Green RuckSack

Email: "Dear Dudes, have you seen my green backpacker back pack? It was in the basement but now it's gone. Maybe one of you borrowed it?"

No reply. Lost cause. Gone forever.

2 days later I get a phone call from Zach.

Zach:

"Dave, I just saw your back pack. I was running around the lake and the guy who sits there everyday has it."

Dave:

"Come with me, let's go!"  Sudden adrenaline rush. 

"Wait, we need to take something to exchange with him." So I grab a suitcase from the basement before taking off. 

Dave:

"How you doing? I'm pretty sure that's my back pack. I'm here to ask for it back. Will you give it me? We brought this suitcase here so that you have somewhere to put your clothes." 

Dude with sunglasses and bike that kicks it on the same spot by the lake, you know that guy:

"It's not yours. How do you know it's yours?"

Dave: 

"I could prove it to you. On the inside there's a net and the name of the backpack "Traverse". Check it out. Let's see."

Dude: 

"How do you know? Prove it?

Dave:

"I just told you how."

Dude:

"Prove it."

Starting to get angry - this is going no where, contemplating just grabbing it and running or taking the bike and then when he asks for it back, saying "prove it" "how do you know?" But I decide to call the cops. Not wanting to add another petty, ugly thing to all the other petty, stupid things already existing in Oakland. I even think about just letting him have it and walking away - maybe he really needs it, I have the means (somehow or another -  even though the backpack cost me $300 and I'm pretty broke), maybe he doesn't, he's homeless or at least plays the part well. 

For some reason the cops can't find us. It's stupid.

The dude gets tired of waiting and decides to hop on his bike and ride to the local OPD substation. We chase him. It's kind of a hilarious sight; one bearded asian dude, one bearded white dude running behind a black, bearded dude on a bike. The substation was empty so he road on. We're getting pretty upset at this point. Feeling stupid.  We happen to see a cop car and tell them the short version. They catch him. He refuses to return the backpack for a long while and finally decides he would. The cops can't legally make him even though I could describe distinguishing features.

The pack reeks of bum and piss. I wash and leave it out back to dry. It gets stolen again. I can't win. 

It's sentimental. She's been with me to over 20 countries. I try to take her out once in while so that she can live to her fullest potential. Do what she was created to do. I'm afraid whoever has her now wouldn't. Stuck in the urban jungle.

I run the lake a few times a week the see the guy. I try to say hi but he never sees me or feigns it. Whatever. 

Me and her. We were united - one. Now we're separated forever. 

4th and MacArthur and Halmoni

4th of July at lake temescal, officially my favorite park, this is the same park Elaine and I threw our 30th birthday, cake fight, there's hiking, swimming, creeks, bbqs, stone skipping - fun forest and fantasy for the whole family.

Growth

My first gig after finishing the San Pablo and 35 mural. Doing this art piece on plywood panels with the kids from Shalom of Oakland in the East.

I did this sketch and had them grid out the image on the plywood.

Natasha and Halmoni (where I had my first solo show) had it's one year anniversary. I seriously believe this is a model of what businesses in Oakland should be like - shop owners who are genuinely about getting to know people and building community through events and relationship. Businesses should become hubs /club houses where people can come and hang out and create a positive space that radiates into the surrounding blocks. That's how you start the slow transformation of a community. I'm convinced. 

After Party

After the mural was through the team got together for the official afterparty at an undisclosed location in Oakland. 

Respite

Thus mural consumed 2 and a half weeks of my life straight. Pure dedication. Anticipated dedication. I took 2 days off. These are the things I did to relax during the time:
Watched Snow White and the Huntsman - had no idea Kristen Stewart was the Twilight chick until after, she was a dope Snow Whitey. Prometheus too - had no idea it was the prequel to Alien.

 Meat Locker, Oakland, CA - Literally a meat locker where I saw Moon Pearl and Dash Jacket cook.

Flying kites a mid shoreline smack in the middle of the port.

 Witnessed the Giants ripped a second one by the Cardinals -but the real winners were the seagulls  scavenging all the food we wasteful humans leave behind - I joined in on the fun too - it was like heaven.

Oakland is Beautiful - San Pablo and Thirty Five

3 days ago I started working on this mural, with 11 others in West Oakland, on 35^th and San Pablo, a project put together by an amazing organization called Attitudinal Healing Connection. It's slated to be the biggest, and brightest mural in Oakland -spanning the entire width of the 580 freeway. 

I'm excited about the potential to get to know and bond with the other artists, highly-trained elite soldiers trained to perform unconventional, often high-risk missions, I realized at our first meeting that the one thing I value most, which I require before joining any organization, is the potential of meeting new people, gaining a new community, making new friends - this needs to be in place before I can commit fully. It's a fact that I'm experiential, that's how I learn, thrive. I function, learn by way of encountering new experiences. There's a word for this.

Three days into the project. We were all focused on our respective area of the mural, making progress. I walked over to the staging area to work on something when just 2 feet away from me the camera guy who was crouched over, his back to the street was shoved to the ground from behind. At the same time 2 others came from behind him, grabbed the cameras, tripod and all and then booked across the street. The camera guy rolled over looked me right in my eyes and said "they got both the cameras. Get them." I responded, "I can't, they have a gun."And stood there as they got in their get away car and took off. 

Oakland is beautiful. 

They say there's just 2 people who cause all the trouble in Oakland. They go to East Oakland and cause havoc there then come over to the West and pull something here. And go back and forth 400 times until you feel like there's a gang of people pulling stuff. 

The problem is we happened to be the recipients of that .

I've been in Oakland long enough to expect things like that - personal experience, neighborhood list serves and stories - so even though it was tragic. I can walk away unaffected. Surprising, but not. Then I was reminded that there was a violation, some people entered my space, maybe not personal, but my visual space and carried out something I didn't want to experience. 

I was reflecting on this and was thinking back to the 8th Street wall - working on that thing all day and night in a way more serious neighborhood with way more flashy equipment and nothing happened to us, I mean I even stayed til 2 am one night. We were blessed, or protected, or looked out for, or lucky. 

So how does one think about this? Beautifying Oakland while getting attacked. It's the front lines. Battle on, one wall at a time. 

Anyhow the wall is done!

Lailans mom, Floyds wife rolled thru. 

This ex pro BMXer was super stoked about the BMXer I painted.