The Works 2012

Both sides of the archway at one entrance to The Works in downtown Edmonton,
painted in collaboration with En Masse and a few local artists.

A big steel Sea-Can container painted in collaboration with En Masse at The Works

Greetings homies! Over the last couple of days I had the chance to collaborate with the skilled fellows from En Masse out of Quebec. They were in town to paint the archways at The Works, an annual festival in downtown Edmonton, and asked a few local artists to help out. We collaborated on the archway, which they'd made a solid start on before I got there, then the next day painted a large Sea-Can container. Sea-Can containers can be a bit tough to paint because of the deep ribbing of the steel surface, so we went big and all aerosol on this one. I had a great time painting and chilling with Fred and Jason of En Masse, they're some chill cats with serious illustration chops and creativity and they're great ambassadors for street art as well. 

En Masse's group mural style is almost entirely freeform; each artist paints whatever they want off the top of their head with little or no predetermined concept or order, almost always in black and white. This leads to a lot of interesting combinations and makes for some striking visuals as the ever changing memberships give En Masse's overall aesthetic a very dynamic feel that still somehow fits under one banner. On the last day of their stay, Jason decided to go for some bright colours to spice up the Sea-Can. Fred and I were mad hungry when we started painting, so I rocked some giant bacon and he came through with a sunny-side-up dinosaur egg. Word. I was also lucky enough to get a little exposure out of the whole thing, as the Edmonton Journal showed a shot of me painting a big robot for their piece on En Masse. Shoutouts to  Jason and Fred, Real, Carmen, Fish Griwkowsky, and the other painters, Jocelyn Hajash, Jess Fleury and all the volunteers at the Works, and everyone else that came out to kick it!