Have Art, Will Travel: PBR Mural Dudes Hit Westport Then Run
Ah, the life of a traveling mural painter…
Long days, uncertain elements, groupies. Such is the life for New Yorkers Dan Herrington and Charlie Black who laid down four king size Pabst Blue Ribbon beer artworks in Westport – three on Bill Nigro’s Federal Storage warehouse overlooking the Beaumont Club’s new backyard.
The origin of the art?
“It was a contest that Pabst ran and these are three of the winners,” Black says. “They had about 50 winners overall. We’ve been to Boise, Atlanta, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Minneapolis.”
How long it takes to scaffold up the side of a building and lay one down?
“Well, let’s see – probably a day for each one,” Black says. “I have an artwork to paint from and we send photos of the finished art to our sales guys who forward it to Pabst or their creative agency.”
*Degree of difficulty: “It’s hard work, physically hard work” Black says. “And you know it’s a skill – it’s a muscle in your brain that tires people out – we work seven days a week, sunup to sundown until we’re done.”
*Most intense: ”The biggest was 27 stories for Delta in New York City seven years ago,” Black says.
*How it pays: “It’s an hourly rate; it’s really good pay. I’m well paid, but I don’t have any money in the bank. It all goes to bars and women.”
Wildest mural painting story?
“Well, I got shot at in San Francisco last year,” Black says. “I got shot with a BB gun – it was a drive-by BB gun shooting. I guess that’s what these little gangbangers do to start a fight. At least that’s what I was told. I chased ‘em but they were in a car..”
“And in Seattle I was standing in about six inches of piss, but we didn’t know it was piss until the next day. I put milk crates down to stand on. We were behind a restaurant and it was disgusting. It was from all these crackheads – they were just peeing there and the drain had clogged. There were about 50 to 60 crackheads there at any given time. It was crazy!”
Any crackheads in Westport?
“I haven’t seen any crackheads here,” Black says.
How about beer sign groupies?
“Yeah, definitely,” he says. “We have girls buy us cookies all the time; bring us lunch. Wherever people meet us, they think it’s cool. They get really excited about it.”
Any amorous ones?
“Hopefully the cookie will lead to intimacy,” Black explains. “We get a lot of girls that get excited about us when we go out and hang out in bars covered with paint. They ask us what we do, they say, ‘Are you a painter?’ and we say, ‘No, never touch the stuff.’ Sarcasm is a big part of our work.”
Next up: back to NYC for 2 days then off to Austin, Texas for a 10 day mural rampage
June 4th, 2009 at 7:05 am
I would have liked to ask them if their artwork ever gets ruined by taggers. Seems like lots of businesses these days are opting for putting murals on the sides of their buildings so that taggers won’t put graffiti on the walls.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:52 am
[...] image. In other cities, it seems like the muralists preferred buildings to billboards, but here’s an interview done with the guys who installed the billboard murals in the Midwest. When PBR decides to [...]
October 21st, 2009 at 10:18 am
[...] image. In other cities, it seems like the muralists preferred buildings to billboards, but here’s an interview done with the guys who installed the billboard murals in the Midwest. When PBR decides to [...]
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:00 pm
[...] image. In other cities, it seems like the muralists preferred buildings to billboards, but here’s an interview done with the guys who installed the billboard murals in the Midwest. When PBR decides to [...]