Girls in Carytown!
Peek behind Sugar + Twine in Carytown to see the first Girls!Girls!Girls! mini-mural! Or you can check it out on the GGGtour's instagram right here <-- Follow this account to see all the drawings of ladies that I'm doing for future mural designs.
I'm aiming to paint mini-murals like this all over town, painting as many women onto the walls of Richmond as possible. The original GGG mural is the archetype for this project, and I hope to do another, larger mural like that, with dozens of women. In the meantime, these smaller pieces are little seeds I can plant all over town. (Bonus - they're quick for me to paint and easier for a wall owner to say yes to :)
I am seeking Richmond walls to paint these little pieces on! Own a wall? Got a cool landlord? Tell me about it!
Truck Pop-ups!
I've paraded the truck around town at a handful of events now, and it's been really helpful to talk to people about what I'm up to (still something I'm learning how to do with confidence) and invite people to paint something on this monster - everyone's always very hesitant, and then they get really into it. It's great.
If you want to add some paint to the truck, see what a mobile studio feels like to stand in, and learn more about the tour, the next event on the calendar is:
Wed June 21st at 5:30PM
>> RVA Makers Social
1301 Roseneath Road, RVA, 23230
https://www.facebook.com/events/203233890150095/
...and plans are in the works for a send-off event at Studio Two Three! Stay tuned!
Studio gets a sink
Speaking of the Giant Metal Baby, progress stalled a bit while I've been running around drawing girls, but I'm back at it! The last big building element is to install a sink on the passenger side of the studio space - I'll have a water pump that is pressure sensitive so that it only runs when the system loses pressure (saves electricity) and a foot pedal rather than a faucet handle (saves water). Eventually I'll install clean- and grey-water tanks underneath the truck's belly, with exterior spigots for filling and emptying, but for now it'll probably be something smaller and simpler - two five gallon buckets under the sink?
Jeff is once again helping me on this one. My job is to watch, his job is to do everything else, and it's working really well. So far I've learned: cutting the hole in the countertop material is an art not a science, granite shops are covered in water because they have to spray water over the cutting tables constantly to keep dust down, a handheld belt sander is a powerful powerful tool, and it's an absolute miracle that Jeff still has all his fingers.
GGG Tour Plan Progress:
The Girls! Girls! Girls! Mural Tour is changing shape a little bit, as all best laid plans do. We're scaling back a bit to focus on Richmond and Burlington, Vermont, and making the road trip in between a little more free-form and adventurous, rather than planning a full mural in each city.
We'll still be parading the truck up the coast and stopping in many cities along the way, painting where possible, but taking just a week to get from RVA to BVT. The focus will still be murals, but instead of six cities, it will center around the many individual portraits in Richmond, as well as the second iteration of the Girls! Girls! Girls! compilation in the works in Burlington.
I've been learning a lot while planning this trip - which is one of the big goals! It's been really hard to admit to myself that what I initially bit off is bigger than I can chew, but I had to do it. Now I feel a lot more confident about the whole thing, and I'm getting excited again instead of just stressed way the heck out.
This is probably a good place to thank some of the amazing people who have given me their time and advice and patience. I've been working on turning my impulse to drive around and paint murals into a sponsored campaign to drive hundreds of miles and coordinate dozens of people in order to paint women on walls all over the place. Mostly what that looks like is talking the ear off of all of these people- each one is a beautiful perfect angel shining like a star, look! Sarah Apple • Matt Marinello • Ali Greenberg • Moonie Tyler • Jess Brooks • Melissa Harris • Shira Brooks • Ashley Hawkins • Apolla Echino • Sterling Hundley • Jenn Buch • Jenna Chew (a mystery) • Christine Greenberg • Brionna Nomi • Julie Hinzmann • Shelia Grey