I’ve been telling a lot of people about this crab, but few people have seen it in real life. Though the job started in May and finished in June, the Harborplace 30th birthday party wasn’t until the first weekend in July. I imagine that if there was any grand unveiling, it was then. Shawn James ( the smiling gentleman pictured below) was hired by Harborplace to re-paint the image on their crab sculpture, one of the many that are scattered around the city. they were originally painted and auctioned off in an effort to raise money for city schools, i believe. a quick search for any combination of ‘baltimore’, ‘crab’, ‘painted’, ‘art’, ‘sculpture’, and ‘auction’ should give you an idea… they’re like the cows in New York City, or the five year olds in child beauty pageants (OH SNAP GOT ‘EM). Shawn is the one who hired me for all of the public murals I’ve worked on in Baltimore (Fells Point, the downtown farmers market, and Harlem Park Rec.), so it was fun working alongside him, and on a pretty unique canvas. At times, though, it felt like one of the weirdest jobs I’ve done.
It’s like a giant vinyl toy!
We started out in a storage space in the parking garage with only one fan that we had to point out so the dust and paint chips wouldn’t get in our lungs. Here we scraped the old paint off the crab, sanded it, and cleaned it, mostly with hand-held power tools that were overheating and breaking as we used them. Then we were moved into the mall into a small, all white room with track lighting, directly across from Hooters. See what I mean about it feeling weird?
Shawn going to work on some hand-painted lettering…
… and dreading building a skyline with blue painters tape.
The room quickly filled up with paint buckets, newspapers, pizza boxes, dead brushes, coffee-turned-mixing cups, re-purposed apples, boxes, bags, extra work clothes, and a few beer bottles. Shawn printed reference material and i taped the images to a wall where we could grab and replace them like stickers. We talked about turning over the provided table and sleeping behind it so we could get an early start. We never did, though.
The legs and curves on the shell were fun to paint on, but sometimes awkward to reach.
We traded on an off, but for the most part I handled the logo-side while Shawn beat out the city-scape of Harborplace. This was my first time copying a corporate logo rather than creating a new one, and the projector was a nice safety net/time saver.
The fireworks got a lot of attention.
As it started to come together, we started to get a little more attention from people walking around the mall and visiting the harbor. I had a few really good exchanges and interactions with groups of kids on their 5th grade or middle school graduation trips, the security guards, and a handful of the people just there to hang out (the title of this post is a quote from one conversation i had with some serious looking dudes who kept addressing me as ‘Money’). my favorite was the toddler who was unsure if he was really allowed to touch the crab and kept looking to his momma to make sure i wasn’t lying.
There were times, though, where we would be approached silently by tourists who wouldn’t say anything, they’d just watch us work for a moment, maybe take our picture (again, silently), and leave. I tried to beckon some of these types in, but they shook their heads and mouthed ‘no thank you!’ and quickly left. I found it bizarre, especially the ones who just wanted a picture but no verbal interaction.
So damn close!
Eventually I stopped taking pictures and just worked through until the end, which is what I usually end up doing on a project. It came down to the last day but we got it done, and Harborplace was very happy with the results.
The finished front.
The finished back.
I think painting the people in the cityscape was the most fun. I got to be pretty gestural with them, but tried to make them unique in some way. The Uni Maryland guy I stuck in the foreground is too freakin’ much. Shawn and I thought he was hilarious at first, but looking at him now… i dunno, he kinda looks like a goon. 
Like I said, I haven’t seen it in person since we wrapped out of our workspace, but I’m going to be closer to the Inner Harbor next weekend (Artscape!) than I am on a regular basis, so I’ll check and get photos then.
Also, if you’d like to see more progress photos of the crab taken by someone who actually calls himself a photographer, have a look at my buddy Justin’s blog. He makes us look real damn pretty.
Next: the reason I’m going to be at Artscape all of next weekend
John! I’m the girl from your “pleasant” table this afternoon…your artwork is amazing! I’m loving this crab project. Where is it located and when is Artscape? {I’m pumped for Artscape!}