Trump Lives! Mitch Street Art, and You Can Help!

I love the concept of “guerrilla” street art. Where you just come up with something crazy, drag it downtown at 2am, and wait ’til the next morning to get a reaction from the 1000’s of folks on their way to work. I’ve done plenty of gallery shows and (for me at least) it feels like the only way to get people to attend is to drive to their homes, grab them by the hand, and personally bring them to the event. The guerrilla way seems so much easier!
 Half of being an artist is doing good work. The other half is getting folks to look at it.

Then I thought of billboards combined with the most popular image I’ve ever come up with, the Donald Trump/They Live mash-up.
People seem to LOVE it! 49% because of their feelings for Trump.
49% because of their feelings for “They Live”
and 2% because I drew it well. :-)

It’s been EVERYWHERE, magazines, all over the internet, store windows, protest signs, tattooed, graffiti and bootlegged on everything from posters, shirts, pins, stickers to underwear.

Now I don’t have the skills and crew to climb up billboard posts in the dead of night, unravel a 20 by 30’ foot banner of my art, attach it, them rappel down before the police arrest us. I’m going the easy route with Go Fund Me to legally put my They Live tribute up on billboards in Washington DC, and the contributors to Go Fund Me are the crew.
This way, everyone can stay in bed and avoid getting an arrest record!

To see all the details about getting involved in the fun, please check out-

https://www.gofundme.com/trump-lives

Support Your Local Wrestler! Good Times at the Minor Leagues of Professional Wrestling!

Weekends are among the Father/Son adventure times, so I had the thought to take Aiden to enjoy some local wrestling. Where they’re going on is a little hard to track down (no advertising budget might be part of the reason) but through chicagopowerwrestling.com I found that ‘Fusion Wrestling’ was going on at the '5 Star Swap Meet’ in Villa Park. It’s on!
It took an additional bit of effort to find the ring as the manager of the Swap Meet building insisted that there was nothing scheduled, and the ‘way to get there’ I was directed too by another guy was locked and gated off. We drove behind the building to see no hints of anything going on, but circled back and spied a dad and 2 peewees walking around. Yes, they were looking for it too and found a door with the lettering ‘Lucha Wrestling’ stenciled in red. Victory! 5 minutes later we were the first to be let in.
I’ve always liked stumbling upon the minor leagues of professional wrestling. It seems more ‘real’ and relatable. When a well paid 6’ 8” 280lb guy in the WWE jumps off the 3rd rope to crush an opponent it’s all fine, but when the average Joe wannabe my size, who’s doing this for a profit of maybe gas money, is just about to take the big jump, I can really feel the potential pain! And that was the case with Fusion. The paying crowd ($10, kids are free) might have outnumbered the wrestlers, so if you do the math, each guy was in the hole at least $30 for dragging their ass out of bed to entertain us!
Aiden didn’t quite get the concept. He was beside himself that someone was actually getting hurt (“No wrestling Daddy, No!”), but there were two 8 year old boys beside us who were getting into it, so Aiden, like any other 3 year old, followed the lead of the older fellers, and got in the spirit of things. He high-fived the good guys as they made the rounds and learned to be wary of the bad guys (they weren’t as polite). The tyke trouper made it through all 8 matches of fun and the efforts and skills of all the Fusion folks was much enjoyed. The emcee/host of the show had set up his camcorder to film the whole event (Youtube handle ArticulatorSK). and would run on stage to rev up the crowd introducing the match, then back to the camera to record the play by play. Lot’s of fun with the nonPC personas, one guy had a tutu and purse and tried to kiss his opponent, another claimed to be from Africa and suffer from prejudice because he was light skinned (he was white). They all had some great moves, but the main tag-team match had some amazing theatrics going on which deserved a big hat’s off for the must be years of blood sweat devotion to their craft that preceded the show. But they hadn’t forgotten good sportsmanship in the heat of battle. After the heel threw the babyface out of the ring over the top rope right in front of us then leapt 8’ in the air to land his knee in the hero’s groin, he quickly leaned over and whispered “Are you ok?”
We’ll be back 7pm Saturday the 15th at the Edison Park Inn (6715 N. Olmsted Ave, Chicago). Won’t you join us?!

There's more than just Fusion Wrestling holding events there!

I was happy to do the cheering and clapping of 10
o make up for the folks that missed the good times!

The heel was doing his best to stay in character,
but next gave the pretty baby a nose love tweek.

I just see myself in pain trying just one of those moves.
Plus I'd need 4 more months in the gym before wearing the white briefs.

The secret entrance.
Would just ONE sign kill you? :-)