Posted: Jul 10, 2011 6:39 PM by Zachery Lashway (Great Falls)
Updated: Jul 11, 2011 8:33 AM
Downtown Great Falls is home to many small businesses, homes, parks, and lately - graffiti.
Great Falls artist Deeling Gregory noted, "It hurts everyone in the town, it hurts our hearts to know there's a burned out place in the heart of down town."
Several artists are now working to change the picture of an area of Great Falls that's seen ongoing graffiti problems.
One of the organizers, Julia Becker, said, "I think there's a difference between just randomly tagging and actually creating art."
After a huge fire in 2009, the downtown Rocky Mountain Building was defaced by local vandals. Now artists will paint over the eyesore.
Gregory said, "One of the steps is for artists to heal the wound by painting a beautiful mural or collages."
But unfortunately not every artist has the same mission.
Becker said, "I think we have some really talented graffiti artists in this town who are artists in their own right and they just don't have the venue."
So after a meeting with city officials and other organizations, Julia came up with an idea.
"How about if there's a building where there's a construction site going on and where you put that plywood up around the building. So I just started to talk about that, not thinking about Central Avenue down town and the next day they called me up," explains Becker.
Organizers granted Julia space around the Rocky Mountain Building. Julia immediately began rounding up artists from all walks of life.
"Well wouldn't you say there's a big difference between just tagging random spray paint and then actually start to think about color, form, and subject matter, and making something fun and lively and beautiful? There's just a difference there," noted Becker.
Just ask Tyler Valley, a former graffiti writer.
He stated, "So that's the difference; I am trying to help and do something good here, when graffiti is a little more selfish."
With the collaboration of graffiti writers, beginning artists and local professional artists one thing is fore sure.
"We start to build bonds and bridges and we're all doing the same thing. If it does get tagged we are just going to incorporate it right into it. I mean we hope it doesn't but if it happens we aren't going to be heart broken," explains Becker.
The project is expected to be complete no later than July 17th.
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