Todd Gray: Making History at Ground Zero

TODD GRAY M A K I N G

H I S T O R Y

A T

G R O U N D

Z E R O

ONE ARTISTS STORY OF HOW ART TRANSFORMED A HOLY PLACE. MAY-JUNE 2018

THE COMPLETED MURAL AT WORLD TRADE CENTER, MEASURING AT 25’ H X 65’ W.

A brand new Beatles inspired body of work created by Todd Gray, contemporary pop artist.

A BEAUTIFUL GIFT...

It’s been about a month since my return back to LA from the painting of my mural at the Wor Center and I still look back on the experience as if it was a dream. I am not quite sure how it and I am not quite sure how I pulled it off, but these beautiful images (and my credit card sta proof enough. One thing I am sure of though, that it was one of the greatest gifts I have eve and for this, I will be forever grateful to all those who had a hand in granting me the opportun confidence in me to pull it off. This was no small thing to me and I never took it lightly. The w enormous, the space around it holy, and I would be painting clean geometry on a corrugated not to mention I had never painted a mural before. Here I was, right in the very middle of the Center... there was awe inspiring amazement in every... single... direction. To our left, and as sky as you could see, was Tower One. Directly behind us was the 911 memorial along with it museum. Mere feet behind us (and over us) was the warm protecting wingspan of the Oculu structure so beautiful that it would not be a stretch to say it is the most beautiful building on t Just down the walkway to our right was the incredible St. Pauls Cathedral and everywhere el class architecture in all directions...perfectly mixing the old with new.

I, (along with my team) spent almost a month in this very holy and special space... 25 feet up lifts overlooking the entire area... watching the endless river of tourists, residents, workers an commuters... We were aware that virtually every person on the planet had a connection to th Trade Center, and we met people each and every day who told us their stories and so very of us for creating something so beautiful, happy and uplifting. A very close friend of mine said, points on the map, it is quite probable that the World Trade Center is in need of healing more anywhere else. With this in mind, our primary goal was to create and leave behind something uplifting and magnificent in this very special place. Something Healing...and also to exceed expectations of those responsible for allowing me such a gracious and important opportunity for me, but for my art to be seen by the world. It was truly the highlight of my artistic life and changed me. It’s been a truly beautiful gift.

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Todd Gray, Contemporary Pop Artist

“ Wow... ” -Todd Gray

L

L t I i c m o

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION...

Look at this location‌ Really, look at this location! When I was granted this amazing space to paint my mural I could not believe it. Front and center in the heart of the holiest of places.

I was humbled, appreciative, flabbergasted‌ and nervous. We would be painting this mural in front of tens of thousands of people a day. We were told that more than 400,000 people converge into this area on a daily basis and to be granted this wonderful gift of this space... my only thought was that I wanted to do justice to those who had the faith in me to pull this off. It was the greatest honor of my artistic career.

Opposite Page: A view of the Oculus and our mural site from inside 7 World Trade Tower.

Above: Todd Gray admires the view of his mural from inside 7 World Trade Tower.

Left: A view of the completed mural from Greenwich Street, directly across from the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MURAL During the painting of this mural, I was often asked where the inspiration came from. Truth is, I submitted close to a dozen fully fleshed out different mock ups of what I wanted to paint.

In the end, they chose this one. Its inspiration was quite simple and the short story was this… I had flown from California with my daughter Daryn to have a meeting regarding my mural proposals at Tower 4. When I got there, I felt I had the mural opportunity locked up. Evidently, I didn’t... and then they told me if I wanted to still get it, I would have to propose something completely new within 12 hours from then. What!?

I was with my daughter in New York City with no computer, no time, no new ideas, and my office was across the country!

But I was certainly not going to give up. I couldn’t…

After the meeting, I wanted my daughter to experience the subway, so we rode the subway back to our midtown hotel.

While on the subway, I started looking at my previous sculptural work on my phone. I literally looked up at the ceiling and inwardly said… I need a good idea, and I need it fast. I then looked at my phone and saw a wall sculpture I had done called ‘Flabbergast’ that is currently traveling in a multi-city museum tour. I looked at it and felt that if I just flattened the image onto a wall, it would make a great mural, and for some reason, I just knew this was my winning idea. It is a curation of all my favorite pop imagery with a balance of bright color and energy. I went to work right away in my hotel, creating a visual mockup of this idea and turned in the completed proposal by 1:00 am that night. The next morning, while walking the streets of New York, I received a call that I had gotten the mural. That was an amazing moment... a really amazing moment.

My beautiful niece Sophia in front of my large scale wall sculpture called “Flabbergast.”

Flabbergast is currently exhibitioning in a multi-city museum tour across the United States and measures 108” x 54” x 15” in size.

TABLA RASA When we first got to the wall, I could not believe its size.

It was an enormous 25’ x 65’ feet of corrugated steel.

The site, the wall, the location, the feeling, the enormity of the opportunity… This was indeed the largest and most daunting canvas I had ever worked on and to top it off, we would be working in front of tens of thousands of people on a daily basis. The first step would be to prime it with a very condensed white primer so that whatever paint we would use would be bright and bond to the surface.

We had no idea at the time how challenging painting precise geometry on such an undulating surface would be.

To be honest, it never got very easy…

Above: The primed wall.

Far Left: Todd Gray and his assistant Hilary Mix prepare to lay on the first coats of color.

Left: Todd Gray sketches projected outlines during the evening while on a scissor lift with videographer Bob Grandone.

THE EARLY STAGES...

It was a daunting experience painting in front of so many people, particularly in the beginning stages, as I was not exactly sure where the mural was going and my style of painting (particularly on corrugation) did not evolve quickly. After the first day of painting, I got really nervous as I felt it was not turning out well. I was beginning to feel that my vision for this mural could have been wrong and it might not work out.

I have never been an artist who lacked confidence, but those first few days I was feeling so exposed out there with a very big responsibility. So as they say, how do you eat an elephant?... one bite at a time. I just lowered my head and chipped away at it‌ one step at a time. These images are mostly of the early stages of the mural.

Above: Hilary Mix and Pitchblack Art chalking lines on the scissor lift.

Center Top: Todd Gray spraypainting his huge hashtag.

Center Bottom: Hilary Mix laying on the first coats of color.

Opposite Page Top: The beginning stages of the mural.

Opposite Page Bottom: The afternoon sunset was always a magical time of day.

MY DREAM TEAM Something as large as this mural does not get done without a great team….and that is exactly what I had. The proverbial ‘dream team.’ No hassles. Just fun! Working with this amazing crew was mostly just a daily laugh fest. Work hard.

Play harder. We could not have done this without each other.

No way. No how. It felt like we were on a magic carpet ride making history together.

Above and opposite page: The Todd Gray Studios “Dream Team” (pictured left to right: Hilary Rose Mix, Pitchblack, Todd Gray, Cheryl Pontius) Images courtesy of Rezones

Opposite Top: Pitchblack working hard in the beautiful afternoon sunset.

Opposite Bottom: The Dream Team puts all hands on deck to get the spaceship off the ground.

Center Top: Hilary Rose and Pitchblack pose for picture on the scissor lift.

Center Bottom: The Dream Team ended every evening in front of the beautiful Jeff Koons fountain after dropping off supplies in Tower 7.

Above: Todd Gray and John Carr touch up geometric designs on corregated steel.

Above: Todd and lift operator Kevin take supplies onto the roof to begin the ducts.

Center Top: Our view from the rooftops.

Center Bottom: The ducting has now taken on a life of its own, adding a sort of sculptural aspect to the entire project.

Opposite Page Top: Todd Gray handpainting dots on the ducts for the finishing touches.

Opposite Page (bottom left): Todd Gray pauses for a quick glamour shot.

Opposite Page (bottom right): Hilary Rose, Kevin and Pitch make their way up to the rooftop to paint the ducts.

THE HOME STRETCH Although not included in the original proposal for the mural, Silverstein Properties and Port Authority requested that we wrap the sides of the building as well as paint the air ventilation ducts on the roof tops. The entire team was exhausted after working 10-14 hour days for the past hard month, but if we didnt paint those ducts, someone else most definitely would!! So onto the roof we went...

THE VIEW FROM OUR OFFICE Being high up in the scissor lifts painting everyday and watching the throngs of people watch us as they walked by was absolutely thrilling.

It was an incredibly beautiful experience to have such a unique view of such a special place.

Here we were, under the beautiful wingspan of the Oculus, Tower One to our left running far into the heavens, the memorial and museum across the way... our office view was truly a sight to remember.

LIKE BLOSSOMING WILDFLOWERS...

We were not the only artists creating murals at The World Trade Center. In fact, we were among a handful of world class artists creating large murals throughout the area.

Along with the murals, there were many other fabulous artists filling the entire area with art in every direction… including fences, ducting, planters and every available space that would transform this holy site into one of beauty and rebirth… like blossoming wildflowers out of the rubble.

Meeting, creating and socializing with the other artists during our time there was among the very best gifts this mural project gave us.

The murals are located directly across from the beautiful Oculus (pictured left to right) with Todd Gray’s pop art mural alongside BoogieRez and StickyMonger.

MEDIA MAGNETS! The interest that this mural project garnered while we were there was nuts‌ and certainly nothing that I was accustomed to. We were in the NY Times, CBS, NBC, Architectural Digest, Daily News, Cheddar TV, Modern Wall Street and countless other publications. It was pretty exciting, to be honest.

Far Opposite: NBC New York captures some video.

Above: CBS Newscaster interviews Todd Gray about his pop mural.

Left: Todd Gray being interviewed on the floor of the NYSE by CheddarTV.

MEETING LARRY SILVERSTEIN!!

Larry Silverstein, Owner of Silverstein Properties

THEY SAY IT TAKES A VILLAGE...

While doing this project, we had the extraordinary opportunity to meet all sorts of truly amazing people who made this possible for us. There really are too many to mention!

In this case, team work really did make the dream work!

Doug Smith World Trade Gallery Owner

Bob Grandone Production Crew

Peter Tuchman The Magic Man

Roy & Kevin Lift Operators

Robert Marcucci & Dara McQuillan Creative Masterminds at Silverstein Properties

Production Crew

Tony Lift Operator

Kevin & Frank

Production Crew

Lift Operators

Christina Alvarado

Dan Stasser

Ten

Conrad Stojak

Production Crew

Production Crew

Thom Musso

John Carr

Production Crew

Artist

Solar lighting was installed on our murals giving them a magical nighttime visibility.

The start of a new chapter...onto to the next artventure!

Artists Todd Gray & Hilary Mix let nothing get in their way!!

Image courtesy of Rezones