Flint Public Art Project asked me back for a second year. I was surprised too, but turns out they were looking forward to me creating a suffering superhero piece in Flint. How could I say no.
We found a good door for the project and I started creating a few mock ups. I was very drawn to a panel in “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” (from Marvel’s The Amazing Spider-Man #121-122) . Fingers crossed I too could make it amazing.
The simplicity and power of the body language in the panel created an emotional reaction for me. I thought it would be even more stirring if painted human size with a light source.
I was fortunate to be accompanied by my lovely wife Larysa on the trip. When using large stencils it’s ridiculously helpful to have a second set of hands helping to mitigate random gusts of wind. She’s also a fantastic photographer and documented the whole process (these photos were all taken by her). Here’s the final piece:
Working together we finished the piece in one very long day, freeing us up to go paint bricks gold all over town the rest of the week.
Each gold brick is set up with a pixelstix tag so it can be read by a smartphone. There will be discounts and a scavenger hunt using these bricks soon. I’m very excited by all the new possibilities of pairing technology with my art. A lot more of this to come :)
And here’s how it works: