My thoughts on attempting this task:


"Oh, that's much too dull and drab. It's like looking at a piece of moldy and unappetizing bread. It will never do! First of all the most important thing it needs is color. It's of far too neutral quality at the moment. Maybe some bright reds and light blues would define the edges more... or maybe some pinks and greens to give it a softer, earthy feel! And I'm not liking the bare and natural look. I think it would be perfect to add some accessories to that naked shell!"

"But isn't stuff like this illegal?"

"Oh nonsense! The only thing that is illegal in the world of fashion is letting those fire hydrants run a muck as they are now! Horrid things... But we'll spruce those bad boys up so much that the firefighters will be thanking us!"

"Fine... but if we HAVE to do it, let's at least do it at night... SO that people won't be able to steal your artistic method, Ok?"

"YOUR RIGHT! My art is a unique entity, and we don't want every Tom, Dick, and Harry creating like I do! That would be so boring! We shall be anonymous conspirators making the world a better place... This sounds fun!"

"I bet..."

Experimentation:

My first official order of business was a test run to figure out what color applicator would stick to the fire hydrant's surface.

I took out my 80 piece art set and grabbed a utensil, all of which were black, from every section that I would use to try and mark a fire hydrant. I also took a few miscellaneous utensils that I found scattered around.

These were my test subjects:
Blue sharpie, Red Dry Erase Marker, Green Hi Lighter, Pencil, Black marker, black colored pencil, black crayon, and a black oil pastel.

After testing all of them, only the crayon had a difficult time going on the surface of the hydrant.

So basically, my weapon of choice was anything except a crayon.

The Deed:

At 1:00 A.M. of March 21, 2008, I started to create. I had with me 5 markers, which I discovered worked best, to do the job. I looked at my yellow canvas and started out slow, with a simple coat of red over one side... at first I was nervous, "Is this illegal?" I thought to myself, as the unsettling feelings were beginning to overwhelm me... Then my first obstacle... A car, coming up the hill, and fast! I made a break for the nearest undisclosed area, and I barely made it undetected... My first thought after that was: "This is fun!"

Then the magic began... there were colors and patterns everywhere! Successes and failures; mistakes and revelations; sweat and tears, (not as much); all for the sake of art... which turned out to be pretty crappy in the end... but what I believe was thorough enough to make a statement to the world: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" And other not so interesting statements...

I ventured home, cold, yet with a feeling of accomplishment. The whole experience took about an hour to complete, and I could no longer feel my hands.

I walked inside to find my brother, curious as to my whereabouts that night...

"What were you doing?" He said...

I looked at him in the eye and said, "Everything."