The Graffiti Bat-Mitzvah

DPA recently worked with a long-time client and friend to create an awesome space to celebrate her daughter’s 13th birthday and Bat Mitzvah. The two of them ended up perusing this blog and the coverage of the Bomb Threat parties caught their eye. They asked if I could recreate something on a slightly smaller scale but with a similar feel for the celebration. I decided to have some sturdy but lightweight 4×8 panels built to be painted and hung in various places throughout the warehouse event space. I also wanted to bring the experience of watching a graffiti artist live to this audience that would not often have the chance to see that, so I planned for an 8×12 foot wall to be constructed on site and painted live during the event.

My client offered up their amazing warehouse as a space to paint and store the panels until the party. I invited a handfull of new orleans best graffiti artists to come paint panels for the birthday girl. We ended up having a couple of really fun painting sessions in that warehouse. I initially had been told that there was no electricity in the building, which created a problem because I wasn’t able to get in there and have people paint until after work hours during the week. I ended up venturing out onto the back roof and yelling up at an open apartment window to see if someone would let me string some extension cords from their place (:P). Friendly neighbor Armand ended up obliging, and I was able to hang halogen bulb strings throughout the workspace. They created a really nice environment to hang out and paint in for a few afternoons. (sidenote: I was back in the warehouse a few days later with another artist… He asked if he could charge his phone, to which I explained that we didn’t currently have electricity running. He gave it a shot anyway and to my surprise, the charging light illuminated… Guess we had power the whole time hahaha)

The workspace

Workin’

AMES Panel

TARD Panel

BORDO getting started

ERNR Panel

ISHU Panel

When the time came, I transported the panels to the site, and hung them with wire. I was also lucky enough to be able to borrow a READER piece saved from the first Bomb Threat. I decided to hang that behind where the band was to play on a really cool ornate fence that I decked out with those same halogen bulb strings.

Panels hung

READ and the band

The event itself was really awesome. The family and their additional planners had really put alot into that night. One of the most interesting pieces of their programming was this cool portable set-up that actually printed flipbooks on the spot. A camera would record party-goers for about 7 seconds, and then this printer device would print every frame of that video and assemble it into an animated flipbook! I thought that was a pretty cool little party favor. I asked MAKER to come out and paint live for the party-goer’s to watch… He absolutely killed it! To make the live wall interactive we allowed attendees to come spray their name or whatever they wanted on the wall. Later on, MAKER went in with black and used the previous layers of what the kids had written as a great fill for the letters BIBI (The birthday girl’s name).

Getting up in heels!

Final product. Nice.

My client was super psyched on the way the wall had turned out, and the brief glimpse into the graffiti artist’s world that the installation had allowed. The rest of the party really went great… Awesome food, great music, drinks (for the adults, duh), and dancing. At the end, party-goer’s received favors including a sweatshirt of my own design. The logo included the birthday girl’s initials and a 504 representing New Orleans.

party swag.

I want to thank all of the artists that helped me make this young lady’s celebration extremely special: Skylar Fein, MRSA, Nobel, Tard, Ernr, Kits, Maker, Ishu, Ames, and Bordo. I also wanted to give a shoutout to the photographer at the party, Kristin Glenn. Most of the images of the actual party below are hers. Check out her website here. This project seriously rocked. Please check out the photoset below!