Aerosol Urbano

WHAAAT is this, a class for spray-painting? Are you for real?? Porteños (the Argentine people) are so crazy. It was everything i thought it would be--three hours on Saturdays to paint murals on the side of a huge expanse of warehouses set by the train tracks. The teacher is the quintessential Art Man. His speckled overalls and bald head and loud voice and handlebar mustache just make you want to...PAINT SOMETHING. Over the week, our calling is to find an object, a drawing, a photo...something inspired by the poverty of the area to guide our art. We each paint one thing (30 people in the class) over 8 weeks and weave the stories together into one huge mural. Today we primed the warehouses--over dirt, doors, spider webs (and their spiders), flower pots, the flowers in the pots, stairs, junk leaning against the warehouse...everything got a coat of red, yellow, or blue paint. It was a bit like slave labor, haha, but it had to be done. Little toddlers came out to watch us while playing in the garbage, a troop of drummers trickled out of nowhere to play a sweet drum circle--it was one big party. I got paint all over my entire body and favorite shoes and now they are just full of character and look even better than before. People kept peeking out the big sliding metal doors while we were at it, and i thought they were just working in there. But then i saw inside one warehouse that had laundry hanging and a stroller and a bed...i think these are people's homes we are painting. Or random warehouses that people happen to be living in. One way or the other, the energy it brought was welcomed by everyone. It is a great call to brighten this place with few resources and a lot of creativity. Plus it is insane fun.