The use of social media has been evolving, and artists have been finding new ways to take advantage of it. Many use it to connect to friends and family, but for some these connections can help promote other ventures.
Elliott C. Nathan, 28, a gay artist in San Francisco, found a new way to use social media to connect with another gay artist, Randy Edward Penird, 21, in Florida. The two met online and collaborated on a mural that was recently completed in the Mission district.
Nathan and Penird met through the popular photo-sharing site Instagram. They decided to collaborate after following each other's work because they both used similar hashtags to identify the kind of work they do.
"We would never have met had he used a different hashtag, or if he or I posted at a different time of day," Nathan said. "I feel like meeting people on Instagram isn't the norm, but it's fun to follow the interesting paths that present themselves. When we were working on the mural we had our Instagram handles clearly labeled out on our drop cloth. We also Instagrammed the creation process and final product."
The three-panel mural, located at Bartlett and 24th streets, was completed during Pride month in June.
Nathan did life drawing and black and white photography in high school and has been doing street art since 2007.
"I started doing sticker art in Barcelona, and later progressed to wheatpastes and ephemeral installations and murals," he said.
After putting a portfolio together, Nathan applied to the University of Connecticut's School of Fine Arts and was accepted.
"I followed the path of life drawing and photography while always keeping my own random doodles and weird drawings on the side," Nathan said. "My second passion has always been business. I was inspired to apply to the University of Connecticut's School of Business, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration and marketing. I continued to take art classes and vowed that leaving the School of Fine Arts would not stop me from creating art."
Penird is a self-taught street artist from Florida.
"I'm constantly working on my craft. I've never stopped drawing and it was never a chore for me," Penird said in an email from Florida, where he returned after the project. "I'm anticipating my move to San Francisco in the next few months to try and get some classes in. I've always wanted to go to school for art, and I'm just getting to a point where I can afford it."
After following each other's work on Instagram, Nathan and Penird started a conversation on Facebook, and then met in Connecticut during Thanksgiving.
"That was when we actually started considering working together," Nathan said.
Penird drove across country to San Francisco to work with Nathan on the mural.
"We both felt our styles would mesh well and had discussed doing a collaborative work. To what capacity we would not realize until Randy decided to make the trip out to San Francisco," Nathan said.
It took both artists a few days to finish the three garage door panels on the building.
"I have done a couple murals in this space since becoming friends with the owner of the building, Ernie Milan, a few years ago," Nathan said. "When I did the first rendition we agreed that it would be an ever changing wall and that I would return to it every so often to create something fresh."
When they started the project, however, they didn't have a clear idea what the mural was going to be.
"We went to the art store together with the most basic plans of picking out a color palette, with no clue what we were actually going to paint," Nathan said. "We ended up choosing red, teal, black and white. When we got to the building we collaged over the panels and hosed them down, scraped off the previous work, and painted it white. Randy drew out a border around the whole piece and we agreed to each go to one side and just start drawing. We then switched sides, then switched back again. We continued doing this until we ended up in the middle."
Penird described the collaboration as "awesome."
"I've never had such a good connection," Penird said. "Also, anyone who walked by threw out some suggestions, and I gladly listened and considered working what I could into the mural. The kids walking by really loved it, it was awesome to see their faces light up as they pointed out their favorite pieces on the mural and tugging on their parent's pant leg. I'm glad we can generate content that is upbeat and fun, because if you can get both kids and adults to find joy in your art, I feel like you are hitting those spots in the soul that are universally alive from birth till death."
The finished mural can be seen on three garage doors of a building near the corner of Bartlett and 24th streets. Both artists have their Instagram handles on the work and have published images of the painting on the website for their followers to enjoy.