Wide Open Walls | Sacramento | Aug. 10-20, 2017

Art Basil? Art Schmasil? Stavanger? Schmavanger? Venice? Schmenice?
SacToe? YO!!! YO!!! YO!!! One week out!!! #WOW916

Got a text from my nephew today which said, "Where is a good place with color for pictures", after silencing my internal snarky replies and defining a few parameters like, what he meant by "pictures" and "color"? I quickly replied, "Downtown!"

It is really amazing to witness how far my city has come with embracing the arts, especially that fringe art element also known as "street art". "See kid back in my day, we didn't have all these fancy colorful pitchers up on the walls with all them doodads, flares and bits, we just had a few spots here and there, a couple train yards and the occasional freeway wall that would be buffed within hours of rockin'." If you are from my generation, you can definitely testify to the change over past 20+ years, here in this beloved city of ours.

There are like a bajillion murals downtown #SacToe916, many painted by the local home grown, for one to take photos of which one could incorporate the theme of color. In fact, I have walked around midtown all day and all night from one mural to the next and still have yet to catch most of it. Don't believe me?... check yo self fool...

https://journalistnate.com/sacramento-mural-map/

Joan Didion wrote about how California's true gold was and has always been in the soil. All those fine ass minerals, all those irons and niacins, fuck what crew did I offend? All those nutrient dense goodies from tippy top of our Sierra's all whom have have fallen, descended and washed away to eventually settle into our own happy little valley. Many of us have grown together in this same nutrient dense soil, which has fed and helped many of us to grow up nice and strong. Despite each of us competing for that same light or shine. The amount of creative talent that this little valley produces is staggering, and I feel lucky to witness this evolutionary growth spurt for this community.

So, I just wanted to take a moment, to share how proud and excited I am for this city, SacTown, SacToe, SACRAMENTO (in my Cuf voice).

Why am so proud & excited? We are one week out from Wide Open Walls opening. Wide Open Walls? WTF is that? Well, let me just tell you WTF IT IS!

"The Wide Open Walls mural festival is taking place from August 10th through the 20th, 2017. It will bring over 40 artists – local, national and international – to the Sacramento area."

That's right #SacToe916 is about to get forty new murals in the next few weeks, starting August 10th...which is only one week out from today. David Sobon, the founder and producer of Wide Open Walls, has put together a nice cross section of local, national and international artists to bless #SacToe916 with 40 new murals. I am impressed by this years lineup of artists and looking forward to enjoying this event over the next coming weeks. Look at you #SacToe916, being all metropolitan and shit. Wide Open Walls coming on the heels of the success of both Art Hotel (2017) and Art Street (2016) which was produced by M5 Arts, which showcased a cross pollination of same home grown talent.

RIP | Daniel "DJ Whores" Osterhoff, 2017, ArtStreet, Sacramento

Of course I will be rooting for the local home grown as always, Shaun Burner, Franceska Gamez, Steven Williams, Molly Devlin, Waylon Horner, Raphael Delgado, Jose Di Gergorio, John Horton, Jeff Musser, Miles Toland, BAMR, Lopan, Ernie Fresh, & Kinetik Ideas, to take home the championship cup.

But that visiting team got some heavyweights tho, Adnate (Melbourne, Australia), Askew One (Aukland, New Zealand), Caratoes (Hong Kong, China), Jorit Agoch (Naples, Italy), Lora Zombie (Voronezh, Russia), Okuda (Madrid, Spain), Phlegm (Sheffield, UK), TRAV (MSK), & HowNosm (NYC), and they ain't going to make is easy. This ain't gonna be no easy layup, I count three fences, two security patrols, eight cameras and junk yard dog that is mean as fuck.

HowNosm 2012, Stavanger, Norway

Ok, my local home grown, let us not forget what happened at the 2002 NBA West Conference Finals, we ain't just gonna let some out-of-town Lookie Lou's come up in here and wreck shop without a good fight, we got too much heart to go out like that. We ain't no suckas! Yo, where on the menu is that Doug Christie's knuckle sandwich? We servin' up hot and fresh for those punk ass Robert Horry fans. NEVER FORGET!

Come Get You Some! #SacToe916

Website Link: http://www.wow916.com/

Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/Wideopenwalls916/

Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/wideopenwalls916_/

Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/WideOpenWalls_

Press Links:

https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/wide-open-walls-art-in/content?oid=24711295

http://submergemag.com/art/david-sobon-wide-open-walls/

http://www.sactownmag.com/Blog/2017/Wide-Open-Walls-muralists/