Part of the Urban Door Installation Project

Eddy The Majestic, Lowteck, Mi Teux, and I had gotten together to preemptively celebrate the greatness of this country by taking time to appreciate the virtue of the ideologies that it was founded on. Namely freedom, and at that… primarily freedom of expression. We weren't taking it too seriously so we decided to just get together and say… paint 30 doors that were hanging out at the Lowteck Lair.

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What happened on the evening of the 3rd of July came about purely as an accident, a Happy Accident if you will. Everything seemed to go wrong. We had our canvas, Lowteck has been collecting a variety pack of doors for I do not know how long. We had the player power and we had cans and cans of paint. The one thing we truly lacked were paint brushes. (All the MUNI buses were on a holiday bus schedule delaying trips to hardware stores until they were closed.) Eddy The Majestic offered us hers but it was literally a 1/2inch wide and using that to paint thirty(30) doors seemed to be the definition of futility. I was just about ready to give up on the idea of painting that evening when I decided to call in the Merkin(that is Anna Merkin) Anna saved the day bringing more than enough brushes to go around as well as various other painting supplies. Jenkies! this just might work.

After ingesting some creativity juice and washing the doors, they were set up near the garage door to help alleviate the fumes of the spray paint. Gradually more and more doors made their way outside. This is how we came to find the secret of getting the public to participate in crazy schemes.

1) Do said scheming outside in a grand scale that draws much attention.

2) Locate yourself in the proximity of a bar.
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3) The closer to bar close this is done the more people will be prone to participate.
This ones the real key

While Lowteck, Mi Teux and I were painting on the street Anna and Eddy were drawing in the crowds. They turned on the charm, getting people excited about what we were doing. bystanders soon became participants eager to get involved. They would explain what SFØ is all about and invite people to come paint with us! It seemed those post cards I made to help spread SFØ were finally fulfilling the role they were intended for. Mi Teux was the man… banging out door after door after door. Just as soon as someone became excited to paint a door he was there with a fresh one ready to become a work of art!!!


We had our public easel… or rather public easels!!! We encouraged free expression. A couple people asked, "What if I mess it up?" To which we would reply, "You cannot mess it up. We want you to do whatever you want!"


anna (and spar too…) wants to particularly point out the excellent contributions made by (hopefully) future players:
Phil, who was the first to arrive and the last to leave, helping us clean up the street, and pile away all of the doors.
Chloe, who painted with great style, and fantastic enthusiasm.



It was a tremendous success!!! At one time I counted 15 strangers mingling and painting which seems downright spectacular for a Tuesday night. Creativity became contagious. People would come up and share projects they were working on like The Panhandle Bandshell.

We were just 2 people shy of completing Your Dear Friends Who can blame them they were busy painting off camera!


Ultimately it was truly a collaborative project because we all offered something unique that helped bring it together.


However, I think Lowteck really deserves a pat on the back for facilitating it and for being brave enough to host an SFØ party.
(they tend to be REALLY MESSY, door painting especially)

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