(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
After a false start three weeks ago, street artist Logan Hicks is ready to give his Bowery Graffiti Wall mural another shot. The stencil mural, entitled Story of My Life, was supposed to go up the last week of July, but was scrapped after the wood panels that held the canvas shifted positions overnight, ruining the half-finished piece.
By the time the panels failed, Hicks had already put in three days of work in the scorching heat, completing two layers out of a total of five. Unfortunately, none of his work could be salvaged after an onslaught of intense heat and downpours that Hicks likened to “Biblical flood rains” brought extreme swings in temperature and humidity, causing the boards to expand and contract. The movement left visible striations in the mural, so the whole thing was blasted down and the wood panels were replaced with more durable, weatherproof ones.
Shortly after the new wall was set, however, another graffiti artist went rogue and took advantage of the pristine wall to start their own mural project, as reported by EV Grieve. Crews then had to spend even more time cleaning up the hooligan’s work to prepare the wall for a third time. But let’s be real, whether inadvertently or intentionally, the uninvited street artist certainly made a statement about how much the medium has changed in recent years from an outside-the-law art form to one where official sanction can be the difference between “graffiti” and “street art.”
But now, Hicks– who is best known for his incredibly detailed graffiti depictions of New York City streets and other urban tableaus– is finally at it again, with a newly set canvas ready for his piece.
“Story of My Life” is a massive mural that covers the entirety of the Bowery Wall with the faces of people who are significant in some way or another to Hicks. He composed the group portrait last month, by gathering a group of friends, family and collaborators in SoHo, where he shot a series of photos of the crowd. He then painstakingly converted these photos into composite stencils, which he’ll be rendering onto the wall– all the while undoubtedly praying that both the angry weather gods and mischievous taggers will allow him some peace.
To add insult to injury, Hicks’s rescheduling now has him working days that seem positively balmy compared to that last week in July. If this Answers.com post is to be trusted, then the 320 degree melting point of paint isn’t too far from what it feels like right now, so be careful, Hicks— we’d hate to see you lose another one.