Organizing in-person art workshops during COVID times is strange, but once in a while you still manage to catch a little bit of magic. On a sunny Saturday in February, 9 teenagers from every corner of Los Angeles County came together for a poster design/wheatpaste workshop with some of the pillars of the LA art community. Multi-hyphenate Aaron Rose and his bi-coastal Make Something! Crew pulled us all together with the promise of good times and subway sandwiches, while our lead artist, Cali Thornhill-Dewitt, helped inspire our students with his expansive catalog and easy-going demeanor.
While Cali is most-known for designing the merch for Kanye’s Life of Pablo tour, his DIY punk ethos and expansive rock band history led us down the rabbit hole of designing posters as a means of personal expression. We took sticker alphabets, sharpies, lowrider magazines and clip art, threw it in a blender and made a whole collection of posters that were then printed 18×24. After lunch, we took it outside and took turns wheatpasting everybody’s project right on the corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga, overlooking the Walk of Fame. Word on the street is that the installation might even still be up to this day.
