As part of its “Healthy Lifestyles” campaign, CRP was commissioned by Richmond Spokes to create a mural inside their new Spokes Shop on Harbor Way. CRP artists Elijah Pfotenhauer and Desi W.O.M.E tied in Richmond landmarks such as the Richmond Plunge and the Craneway with images of gardening and diet along a bike trail. The mural debuted with the opening of the Spokes Shop and a community block party.
Many Bay Area based personages have been immortalized as characters in CRP murals. [nggallery id=1]
CRP has been inspired by the works of many seminal musical artists. Commemorating then in paint is a good way to acknowledge their amazing contributions. [nggallery id=4]
One of the most consistent messages in CRP’s artwork is living healthy. Whether it is through exercise such as biking, breaking, or dance; or through growing one’s own food, CRP strives to make the connection between culture and subsistence in all of its work. CRP has created bike murals for the Brown Berets’ Bike Shack in Watsonville and Richmond Spokes. On Diego’s Power Alley Gym, CRP emphasized the connection between Mind, Body and Spirit. On the Peace and Dignity mural…
Blight in and of itself is bad enough. But longstanding problems surrounding the city’s much-maligned Building Services department—which include a noncompetitive bidding process for city contracts, exorbitant fees charged to property owners, and little to no community oversight or involvement in the process—only make matters worse.
Last Wednesday’s violent disruption by a small contingent of Black Bloc anarchists after Oakland’s successful General Strike ended has brought to the forefront the role of vandalism and property damage in this otherwise-peaceful movement.
Despite graffiti’s noble origins in rebellion and its evolution into elaborate calligraphy which has set the trends in art and culture for four decades, the mainstream view is that graffiti tagging — the root signatures from this movement — represents an eyesore.
A threat to community’s artists’ ability to create public works is looming, one which maybe drowned out in the congratulatory cheers, now that the immediate wrong has been righted.
In 2009, CRP was commissioned through Lao Family Community Development to work with 30 employed youth for a six week summer project. The project cleaned-up 150 blocks of trash, painted 5 murals, threw 4 block parties, surveyed the community, and took over 5,000 photos from which they created a 28 page full-color magazine. Three of the large scale murals were created on the Foothill Cultural Corridor.
