No, my son is not a destructive vandal illegally spray painting the city. He is a little trouble maker at times, but he's not that naughty. Here's the deal! Austin, Texas is home to a bring your own spray paint Graffiti park located at 11th & Baylor Street.
My son has read a lot of daddy's writing for better or worse :
The park was established by the HOPE Outdoor gallery and contemporary street artist Shepard Fairey to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan. Shepard is the artist behind the Obama Hope campaign poster, the viral Andre the Giant poster campaign and the Obey clothing line. HOPE is an acronym for "Helping Other People Everywhere".
The HOPE Outdoor Gallery, is a 501c3 nonprofit and consists of a collective of creative types, artists, musicians, activists and others who use the park as a centerpiece for educating the public about causes and issues they support and believe in while promoting creative expression through graffiti art.
The park is an old building foundation that's three stories high that provides an ever changing canvas for locals, tourists and well known artists to paint their artwork. You can paint the walls and any other surface within the park. Buy some spray paint and take the kids out to paint some graffiti! Let's check out some of the scenes around the park.
Cool kid pose in corridors of the park:
Top of the park:
Willy Wonka Graffiti Art:
The Austin Graffiti park is a highly recommended destination for kids, creative young adults and adult artists as well. Definitely check it out if you're ever in the Austin area. The park offers some great colorful photo opportunities. Events are sometimes held at the park as well with performances by local musicians, DJs and guest artists. They do accept donations for the various causes they support.
Austin has the nick name "Weird Town" for a reason. The town's motto is "Keep Austin weird". A very different and vibrant community with lots of unique events and activities. Also a city filled with a lot of very talented artists and musicians. Article here about why Austin is the Strangest City in America: 14 Reasons Austin is the Weirdest City in America
For more information about the park and causes HOPE supports, check them out @ http://hopecampaign.org.
More information about the confounder of Hope and artist Shepard Fairey can be found @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_Fairey.
Thanks for stopping by! Hoping to have a new song completed for my next post! Check back again soon for some funky original music.
Kind Regards,
Ambient Hex