Click to view large image
Graffiti Mural Project by Peter Agardy, Douglas Hoekzema and John Griffin
Is a community graffiti mural project that transformed a 25' high x 100' long Sara Sims Racquetball court wall located at 209 NW 9th Court facing MLK Boulevard.
The Graffiti Mural Project was completed early December 2009. Most mural projects commission an artist(s) to paint a single wall for public art demonstration purposes. This project included an educational and community component. Graffiti Art is a unique form of art that is challenging to master. It is very appealing to the youth and a great way for them to positively express themselves. This art form showcased Boynton youth's participation in a positive outcome and contributes to the transformation and enrichment of the community.
The Graffiti Mural Project was funded by the Youth Violence Prevention Program through the Palm Beach County Criminal Justice Commission. It taught youth the positive aspects of "Graffiti Art" as opposed to negative and illegal "tagging." Youth enjoyed the activity of painting and contributed positively to the social capital of their community. Social investment is key to the Heart of Boynton redevelopment efforts. The project created a series of community events called "painting sessions" that began on September 26, 2009 and continued through October 15 and 29, 2009.
This project contributes to economic development and provides capital improvement for the City.
The best way to provide an overview of the project is to let the lead artist, Peter Agardy, express all the project experience.
"I think everyone involved in this project learned a lot, from the kids involved in the painting sessions, to the community passerby's, to us the artists and everyone in between. I think we all have a greater knowledge for what a vibrant important piece of artwork can do for the community, its surroundings and the individuals involved in it.
We started with a small demonstration, which was the ice-breaker for the painting sessions. We had a decent turnout, learned about what we may have to expect for the future Sessions and what positive message the youth could get out of it. Overall it was fun and successful, as were the following painting sessions. We had an audience of youths ranging from the ages of 5 - 18 years old. Some came from throughout the county and many from the community. Seeing this was great because we got to spread our message to youth from other parts of the county and communities.
Interacting with the youth and translating ideas for the wall were challenging at first, but a few young Graffiti writers really took a strong lead in wanting to learn and participate.
As the program progressed, we came to the table with a sketch that I created from a collage of a few of my paintings. The sketch integrated musical artist figures throughout the foreground and background. It was a bold idea, and a challenging one to paint. Very precise line work and vectorize shading, along with the combination of colorful musical characters such as a blues guitarist, a jazz sax player, DJ and R&B singer would make up the large scale version for the sketch and final product. It shows the transition from select genres of African American inspired music. While keeping to the sketch as much as possible, and needed, we had many times where improvisation was necessary and also quite natural as the progression of the wall progressed. The scissor lift equipment was a lifesaver and could give us awesome perspective views from afar for critiquing the wall's progress.
A very important part of the wall is the DJ in the middle, not only representing hip hop culture of which Graffiti is a main component, but the pleasure of introducing a local artist, Jermaine Johnson, to paint the DJ character. Jermaine grew up and still lives on the same block as Sarah Sims Park and walks by the wall everyday. He approached us on the first day of painting and asked if he could be a part of the wall. I readily agreed under the condition that his skill as an artist was up to par with our goals for the mural. He came back the next day with at least 3 sketches and a full color rendering of the DJ idea.
Needless to say, I was convinced he could do the job. In the end, with little help from us, he pulled off his biggest piece to date! This was the icing on the cake for this project. It justified the whole project to me beyond what I could have thought would be possible. To have a community artist be part of such a big positive thing.
While we were painting the wall we interacted with the community on a daily basis. Locals who hung out at Sara Sims Park daily took pictures with their camera phones to show others in the community; Moms, Dads, Aunts and Uncles brought their kids to see the wall's progress and youth hung out to learn about the art. We often worked until the lights went out around 10 P.M. and one night heard gun shots. The next day when we asked the locals what happened, they said nobody was talking about the shots but they were all talking about the wall. Mostly the comment we heard was, They were really happy to see something being done in their community'.
In the end, the project was a success and the mural turned out to be Awesome! There ended up being a total of six artists who worked on the mural throughout its production. A great group effort for a great community project!"
Other main artists: Douglas Hoekzema and John Griffin
3 Guest artists: Jermaine Johnson, Angel Mir, Chan Shepard
This project was promoted beginning mid September 2009 through flyers distributed at community and City facilities, web site postings, BBTV, The Education Network airings and newspaper articles. Members of the community were informed through emails and phone communications.
Documentaries were filmed by the Youth Violence Prevention Program youth under the assistance of producer, Gary Davis. G-Star School of West Palm Beach assigned youth to produce a documentary as a class assignment. The documentaries are airing on BBTV, The Education Network and various distribution channels.
Graffiti Artists Peter Agardy and Doug Hoekzema have exhibited in the 2009 and International Art Basel in Miami, completed custom artwork for the Delray Beach International Tennis Champion each year and have created countless public art graffiti murals and demonstrations. They have booth had heir artwork in private exhibits. For more information visit their web sites.
Learn more about the graffiti artists by visiting their web sites at:
