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On Saturday, February 25, Los Angeles artist Free Humanity painted an abstract mural on the Carlsbad Art Wall (CAW) located on the east facing wall of Señor Grubby’s in the Carlsbad Village.
Artists express their reactions to the world around them through a wide variety of mediums. Free Humanity is no exception. He has sprayed satirical stencils on the side of a liquor stores, wheat pasted mashups of popular culture and implemented installations questioning science for many years.
Free always has a lot to say and has never been shy to shout it. In the early 2010s, Free’s art could be found on every electrical box in Los Angeles, usually heavy with dark political references. In 2011, Free sculpted an apple grenade and hung it from a tree which quickly brought out the bomb squad, climaxing with a inspection by a wheeled robot.
Today politically charged debates can be heard in the streets, threaded online and blanketed across all media. We have all partook in this banter. We have all won some and we have lost some, but in all outcomes, an emerging headache follows us through the day.
Free has made a name for himself through these types of heated conversations, backed by strong iconography, but some of his most poplar pieces have come recently completely void of any political jargon and controversy—and it could not have come at a better time.
Free invites you to abandon this politically fueled discourse and embrace the rhythmic patterns of his thousand colorful hearts painted in his most recent mural on the the Carlsbad Art Wall. He dared onlookers to shut off their mind, exit its all-encompassing stubbornness and voyage through the evolving mural abstractions.
While an assistant hovered nearby with a camera in hand, Free sprayed a vibrant undercoat. Unorthodox to all, Free introduced a new and visually exciting technique. With a quick jab, Free punctured the first spraycan with a screwdriver resulting in a short-lived explosions of color. One after another, Free detonated each can resulting in a cloud of color smoke, gravity pulling drips and awes from each admirer.
The wall immediately transformed into an feathery cloud of color completely engulfing the earlier white buff. Free and his assistant shifted their technique to a flurry of fat-capped hearts, each weightless and floating skyward as many passersby awed at the arrangements of color. Heavy drips puddled in the green grass and paint fumes drifted into the cloudy sky.
Fans from near and far made Carlsbad their weekend destination to meet the artist and experience his creative process. Some purchased artwork straight from the wall where blank canvases caught the wide sprays and uncontrollable drips. Others pocketed stickers exhibiting Free’s portraiture works.
The day grew long as Free and assistant layered the mural. Abstract and unplanned lines intertwined through each heart. Like the rhythmic sounds of a Phillip Glass composition, Free’s mural enticed a comfortably numb and meditative state. No one questioned its meaning. No one asked for a title. Each onlooker simply gazed contently.
Free’s newest style is a welcoming break from politics. It’s an intermission between debates and it’s the calm center of a dizzying twister. Where everything around you antagonizes confrontation, headache and controversy, Free’s newest mural on the Carlsbad Art Wall simply puts your mind on hold—inviting a meditative journey based purely on the visual.
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Click HERE for photos of past CAW murals
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Directions to the Carlsbad Art Wall located at Señor Grubby’s
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