“There’s a lot more going on now in Vancouver. I’m happy that Vancouver is starting to do stuff like that.” — Jnasty
.
The rattle of spray cans and the smell of paint reached an alley west of Main and E. 5th on Saturday as graffiti artists painted fifteen-foot sections of a parking lot wall.
Announcement 2
.
Brightly colored, and often wildly abstract, letters in pink, blue, and yellow took shape on a stretch of black-painted wall. An adjacent wall with a purple and red background had a large black-and-white portrait of a smiling young man, his name written in two-foot-high white letters: Holden.
The scene was the site of the fifth annual meeting Holden Value Graffiti Jama now regular part of the Vancouver Mural FestivalMade in memory of Holden Courage, a young graffiti artist who died in 2015 at the age of 21.
“We’ve been in touch with Holden’s mom and she works with the VMF to put this whole thing together every year,” said the local graffiti artist. jnasty, who organized the artists for this year’s Graffiti Jam. “They asked if someone like me could get some artists together, and that’s what we did.”
Announcement 3
.
Because graffiti is illegal, all of the artists spoken to for this story requested that they only be identified by their graffiti tag names.
The project is financed by the Holden Courage Memorial Fund for Artistswhich was created by Courage’s mother, Tara McGuire, after her death.
in a blog post As of 2017, McGuire wrote about what graffiti meant to his son.
“Holden loved graffiti,” he wrote. “He loved everything about it. The creativity, the smell, the camaraderie, the rebellion, the music, the danger, the color, the risks and the emotion.”
Jnasty, originally from Hawaii, said he has been painting for about 25 years. He appreciates the efforts of the monument and the Mural Festival to promote street art in Vancouver.
Announcement 4
.
“There’s a lot more going on in Vancouver now,” he said of street art, noting that cities like Toronto have a much larger street art culture. “I’m happy that Vancouver is starting to do stuff like that.”
Local graffiti artist Tars, who said he has been painting for more than two decades, agreed, noting that it can be difficult for local street artists to find opportunities.
“Vancouver doesn’t really provide too many opportunities for graffiti writers,” he said. “This event is a very good opportunity to do our thing.”
Virus, a local graffiti artist who said he has been painting since the late 1980s, welcomed the opportunity to rekindle his early passions and connect with old friends, though he acknowledged concerns about gentrification.
ad 5
.
“I can’t do that much. I have other responsibilities now,” she said. “So for me, it’s just meeting friends.”
He noted that great public works of art add value not only to the neighborhood, but also to property prices. “I feel like artists should be compensated for that.”
Theme, the graffiti artist from Victoria, who has participated in the festival on two other occasions, said he was impressed by the impact the festival has on the neighborhood.
“Every year there are new (murals) going up,” he said. “The transformation that has taken place in the city is crazy.”
All of the artists Postmedia spoke with said they valued the sense of community and camaraderie fostered by the festival.
“I haven’t seen these guys in a year,” Virus said. “We went through crazy times. And now we are here.
More news, less ads, faster loading time: Get unlimited ad-lite access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites for just $14/month or $140/year. Subscribe now through The Vancouver Sun or The province.
