Last Day......................

Last Day.................

Here are some pics below and I would like to give out a special thanks to all we have met and helped us out thru this process.........Barry Jacobson, Kathleen ( could not have been done without you), Krisitiano D'costa (taining and support), Jamie (thanks for the friendship and place to stay), Emily Krohn (your art will take you far), Wayne (our therapist), Dennis, Oda, Juan (Grande), Miguel (our savior), Frank (the tank), Barry (thanks for showing us the ropes)and Patrick Clarke, the Sics who put up our scafold (baba and bobo), Checkers burgers, the money money money guy (sorry i do not remember your name), National Paint in Middletown, CT, Dre, Sherry Sentz(snacks), Rick Sentz (harnesses), Pierre and Tiff (thanks for coming by), Arlene (love the cookies), Susan (nice to finally meet you), Elyssa (thanks for coming by), My Faux Forum Family (all of your support as always), Duane (who else would make our paint like you do), NY Post, NY Daily News, Brooklyn Heights, Sarah, Liz, Marrissa, Eamons Pub, Heights Cafe, Buen Gusto, the ladies at Starbucks, the geniuses who came up with Ramen Noodle and the inventor of the canned tuna, my lovely wife Alli and three great kids, Mike Sundell, my parents and sister and brother in law(and John), and last but not least a man I could not have done this with out Ryan Sentz.....thank you

See ya next time!

Mundid my friend or the top down.

Mundid my friend or the top down.

Today was a fun day. Possible rain which appeared for a half an hour and then gave way for a clear but chilly day. We had laughs with Mundid the gentleman who does our scaffold and some how got Ryan's cell phone number (LOL). After that we started at the top of the building and moved down. Left with one floor left we were somewhat dissapointed but it was aproaching 7pm and got too dark. Tomorrow we finish that side(i promise) and then we move on to the floor. ALMOST DONE!

Where is Ryan or Lyssa stops by.

Where is Ryan or Lyssa stops by.

Well the rain started this morning and it bummed us out but by mid day it was gone. After a great visit with my friend Lyssa (who brought us a Starbucks gift card, thanks so much) we got up and started working. Turned out to be a productive day after all. Tomorrow they remove some airshafts we can't get over and then it should be smooth sailing from there.

8 floors done in one day. 4 to go.

8 floors done in one day! 4 to go.

Well the near is ending. We got 8 floors basecoated and stoned out today. 4 to go and then the floor will be painted to look like Central Park. Getting tired definately and missing the family. It is getting colder which is a bummer and looks like rain tomorrow.

3rd side done. Father Fagan remembered.

3rd side done. Father Fagan remembered.

Well we finished the 3rd side today. We started the day by painting a portrait of Father Fagan from the Little Flower children services which occupies the top floor. It was an honor to paint him and I really enjoyed it. After that we cruised down the building adding 7 more scenes from around Brooklyn. Tomorrow we are expecting rain and have estimated maybe 7 more days to complete the project. Good thing too as it is getting very cold out. Coldest day we have had so far.

Stones done on 3rd side.

Stones done on 3rd side.

I want to start off with a shout out to Sarah Delaney and my Aunt Lib. I love getting the emails from you Sarah and Aunt Lib your note was so sweet. Thanks for watching and hope to see you soon.

On another note our first day back after a 2 day break was incredible. We started the day off by buying a few hats that I was eyeing for a while. After the purchase of the hats Ryan and I pushed it and completed the whole 3rd side of the building with stones in ONE day! OOOOF it was a push but it is done. Tomorrow we add the scenes in between the windows and then it is off to the 4th and final side! Almost there!

Here we are after we got our new hats!

NY Post came out for pics today and we started the third side.

The NY Post came out today and we started the third side of the building.

Well another interesting day in Brooklyn. This morning we had two grand visits. One from the NY Post which took pics which should be in Monday's paper and the second from the owner of the building himself: Barry J. He still is very happy and always full of ideas for the future. Gotta love it. So after all the excitement and the scafold was put up on the third side of the building we got painting and based it out in record time. Tomorrow we add the stones and then it is home for a couple of days as it is susposed to rain......again(and we could use a little break). 45 days here so far and so close to completion, kinda a weird feeling for sure.

All done with second side or it's getting cold.

All done with second side or it's getting cold.

Banged out all the rest of the little "20 miute" murals today and got the second big side done leaving us with two small sides left. Probably 8 or 9 working days to go. I have to say though it is getting pretty cold out now. Today was definately outside my comfort level and add in the wind and it was not so much fun. Anyhow scafold should get moved tomorrow and we start to rock and roll again. We are getting faster by the day.

Free advertising for Starbucks. Gotta luv it......

Free advertising for Starbucks...gotta luv it!

Well I have to say there is one thing that brightens my spirits every day and that is a Caramel Machiato from Starbucks iced with and extra shot of expresso. We go in every morning as it is at the corner and it is at the point where we walk in and it is waiting for us. How is that for customer service! Anyways we had a great day today as we are probably a day away from getting this side done and then we are left with the sides. We started by cutting all the window sides together and then went after the murals in between them. There are a lot of them so I will onlyt post a few for now. Then (yes again) the rain came and we were grounded.

Sue and Kathy stop by from the www.fauxforum.com to say "hi". The faux forum is a site that artists from all over the world get together and learn from each other. Pretty amazing.

Hoola Hoop master and Arl comes to town

Hoola Hoop Master

Well it is raining today so no work for us. Interestingly enough we went outside and there was a guy hoola hooping in the rain. It was a very sureal moment for some reason. I almost challenged him in a hoola hoop-off but I don't know how to hoola hoop(DARN)!

And then a special treat as Arlene comes to town to visit. Arlene is an very talented artist and close friend from Long Island. It stopped raining so we were able to go to the roof. Had a great lunch with her and I am so happy she swung by.

Up to the top

Up to the top

Well today was a great day! We got plenty of sleep last night and woke up on fire to work. We also had a deadline today as Alli was coming into town around 4 ish. No worries though as we got more than we expected done today. Now it is to the showers and then dinner!!!!

Cruising thru building 2

Cruising thru building 2

Well we are moving along on building 2. Very happy with the progress and on top of that it didn't rain today and it was susposed to. NICE! We went out last night with 2 friends of mine from NY who I went to Highschool with. One of them owns a bar and it was pretty sweet. Great to see those guys. Anyways we also found out we got another building to do after this one. It is in Manhatten on Park ave so we are doing some final samples for that tonight.

Chris Fondulas stops by.

Chris Fondulas stops by.

My highschool friend is making a documentary on our mural and he swung by to film some more of the project. He does all the sound for NBC 30 Rock and is very talented. I have seen the footage he has shot thus far and can't wait to see the final product.

Putting up the planks and starting bldg 2

Putting up the planks and starting bldg 2

Well this morning was semi interesting. We got in and the contracted scafold guys had us help them put up the swing stage. I probably would have rather not known how it was done and just assumed the safety levels were at max. After that we proceded to basecoat the second building and got all 12 stories done today. Great start except for the fact that it is going to start raining tomorrow and the next day! RATS! :)

If you give a mouse a pringle......

If you give a mouse a pringle...........

Day off as scafolding is being moved to the other building. Here is a clip from an apartment we were in.

12 Stories DONE! (next 12 story building to go)

12 stories DONE! (next 12 story building to go)

Well it was a quiet Sunday morning as the building was empty. We got in early and cranked it out. So we officially have finished our first 12 story building. Now we only have one 12 story to go! :) It was beautiful out and we spent the last hour of the day painting off the roof top. It was nice due to the weather but a little hard on the body. We will definately have a mild celebration tonight and get back at it tomorrow.

Almost there.......

Almost there..............

Almost there but then they needed to shut the power down to fix past electrical problems. So we had to cruise down as to not get stuck up in the air. I can't wait to get done with this scafold. Freaky stuff, the small platform. I miss the big plank and can't wait to get it back for building 2.

A little help from our friends.

A Little help from your friends.

Our friends Pierre and Tiff stopped by tonight to say hi. If you don't know Pierre he is a monster in the decorative painting industry and he was able to help out with another building project we have by bringing and incredible book on Tromp and pedestals. In the video you will see more and to see other books he has go to: http://www.pfinkelstein.com

The finishing touches on Bldg 1

The finishing touches on bldg 1

Today was a relaxed day. Fear of rain this morning grounded us mid morning. We had to run into Manhatten anyways so did so. Once back we had a nice helping of Ramen and Tuna and so the most beautiful thing in the world......blue sky! So we geared up and went back to the building. We add the lettering to the mural which is the real estate company's name: Joseph P. Day Realty with the call line and logo. TOmorrow will be the last day on 1 and then we move to building 2! Keep it comin!!! :)

We made the Daily News

We made the Daily News

Well I don't know what it means as of yet but I think it is a good thing. We got some press from the great Daily News and are pretty excited about it. They did a nice article we saw this morning which will give us plenty of reason to celebrate. We are also finsihing up our first 12 story building and getting ready to start the second one.

Here is a link to the story:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/09/15/2009-09-15_dingy_airshaft_is_brooklyn_artists_easel__easier_on_the_eye_for_his_fellow_tenan.html

New Day, new staging.

New day, New staging!

Well we are back from our weekend off. It was great to go home and see the family. My middle guy started soccer so I was able to go to his practice which was really great to see. We got back Sunday night and will probably stay for the duration at this point. As you see in the video our new staging is smaller to get in the inlet of the building. Definately a different experience then the last. Whoever said bigger isn't better should come and talk to me. LOL No it was fine(kinda) and we based out the existing building. We are hoping to get it completed by tomorrow or the next day and then we start Building 2! Can't wait! :)

Daily News comes out to see us.

Daily News comes out to see us today.

Pretty exciting day today. The owner of the building Barry Jacobson from J P Day Realty Corp came back from vaca and saw the building for the first time. He really seemed to like it which made me happy! Then later on in the day the Daily News photographer came out and took pics which will run with a story on Tuesday we think. So all very positive and exciting stuff. We are taking a couple of days off while the scafolding is moved so here are a couple videos for the time being.

Finsihed Statue of Liberty.

Finished the Statue of Liberty Base.

Well today was a great day, we finished the base which completes this phase of the job. We are gonna take a couple of well deserved days off and then come at it again. Next week we will start the second building(still can't believe there is still a second building) lol! I hope you enjoy the pics.

Here is local Duane from the Bruno hardware store. He helps us everyday get our paint that we need. He is a cool cat!

5 hour Statue of Liberty and now for the base!

5 hours and the Staute is painted, now for the base!

Great day today. We got the Statue painted and that is exactly what we wanted to accomplish. Tomorrow we go for the base and then the rest of the panels. After that we take a 3 day and take a break before we start the second building(and we need one).

A hand from your friends when you need one or sketching the Stratue of Liberty

A hand from your friends when you need one or sketching the Statue of Liberty

Today we got in and had to sketch the Statue of Liberty. We had to take these huge sheets of paper and score them to spray thru them thus transfering the image. We realized it was a bigger job then we thought so we called locals Juan(grande) and Emily from The Heights Cafe. They pitched in and we got it all done including the base for the 1st floor on the other building. There were no real fly bys from the birds today as I think they flew away for the long weekend.

Look Ma, we made it to the top.

Look Ma, we made it to the top.

Well today was one of the more interesting days. We got the top two floors done and we finished the two sets of windows as well. Interestingly enough after lunch I forgot to bring my bag up with my camera in it and let me just say I blew it! While up there our 2 bird friends decided to get bold and started dive bombing us (kid you not). I think from the look of one of them (paint on his head) it was something we did. Anyways this went on for quite a while until they just started landing on our plank and taunting us. I think it is going to go down between Ryan and I vs the birds. I felt like we were in that movie Grumpy old men where the neighbors were all doing strange things to each other to get the other one to move out. Anyways we got what we needed to do done and tomorrow we start the statue of Liberty!

Special Happy Birthday

A special Happy Birthday to my son Carter today.

This is a shout out to Carter, my son. I made this video for him to watch because unfortunately I could not make it home this weekend. He is turning 6 and is a great kid!!!!!

Painting the windows

Painting the windows and a little Brooklyn Bridge for ya.

Not a bad day. We had to add 4 windows where there were not so that the building would be uniform. So with that done we added some more of the scenes. Below you will see the Brooklyn Bridge that we did and then with me next to it so you can see the relationship to size. Tomorrow we will clean up some stuff and then on Sunday we will start the Statue of Liberty. I am gonna go out on a limb here and call it at 3 days to complete the Statue of Liberty (man I hope I am right). We shall see, we shall see.

Scenes from Brooklyn

Starting the Brooklyn scenes today.

We are staying about two blocks from where we are working so we came home for lunch today. Leftovers from last night, mmmmmmmmmm. Anyways I figured I would throw a quick video up before we go back. Here is one of the scenes that will be painted under each set of windows going the entire way up. All scenes from different areas in NY specifically Brooklyn. Hope you enjoy.

2 floors to go and we ran out of paint.

Great day today. Cranked a lot out. We ran out of paint as we got ready to paint the top 2 floors. Oh well. Tomorrow we shall finsh those up and then the Statue of Liberty. Very excited. Also tonight we will be changing things up a bit and enjoying a nice plate of veal and spagets. Hope it won't be too much of a shock to our system! :)

Painting the sky for the pigeons.

Painting the sky for the pigeons

Today we got the blue fade painted in for the backdrop to the statue of liberty. We also did a floor of brownstones. Ryan and I have decided that we are still not sick of the Ramon and noodles. We really like it. I am wondering if I can get some kind of sponsoreship from them. :) Can you see it now as we paint just banners and backdrops promoting the tastiest noodle around. Oh gawd!

basing the sky on a Sunday morning.

Basing the sky on a Sunday morning and adding some shadows.

Well we thought it was gonna rain today and we ended up with a clear day so we woke up and pour ourselves a bowl of Ramon Noodles(breakfast of champions) and got to work. We did another 2 floors with architectural features, shaded the original ones we did including the pilars and I lost my glasses in the abyss. No worries though because it is a lot less scary when my vision is blurred. Tomorrow we will be adding the blue sky and going up to the 7 and 8th floor adding stones. Good times! :)

Todays interview with a local Brooklyn Resident is with Barry Clarke. Great guy who showed us the ropes when we first got here. He is a GC from Celtic Construction.

Playing poker while it rains.

Playing poker while rains.

Well it rained yesterday and is raining today so no work on the building for us. We are doing a little in-house work that needs to be done for the building. Ryan also has an obsession with poker so we have been playing a lot of poker (a lot)! We hit an Irish pub up last night which was real cool. This morning we checked the weather and we made catch a break and be able to work tomorrow.

(Local interviews with Emily and Frank.)

Emily is a waitress from down the street we met. She graduated from Pratt and is a pretty good artist. She did a whole bunch of window paintings up and down the street in the comercial spots that came out real nice.

Frank is the security for the Joralemon building. Real nice guy. He sees everybody coming and going. He has not been to see our mural as of yet but we will make him come look at it soon. :)

Basing the architecture features in.

Basing the architecture features in.

Today was a really good day as far as progress goes. Not only did we do 2 more stories up of brownstones we also measured out and based all the lower architecture features....and thankfully so since yes it is going to rain once again for 4 days! Can you believe it, got to laugh. Well, no worries. We are still moving along faster then we thought. And just to show you that Ryan and I aren't just sitting safely in our apartment being anti social we decided to started interviewing the locals and see how they feel about the mural. This way you can see we are squeezing ourselves right into the public and are semi-officially Brooklynites for the time being. Let's start wih Miguel who is the super at the building we are working at. Miguel has an incredible life story that he has shared with us and I feel he is just as important to this job as we are. He really watches out for us. Sooooo, heres Miguel!

500 Brownstones done, 6000 to go.....

500 Brownstones done, 6000 to go..........

Well today was a great day. We had to cruise to Manhatten this morning and meet the Faux Doctor so we could get to more sprayers. Once done we got back to the job and started cranking out stones. A little more then 5 floors done, not to shabby. Didn't know what day of the week it is when we got down but no worries...:) I am now getting pumped about painted the large statue of liberty. Couple more days and I can start that sucker. :) Now it is yes once again time for some Ramen and Tuna mmmmmmmmmm!

Getting stoned....

Getting Stoned.

Well today was pretty productive. Got 2 floors done and getting quicker by the minute. We only lost 4 things off the staging today so I consider that a win. Pretty tired today, just got back and cooked some more Ramon noodles and tuna. Slowly running out of Ramon though so if anyone has some please mail them out to us. :) Anyways, looking forward to tomorrow!

Pushing out and RIP to the old 18 incher.

Pushing out is the scariest of all. LOL

Today is the second day we have painted and we finished basecoating the 1st building we are muraling. This is great news because tomorrow we get to start the mural! Can not wait. Gonna nap it out right now and then have a little tuna and Ramon noodles. MMMMMM!

RIP 18 incher.....

Very sad today we lost a dear friend, out 18 inch roller. He lived a long and prosperous life and we will never forget him. Please take a moment of silence.....

Working in Jersey due to the rain.

Off to Jersey due to the rain.

Tried singing "rain, rain go away" with no luck. The rain came and shut us down. So instead of sitting around we took off to Jersey to work on a job with our friend Stacey. We cruised down there and did some cloud ceilings and painted some gold. Awesome time and now we are back in NY. Looks like we will be able to paint tomorrow (mon) and Tuesday/Wednesday and then it is gonna rain for a couple more days. Unbelievably frustrating!!! Oh well though, what are you gonna do right? Spirits still high and looking forward to working a couple 12 hour days this week to try and catch up with the time already lost. One really cool thing is that we got back to the apartment we are renting and Jamie the girl we are renting it from had a huge roast cooking for us. Gotta love her!

Race against the rain.

Race against the rain!

Today was pretty productive. We finally got up on the swing stage and got to paint. We have been watching the weather online (hour by hour updates) and saw we had a window up to 3 pm to paint. So at 6 this morning we raced down and based out 6 stories. Then it got all dark and we felt the little peblets of rain start coming so we raced the staging down and got everything inside real quick. Today was a great day though and we learned a lot. One, bring more to drink. Two, it is like climbing the alps and hard to breath up there with all the vent pumping out hot air. And three, it is true that looking down freaks you out a bit. LOL Anyways, we are hoping it does not rain tomorrow so we can keep moving but it doesn't look good at this point. I have to go now and eat and beat Ryan in a little game of poker! :)

Building Closed

Building Closed! (can you believe it)

Today was pretty disappointing. We woke up knowing that it was going to rain starting later today and for the next 3-4 days so we really wanted to dig in and get a good chunk done today. Especially because we still haven't started. Well that was not in our cards today. We got to the building with a crowd out front and two vans with flashing lights. A sign on the door that says "building closed....emergency...." And that was that. Head hanging low we walked back to the apartment and are currently re-grouping. Due to the downtime for the next several days caused by rain we are going to go pitch the local restaurants on mural and faux work and see if we can muster up some business for downtime like this. It is hard to admit but the frustration is getting to me a bit. I just want to start! :)

Powerwashing.....

Powerwashing.......

Third day here and I am ready to pull my hair out. LOL No just kidding. I am just anxious to start painting. The guys we hired to powerwash yesterday turned out to be a travesty so we sent them home and our new guys came today. They did a great job and we are ready to paint tomorrow. Unfortunately it is susposed to rain for the next couple of days. Cross our fingers for the weather forecast to be wrong. Anyways, other then that the super for the building seems to be the greatest super in NY and has already done so much for us. Love the guy and his great stories. Another great guy we met is Felix who got us our 2nd team of powerwashers, great help. The rest of the day we are at the apartment we rented with the girl who rented to us. Her name is Jamie and she is very funny. Check back tomorrow for some better news. P.S. IT IS SO HOT HERE I THINK I AM MELTING.....;0

Start date postpone for 3 days. Starting Tuesday.

Start date has been postpone untill Tuesday the 18th due to scafold issues. We are heading down on Monday morning and then on Tuesday the building will be powerwashed for two days. Thursday we will start painting and then it is on. I will start popping up videos on Tuesday and continue from there. So much to do until then including hanging with the fam. I can not wait to get started! :)

Finished in house training, time to rest.

We are now packing up and taking a rest. 5 days to go! Watch video below:

OK well we just finished a pretty intense week of in-house training and I am definately feel my age (or maybe it was the celebritory beers last night)! Either way we are ready to go and I am pumped to start this project. I feel like I can not sleep. I am gonna rap of some small details here before we start and then take the rest of the week off and hang with the family before I go. On the 15th we power wash the building and start priming and painting rhe mural on the 17th or 18th. Stay tuned for the start of the mural.

Cutting our templates for the stones. Watch video below.

It is Sunday and today we are cutting our templates that we will actually use on the building. Yesterday we were using polystyrene until we found the shape we liked. Once happy we bought some brown board and attached metal handles to them. We have created multiple sets for each of us and they will be much more durable for the site.

Spraying with the new templates. Watch video below.

At the end of the day we shot rock paper scissors to see who would repaint the wall for the hundreth time! 5 MORE DAYS TILL WE START!!!

Color testing and technique.

Watch video below.

Today we concentrated on technique and color testing. We really need our large blocks to be convincing and to get the viewer to forget about the bricks. I think we have done it at this point and I also think we have come up with the colors we are going to use. Now we have to work on the colors of the window arches and see what we come up with. All color needs to be decided today so we have time to order them. We did a 16 hour day yesterday so we are dragging a bit today but pushing thru it. Already we have surpassed all of our goals for the day and we are pretty much still ahead of the game. Hope you are enjoying this process and please stay tuned. 6 MORE DAYS until we start!

One last visit to the site before we start

Watch video below:

Today we went to Brooklyn. Kristiano, Ryan and I took the train down pretty early this morning. Once there we met with our film guy who is filming seperately from these clips and will edit together hopefully a cool little documentary version for ourselves to keep. We went to the building and took measurements again (just in case) and just got one final look before we started. In less then a week the building will be powerwashed and then we paint. As for tonight we are still training till the wee hours in the studio. Tic Tok, we are getting closer!

Here we are on the train, early in the morning.

Inside Training

Well Krystiano flew into town from Florida today and shortly after Ryan showed up from Maryland for some in-house training before we start the project. Currently we are a week or so away from starting. We went shopping today and bought all our equipment including a hopper gun and spray guns. Once back we took two 4X8 sheets of plywood and troweled concrete on them. Once troweled we stamped them using a brick impression to simulate bricks. This will dry over night and on Saturday we will do a test run with our equipment painting a smaller version of our design. Tomorrow we are off to Brooklyn to the site for another set of measurements. I have to say as the start date gets closer I am getting more and more excited!

See video below:

Introduction. Watch video below.

The beginning.

This project was put on my desk over a year and a half ago. Before the winter of 08 we were scurrying to get our design in and paperwork in order. About a month before we were to start we pulled the plug on the project due to weather constraints and the inability to come to terms. Then the recession hit and the market went belly up. I thought the project was done and put the folder aside.

Around May of 09 I got a telephone call about starting the project up again so I pulled out the dusty folder and went back to work. After a few more visits to Brooklyn we hammered out the details and Creative Evolution was officially hire by JP Day to create 2 twelve story murals in downtown Brooklyn, NY. The project starts August 15th and is planned to continue thru to October 15th. The plan of attack is to change the dynamics of two brick buildings and create the illusion of two beautiful brownstones with arched windows and over 30 depictions from areas within the city.
All scenes will be painted as reliefs. On the Court Street build a large 6 story tall arch will be painted as if you were looking thru the building at the Statue of Liberty. I am not gonna lie, this project is going to be a well received challenge that I am very much looking forward to. On the 15th of August I will be moving to NY for two months. I will create daily videos and take pictures to post here and try and give an honest account of the project, the good the bad and the ugly. Please stay posted and watch this process unfold.