Two Murals at the Woolen Mills

New York graffiti muralist David Ellis and Tibetan thangka painter Pema Rinzin were both visiting The Bridge in early May, so we asked them to grace our fair city with a collaborative mural.

David, a member of the NYC collective The Barnstormers, painted the mural on the front of our arts space in Belmont during the We People event last fall; he and Kiku Yamagachi were passing through town for the weekend and we were glag for the chance to hang out with them again.

Pema was in town that week for a talk at The Bridge on thangka painting; the artist-in- residence at the Rubin Museum of Art, Pema is trained as a traditional thangka painter, and has also studied Japanese animation and contemporary Western art, but had never before painted graffiti.

Brilliant local artists Allyson Mellberg and Jeremy Taylor also came along and painted a wonderful mural of their own, right around the corner.

Many thanks to Max Fenton and Victoria Long for organizing the painting expedition; Andy Jenkins, James Ford and Greg Kelly also lent a hand.