Saturday, July 30, 2011

Back in La Paz

I spent a few more days in La Paz last week. It's a strange city. I flew up 4km from the Amazon and then landed on top of a mountain where La Paz is located. The plane flew above the clouds and didn't come down. It was a very strange experience. I found a street that was full of paint shops. Unfortunately all the spraypaint was shit and they kept upping the price on me because I'm a gringo. I could see through their shit and managed to find an old lady selling paint from a room covered with topless centerfold posters. She didn't try to rip me off but half the cans didn't work. I think they might have been there for a few years.




I managed to find a lot more stuff by Luser. He is easily the freshest and most active writer in town. I think he knows it too. Some of the best stuff I saw by him was road side and unflickable from a bus.





Saturday, July 23, 2011

La Paz, Bolivia

I spent a day in La Paz on my way to the amazon last week. It's a really cool city that's shaped like a giant bowl with buildings built up the sides. I had an hour to kill in the afternoon and I managed to find a hardware store with a bunch of really shit cans with chisel tips. I walked around for about an hour painting quick pieces. It was good fun.

I met this guy who was living on the streets and he looked out for me a bit. He was a gang banger from LA who got deported back to Bolivia due to gang related activity. He's gang name is Shadow and he's in the DPG gangstas. He had some pretty cool gang tats. We got talking because there was a cop looking at me while I was painting this spot. I wrapped it up pretty fast and Shadow took me to another couple of spots.


La Paz is probably the dodgiest city I've been to in Bolivia. I had to fight off a mugger on the way back from the bottle shop in the afternoon. Lucky he was unarmed. It would have been good to have Shadow with me. He was a pretty mean looking guy.



I haven't noticed much of a graff scene in La Paz, but like Buenos Aires, Lucer and Jers from 031 and Blow are up a lot and there are a few pieces from tourists who were passing through. I'll try to hunt down some more of their spots now I'm back in town.



Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Un Poco Mas

I was eyeing this wall off on my way to Spanish classes and every time I went past it the door was shut due to siesta. It's located on a busy intersection in Sucre and I really wanted to paint it. One day I set out a bit earlier and the door was open. I went up the stairs and found myself standing in a dingy dentist's surgery with a bag of paint while some poor Bolivian guy was getting his teeth drilled. I didn't bother interrupting him and I walked straight out. I had my daily chat to the lady on the corner and told her that I wanted to paint the wall. She told me to go for it and she'd back me up if there was any problems. I slapped it up pretty quickly and headed off to class.




After class I did a quick one on the way home. I found out later that it's on the side of a university. My mate Pato brought me a beer for my efforts.


Some people at the local market lock their crutches up for the day and pick them up after work. I guess they're sitting down all day.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Azul

I mixed up some blue paint the other day and walked around Sucre for a few hours.



Thursday, July 7, 2011

Omar's place

Painted this guy Omar's front fence the other day. He was a classic. I've got a feeling it was his Mum's place. It was pretty big and looked like it was decked out by Franco Cozzo. He wanted me to do a piece in his lounge room but I was a bit pressed for time and really wanted to paint the front of his house because he lived in a prime location. He had cheesy centerfold posters all over the kitchen and lived there with his wife, son and mother. His mum was about 75 years old and I've got a feeling she was cracking on to me. She hung out with me while I did mt piece and kept saying "beautiful" in Spanish. She wouldn't leave me alone.

I also had this guy hanging out with me. He was so pissed that he passed out and pissed himself. Omar's son also hung out a lot. I tried to get him to help me fill in and bomb the neighbors fence but he want's into it.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Coca Cola

Having a good time in Bolivia. I've managed to paint a fair bit over the last few days. Most of the people in Sucre have never seen graff before. I managed to get invited into someone's house for lunch while doing a piece on the street and numerous cabbies want me to paint a picture of their cab on their cab (all the cabs out here are hotted up with spoilers and have Nike, Adidas and Puma stickers across the front window). It's like stepping back in time here. There are no corporate companies, no one wears brand names and there are no chain stores. It's even pretty hard to find a supermarket. At least they have bottlo's and hardware stores that sell roller paint and spraypaint with chisel tips.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Sucre, Bolivia

I've been in Bolivia for the last few weeks. It's a great country with a lot of culture but also a lot of poverty. I haven't seen a piece in any of the towns or cities I've been to, and I've only seen a couple of tags. In Sucre I managed to find a hardware store with paint and in pretty bad Spanish managed to score a wall. I painted it pretty fast because I was surrounded by locals bombarding me with questions. I managed to score a couple more walls in the same street. I'll see how I go with time, but it would be good to get a few more on top of them and paint the whole street.