve never done graffiti before…” déjà vu ice carving competition.

Well as you can see from my crazy dope piece I can throw up and throw down when it comes to graffiti.

The event was sponsored by the Shelburne Art Center and it was held at the Magic Hat Artifactory on October 2. The day of the event the sun was shining, DJs from NYC and Philly were spinning; there was a beer tent and an enthusiastic crowd cheering for 12 graffiti artists-including me- some traveling from as far as Montreal and Boston. At 1:00 pm we donned our respirators and began spraying, we had 2 hours to complete our piece on a 5’x6’ wood panel the theme was “Under Pressure” and we were. I have to admit it was stressful! Spray paint is a tough medium to work with both because it is hard to control the flow of paint and my trigger finger and forearm get really sore.

I chose to make my piece about moms. I have a lot of friends who are new mothers and I am amazed by how they can manage their households, relationships, careers, bills, and health, all while caring for their infant-how do they have the time? At the end of the competition we were rewarded with free beer and got to mingle and check out each others work while we waited for the results of the competition. Spectators had the opportunity to bid on our artwork and I was very excited to have sold my piece for $400! Half of the proceeds were donated to the Shelburne Art Center. An artist from Montreal won the competition with his stenciled portrait of Burton’s founder Jake Carpenter. But man o man did I have fun!!!