Murals being made, part 15: Back@BLX

In the past half a year or so, we've posted lots of murals from BLX Skate Shop at the corner of 7th & Toole.

On January 20, I rolled by (on my bike — not a skateboard :) and noticed that the mural space was blank:

There was just a hint of the previous mural (which you can see at the end of our December 30th post) showing through.

I talked to a man who, I think, was one of the owners. He said they invite a new guest artist to paint the corner — on the 7th Street side, near Toole — every month. (Apparently all of the artists work BLOCKS into their designs — though I didn't ask him that.) He also pointed out that the mural is “skateable”... check out that lip at the bottom of it. (BLX is a skate shop, so why not a skateable mural?)

At dusk on January 26th, I was on the way to dinner with a friend when I rolled by the corner (in my car)... and saw a muralist painting. I pulled over, of course. :) It was ROGO (Rich Rogowski) starting a new mural. He'd drawn sketches on plastic slides, and he had an overhead projector shining them on the wall, one by one, to let him paint the outlines. Here are Rich and the crew:

Another photo from later that evening, taken by one of the crew:

The afternoon of the 27th:

When I rode by on the afternoon of the 28th, I could tell that Rogo had been out there the evening before (with his projector):

Then I left town for a week. When I got back, I checked the mural and found that it all seemed to be there...

...so I emailed Rogo to ask if he was planning to do anything else. Then I left town again. :) He emailed me the following photos on February 4th.

First, he's painting areas of white around the figures:

Next, he's adding green and red. This next photo looks like it was taken with a fisheye lens... a way to catch the whole scene without the power pole in front, and also fun!

Here's the finished mural (at least, the last photo Rogo sent of it... maybe he's still tweaking it as I write this from Perú):

If you haven't seen it in person, check it out soon — before it's replaced by next month's mural!