The other day I get a phone call from my homie ENOS telling me my GANDHI mural was defaced. I was like "nah, your kidding...that wall has been running over 3 years?! Who would take it out?". He told me he was serious and to drive by there and check it out. Low in behold, I drive up to the wall, and it splattered with white house paint..with a large portion of the face gone. I started to think who would do such a thing. I have no beef on the streets with anyone...at least not to my knowledge. And if someone were beefing with me...they should have at least left their name...any graffiti cat would of done that...so I ruled that factor out. Then I thought it may have been someone who would of had a problem with Gandhi himself(I had a wall vandalized before because it went against a community religious beliefs). But the question remained...after 3 years who would do this?
That wall...out of every wall I produced held the most esteem with me. It was the first wall I produce without sanction during the daylight hours www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiOooVl-pKE. This was the wall that literally put into motion the entire idea of SAGE Collective and our philosophy. I took major risks to put this wall up and it is one of the few I wanted to keep in tact no matter what. Massive amounts of energy was put forth to make sure that wall went up..and stayed up.
The following day. I got together with LUV-1 to redo the wall. We originally had another location set up, but due to the circumstances, decided to shift our attention to restoring this mural. After about one and a half hours of painting, this weird dude approached us and started taking pics of us with his phone and would then run off. We brushed it off as nothing...but I knew the dude..he lived in the arts building just across the way. I then took a break and ran to the store to get water. When I came back, LUV told me dude said he messed up the wall and he was calling the cops on us. I was like "WHAT THE FUCK?"...Whats this dudes deal?!" I knew him from the arts building...and also knows he is a lil' "touched" mentally..so I again brushed it off as craziness.
About ten minutes later, The cops show up. LUV and myself stop painting to see what the problem is. The officer came over to us..told us we were good and that the dude who called them is a lil crazy and they have been getting complaints about him for sometime. We told him that we were restoring the old mural that was up here because someone vandalized it. The officer then looked at us...shook his head in disbelief...saying: "Shame, this wall was up for years...who would do such a thing". We told him we had an idea, but was not certain and had no proof, but in any event, its getting a makeover.
Over the next 3-4 hours LUV and myself tooled away at the wall. LUV worked his usual abstract expressionistic designs throughout the background and I focused on the figure of Ghandi. The funny thing is the first time I did this wall, their was an unbelievable amount of stress involved...this time...smooth sailing. LUV and myself jammed out and we produced something we are truly proud of. I have been trying to figure out what does all this mean. And one conclusion I came to realize is its simply growth. This wall was first done alone...with no set plan...no true direction as to what may come. This time, It was a team effort..and in my opinion, a better over all mural. It started off as a risky gamble and turn into a major success.
We finished up, took pics and talked about how smooth the day was and about the unbelievable odor of piss in the alley where we were painting. LUV asked me did I think dude would take it out again. I said "nah, I don't think so...dude is a lil schizo...I believe its isolated. To rough him up or anything of violents is not necessary for someone like that...he's in his own private hell". But if it does happen again...I know where he lives.
Check out the amazing video produced by LUV-ONE of the days proceedings...peace. -Will Kasso
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