February 9, 2008...5:00 pm
What Doesn’t Kill You…
When we arrived in Valparaiso, Chile we were stunned by the visuals of the city. The hills shoot up in every direction from the water front and are entirely inhabited, and the various neighborhoods are almost completely covered in graffiti. Almost like the favelas of Rio, but more graffiti and a lot safer. For a small city there is more graffiti here than we have ever seen. But the two artists have had very different experiences here. While Above arrived and immediately went off on his own to explore and paint Ripo’s messed up hand kept him visiting doctors and letting his body rest. But as he arrived in a bad state he will be leaving in an even worse one…
Ripo:
I arrived in Valparaiso with a bad hand and was forced to rest while Above went off painting. Soon after that I was bed ridden with a bad cold and a fever. I realized my body was getting tired and I needed rest. After 3 months on the road, painting as much as possible, traveling around, it definitely takes its toll on you. I was feeling beat but at the same time anxious that I wasn’t painting. Last week Adep from Aislap came to town and we met up to go paint a spot high above the highway. We met up and went out there. As we began to climb up the hill we realized the rocks were not nearly as stable as we had thought, that combined with a heavy bag of paint and we were suffering. As we got up to the same height as the ledge we were going to paint I was holding on to a rock with one hand and the bag of paint with the other, and that’s when the rock broke in my hand. I went plummeting nearly 10 meters sliding/falling down the side of the hill. Adep tried to grab my hand and only succeeded in sending himself down the hill as well. As we hit the bottom we immediately did a damage check. My chest was badly scraped up and his ankle was swelling up fast. We got our stuff together and covered in paint, blood, and gravel limped back home to clean ourselves up. I feel very lucky that we didn’t hurt ourselves worse, although this was the final message telling me that I need a break and not to push myself when I know I shouldn’t anymore. But at the same time I know that I want to take advantage of every moment I have while traveling. This was the motivation to push myself to climb up the hill, and this is the same motivation that is keeping me going throughout this entire trip. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger and when you fall get back up, but take the necessary rest before you do.
Ripo: The red circle is where I was when I fell. Maybe some people will call me stupid for having tried this but you don’t get anywhere always taking the safe way out…
Above: This visual Word/Play is HALF-HEARTED but look close and you can get the full effect.
Above: Valparaiso has so much color in the city! I wanted to add some of my own. Here is a close up of a piece I painted.
Ripo: This was the first piece I did when I arrived in Valparaiso. There was a graffiti event in an old prison which made for an interesting painting environment and with my hand bandaged up I felt like a bird Unfit To Fly. The spacing of the letters didn’t turn out great but with my right hand still bandaged up and in a lot of pain I was forced to use both my left and right hand for this piece.
Above: This huge piece took 2 full days of painting in the hot sun. It might be a bit difficult to judge the size but its about 20 feet tall by 30 feet wide. My imagination gets the best of me when I visualize what the situation of a person Fighting A Liar, Lighting A Fire would actually look like? Trip out!
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