On Saturday I arrived in Sacramento, CA for the first annual Wide Open Walls mural festival. After overcoming my zombie-like status, with a hectic Sunday sleep in, I (slightly) adjusted from AUS to USA timezone, and put rubber to asphalt to see some walls. The event started last Thursday, so even as I chilled in LAX on my stop over I learned a couple walls had already been completed. The flip side being that other artists were only on first lines, or hadn’t arrived yet.
There’s about 40 walls going down, with even more artists on hand to complete said walls. So while I spent the last two days cruising with Zane and Keya from Chop Em Down (with Josef behind the wheel), I still haven’t made it to every wall yet. Up to this minute, it’s been awesome catching up with my bro Askew One (New Zealand), and breaking all the rules of the breakfast table (via deep conversation). Trav MSK (Los Angeles) is rocking a bloody (B.L.O.O.D.Y) huge wall with his signage-inspired works. Phlegm (UK) does awesome work, so it’s cool to have him out here too. I’ve also jumped past to see progress of Tavar Zawacki, Caratoes, Christina Angelina, How & Nosm, Few & Far, Jorit Agosh, Jeff Musser, Waylon Horner, Shaun Burner & Franceska Gámez, Lopan & Ernie Fresh, and Tyson Anthony Roberts.
Anyways, over and out and all that jazzzz. We’ll bring you more photos as the festival progresses. If you’re in the area, be sure to hit Sacramento and check it out. Wide Open Walls continues until 20 August.
Many thanks to Warren, David, Margaret and the crew for having us out here.
For more info hit www.wow916.com or follow us on Instagram (@ironlak, @wideopenwalls916_) to see live updates from the festival.
✌️5000
Words and photographs by Luke Shirlaw
