Blog by artist Laura Tietjens

23/7/2019 2 Comments

Les Chimeneies

Today i painted a wall for the movie Volpina, by director Pere Koniec. It was my first time at Les Chimeneies, a free wall at Barcelona. I never painted in that place, because one says that the walls are so popular that sometimes graffiti artists are waiting for a painter to finish, to go over his art work directly after. I think my ego would not be able to cope with that. Also, the paint is too expensive to make something that only lasts the taking of a photo.
But Pere had chosen that place for his movie, so there i went. At 8 in the morning, to be able to prepare things before the camera and the actors would come at 10.
It is a special place. There are junks, dogs, skaters, the cleaning crew of the municipality, and homeless. Within half an hour i was invited to a free massage by a cocaine user (his words) from Malaga, who has a job in a pastry shop, and whose eyes were a bit sloppy for not having slept all night.
Actually i like the place a lot. A few graffiti admirers passed by, as they always do at the free walls. They enjoy their live museums at their own pace and frequency, to make photos which they post or do not post, very contently looking for new tags and illustrations.
Really, this graffiti thing is a revolution within the art world. A new kind of art public has emerged, which does not get distracted by conventions of what art should be like and what is supposed to be considered good or bad. On the street there are no curators who impose their opinions. There are just passionate painters doing their thing, frantically trying to improve their craft, friendly and silently competing with each other. And the street art lovers don't pay a penny.
At a certain moment there were three cameras at work: One that filmed the skaters, doing their tricks on the ramps and stairs, one that filmed the actors and me, and one making a video clip of girls swinging their round asses about. They had this little dog, that wanted to enter the scene all the time and was then patiently set aside.
Next time i reserve a space at les Chimeneies. Loved it.

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6/7/2019 0 Comments

July 06th, 2019

So then i went to France, to paint a wall. It was a commission from the municipality. They gave me 40 square meters and the trust that i would convert those in something worth the while.
They were really very sweet. They gave me an apartment to live in during the 3 weeks that i thought i would need, a bike to carry me to supermarkets and construction markets, and they drove me around to find the spray cans and varnish that i lacked.
I lacked quite a few. Because i had made photos of the place the year before at the end of an October day, and inspired by those, i had made a design that required like 60 grey spray cans. But when i came there in June, nothing was grey! It was all optimistic greens and deep sky blues and joyful beiges and OMG what to do with all my grey! A miscalculation i hope i will never repeat.
First we had to scrape off the peeling layer of paint that covered the wall, so with masks and heavy machinery and professional peeling paint off walls - suits, we did the job. I felt very cool!
Then it started to rain, and i couldn’t paint (although i tried) and then it rained even more, and then it rained some more. And with the lack of good colours, the lack of a suitable design and the time flowing like raindrops through my fingers, i started to feel like verrrry nervous.
And then the sun came out. And i made long days, to gain back all that lost time. Hours and hours per day, 8 and 10 hours per day, in the burning sun. Oh, life is hard for a maker of art!!! (My tan is great though)
And meanwhile the people of Thyez were so sweet. Inviting me to dinners, wine, cheese, onion soup, coffee, concerts, pizzas, books in french ( I read one and a half, i feel so cool!) and clean sheets and towels.
And then the job was done, and all the mayors (there are like 2 and a half in that village) and important people came to hear my stumbling explanation in french and my words of gratitude, and to pose together for the photo for the newspaper.
And then we happily went to enjoy the quiches and Spanish vegetarian treats (isn’t that extra sweet of them) and wine and local beers to celebrate that, really, sometimes life is quite simple and we don’t always need to weep over refugees or lost animals or injustice or political prisoners: sometimes we can just come together to celebrate that a wall has been painted. Yes.

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July 06th, 2019

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