Spray Kings Oaxaca

The Murals of Jalatlaco V.

On Alianza one block south of the Space Odyssey mural we find this pre-conquest motif painted very large...I measure it by sight as about forty feet long and eight to ten feet high...Alianza is on the down hill...or uphill...as you please... slant so the height varies. This mural is also by the Spray Kings...in the signing you see the crown at the top and some of the same names as on the previous mural.

Many of the murals here in Jalatlaco are commissioned and many others are created with permission of the owner. But some of them appear to me to be projects by the groups or artists lacking both. As this mural and the previous are on walls of what seem to be abandoned properties...or properties in disrepair, I suspect that they were not commissioned. I also suspect that I might be entirely wrong about that. Just across the street and running the whole block of Cinco de Mayo and a quarter of the blocks of Alianza and Noche Triste there are two large, empty building obviously both owned by the same person and painted blue last week by a team of about ten men.

In the close up of the detail I wanted to make the viewer aware of what the artist sees as he is working. This photograph was taken from arm’s length. The teaching in schools is always that one must step back from the work to see how the particular fits in with the totality as the work progresses. In this case one would step off the sidewalk into what at times is busy traffic. There are many photographs of Matisse drawing with a stick of charcoal tied to the end of a bamboo pole. In the theater the same system is used when transferring a drawing to a large canvas that will become a painted backdrop. I can imagine that technique as the means to apply the cartoon to the wall but I suspect that it can’t be done with a spray can/spray gun. I am very impressed by the mastery of craft and technique in this work. As well I like the high glossy finish: that and the texture of the surface give the work a real sparkle.

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