I love seeing art escape the galleries to infiltrate and enhance everyday life. Every couple of years Denver is festooned with photography in the unlikeliest places in addition to a multitude of galleries and museums for the Month of Photography. Thanks to Mark Sink, lots of volunteers, and the bi-annual Month of Photography that he created, Denver is plastered with giant black and white prints of art submitted by photographers from around the world. Recent editions of The Big Picture have spawned Big Picture pastings in other cities.
This year I had a couple of opportunities to help wheat-paste the big prints around Denver “turning alleys into galleries”. For the record, it is only done on walls with the owners’ permission. In March I helped with the pasting at the 40 West Arts District on Teller Street just north of Colfax. It was a gorgeous spring day and there was lots of work to do. Plenty of volunteers pasted with Mark, putting pictures up according to his directions.
And then in May I helped Mark wheat-paste pictures in the alley by the Buffalo Exchange Annex at 224 East 13th Avenue. It was great fun, a bit sloppy and messy and a wonderful experience. People stopped by to see what was going on, to talk and to enjoy the art.
The work stays up until nature takes it down (usually hail) or it is covered by graffiti or two years later when the next edition takes over.