A DRIP Day-glow Paint Surprise Party

This sketch was done a while ago as DRIP prepared to perform at the City Arts Factory. Evan Miga is busy preparing the printing press while David Traver is working on hanging mirrors from the rafters. Samantha Hudson is the dancer waiting in the wings. For this performance the dancers used the press to print edible ink on small cakes that were then offered to the audience. After this sketch was done Jessica Mariko asked to see what I had done. As I was showing her a City Arts staff member approached me and said “Excuse me this is a veeery exclusive event, you will have to leave.” Then with a flick of his wrist he said “Shoo!” My sketch was finished and I was ready to go anyway, but once again I found myself not welcome.
Months later I was invited to go to a surprise birthday party for Evan. The party took place in a small children’s art studio off of Colonial Drive called “My Art Studio” ( 4401 East Colonial Drive, Suite 106). I arrived early as instructed with a towel and a change of clothes. I entered an empty room where dancers were painting Happy Birthday in day-glow green paint on the walls. I helped by painting a blazing sun under the birthday lettering. Terry stopped in but she was still in her work clothes. I suspected things would get messy. I decided to leave my sketchpad in the safe room. When the main lights were turned off and a black light turned on the lettering glowed vibrantly. Jessica informed us that Evan was on the way and so we all hid behind a table for the surprise. We all crouched behind the table in the dark for the longest time, the anticipation growing. The plan was that Christie would walk Evan to the center of the room and then the black light would flick on and we all would shout surprise while stripping Evan and getting him into grubby work clothes. Then he was doused with a full bucket of watery paint and hit with silly string.
Paper was taped to the walls and we all painted at each and had to move on when the music changed. The music changed often until there was barely time to get one stroke on each page. Soon we were just throwing paint at the walls. Then the paint war began and I was caught in the cross fire! Everyone started throwing sponges soaked in paint at each other. Then paint was thrown straight from the bottles. Syringes were used as high power paint pistols. Before I knew it I was soaked head to toe, a living day-glow Pollock painting. When there was finally no paint left, Evan started hosing people down. For whatever reason this room had a garden hose and a drain in the center of the floor. He hit me with the cold spray and I washed the paint off my head and arms as fast as I could. Afterward we all lay down on the wet floor and had a group photo taken with Evan in the center. DRIP certainly knows how to throw a creative birthday party! It turns out anyone can plan a paint party at “My Art Studio.”