German Street Artist ECB recently finished painting this elongated white guys head on a 150 year old building in the heart of Bushwick, Brooklyn. ECB says he likes painting wrinkles and ends up painting men because they have more. Additionally, stretching them out of proportion is a favorite technique, pushing the features and proportions like silly putty to cover as much space as possible. If you have been in Bushwick much over the past two years you’ve seen many of them wrapping around old warehouses and factory buildings.
ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)
While inspecting the latest ECB, we got to meet the owner of the building, Franz, a senior gentleman who actually was so engaging that he gave an entire tour of it, such is the nature of some friendly people. As you walk from floor to floor seeing how the building is used, it might strike you that Franz could easily be a sitter for one of ECB’s pieces. He explains that this building used to be a family farmhouse an stable and a resting station for horses. Travelers on a long trip from the North would replace their tired team of horses with a new fresh team and continue their journey. On their way back home they picked their own team up and headed back home.
Franz, an emigrant from Austria and a Master cabinet maker, has been working with wood and making custom furniture for over 50 years. He purchased the Bushwick farmhouse 35 years ago for $85,000 once the seller agreed to put on a new roof. Ask him why he still works so hard everyday and he looks at you like you’re crazy. He can build anything you ask, loves what he does, and has a staff of six assistants, one apprentice and an artist for faux wood finishing.
And what about the artists on the street? He said he likes to help out the young artists and is very happy to allow them to paint on the building’s front and sidewalls. He said he enjoys the murals, likes the crumbling paint on the bricks and wants things to stay as they are.
ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Stumbling and slipping and dancing through January here in New York requires dexterity and a tolerance for dry skin and flattened hat-hair and the occasional sore throat. Thankfully there are g...
Intergalactic Godhead and one of New York’s lost sons, the multidimensional Rammellzee is here, at least his pyramidic urn is. The train writer, performance artist, plastic artist, language master, ma...
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. People are so careful sometimes to let you know that certain artists are self-taught. You wouldn’t think it so necessary to make the distinction but it’s of...
At a time when Barcelona has received criticism for allowing iconic murals to disappear, it is a joyful sight to witness street artist and muralist Jaz create a new iconic one after full immersion in...
BSA is in Finland this week to see firsthand the work of UPEART, an expansive mural art festival in its third iteration. Unique for its geographical breadth as well as it’s curatorial depth, UPE...