Drip Invitational brings new murals, graffiti to Pittsburgh neighborhood
A live art event prominently featuring graffiti, the Drip Invitational ironically was inspired by a complaint to the city about graffiti.
Geoffrey Milspaw received a citation from the city of Atlanta for graffiti on his building in the Pittsburgh neighborhood. Many municipalities consider graffiti to be a public nuisance contributing to urban blight. The way Atlanta’s code is written, when a complaint is made, a city inspector has significant leeway to determine if paint on a building is art or if it’s a public nuisance that the property owner must remove.
Chris Wright, also known as Chris Makes Art, was last year’s co-host of the Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival, which transformed the walls of buildings in the same neighborhood. Milspaw reached out to Wright, hoping the artist could turn the so-called public nuisance graffiti on his building at 727 Humphries St. SW into art in order to abide by the city’s regulations. This golden opportunity presented Chris with a site for his latest live painting event, the Drip Invitational, which debuted Oct. 3-5.
For Wright, the word drip has a double meaning. “I was cycling through different names, and I thought of drip — I’m always dripping paint,” said Wright. “When you say, ‘You have some good drip,’ it’s a slang term for how you look.”
The Drip Invitational is part of a growing shift for Atlanta street art events in that it features a mix of murals and graffiti — many live painting festivals feature one or the other.
“In my mission statement, it’s very important because the origins of street art wouldn’t exist without people who paved the way, and that has its roots in graffiti,” said Wright. “For me, it’s important to have (both) represented.”
Many of these new works along Humphries Street were sprayed by the Atlanta Dank Mob crew. A graffiti crew is a close-knit group of writers who share a common style, cultural identity or artistic goal. At last year’s Atlanta Crossroads Mural Festival, Atlanta Dank Mob painted on the same wall with a common color palette. For the Drip Invitational, the crew provided a graffiti component, with each piece sporting a unique color scheme.
The murals and graffiti now covering those walls are certainly eye-catching, but the works gain more significance when you learn the stories behind them:
Chris Makes Art has a bold, colorful, humorous and sometimes confrontational style. In this mural he created for the Drip, Chris makes a statement about holding his own in the inherently impermanent world of street art.
“This mural is about carrying your memories and carrying a universe inside of yourself,” explained Alex Ferror. “If you see inside of (the main character), there is a whole new story being told. And that is an analogy for how we are in our lives.”
Big Teeff’s mural depicts Ed Gein, the notorious serial killer and ghoulish grave robber who inspired the 1959 book “Psycho” by Robert Bloch. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film adaptation of “Psycho” later became a horror classic.
“My parents instilled a love of nature and hiking in me at a young age, so I created this piece to honor that love and bring some nature into the urban context of Atlanta,” said H Dawg, who goes by the moniker CREEP. “I have always enjoyed the work of Bob Ross, and I drew inspiration from his landscape paintings.”
Das.BK, also known as Das Fuerst, initially focused on style writing until he saw how people interact more with characters and environments than with text. The mouse in his mural represents himself: “This guy’s just adventurous. He’s got a paint roller in his hand. Got a spray can in his pocket. He’s just sitting in his world, happy he’s a mouse. And that’s me today.”
Brooke Farewell painted her mural extemporaneously. “I wanted to make some type of elder God, psychedelic, surrealist painting that was a little bit creepy and a little weird, (that) felt massive and larger-than-life and trippy, kind of reaching from the depths.”
In his previous career, Colin Russell, also known as Ghost Town, worked several different jobs in the coffee business. “Something about the community of it, or the culture of it, or something about coffee specifically has always stuck with me. And I really love being able to incorporate it into mural work.”
Nales BTR created a Halloween-themed graffiti piece for the inaugural event. “I really have been loving the revival of the vintage Halloween look, growing up watching all the classic slashers. Halloween seems to slowly be taking a bit of a dive in participants, so I wanted to inspire (people) with a pumpkin and vintage Halloween piece.”
Cameron Moore, also known as Yoyocam, memorialized two fellow artists’ dogs that recently crossed the rainbow bridge. “They’re going to be dog astronauts fighting crime in space. I feel like they were such cool dogs, so that’s probably what they’re doing right now in the afterlife.”
Dannie Niu designed her piece to reflect her Chinese heritage without invoking stereotypes. “I decided to paint a ‘Beijing Opera girl’ and added a bubble gum element — a small, playful touch meant to bridge the distance between Chinese and American cultures.”
In a full-circle moment, this festival that was born out of a graffiti complaint prompted a new graffiti complaint to the police during the event itself. Officers arrived and quickly determined that no laws were being broken. In that moment, something unexpected happened: A police officer expressed curiosity about the event, and one of the writers put a can in the officer’s hand and gave him an impromptu graffiti lesson.
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ArtsATL (artsatl.org) is a nonprofit organization that plays a critical role in educating and informing audiences about metro Atlanta’s arts and culture. ArtsATL, founded in 2009, helps build a sustainable arts community contributing to the economic and cultural health of the city.
