I don't know if you may recall but last year I collaborated with Canada Goose for their "Live in the Open" campaign, where I designed a mural for a billboard that encouraged people to take a piece of the artwork home, revealing a secret message at the end.

To follow up with that campaign, Canada Goose tapped me again for their "Play in the Open" initiative to celebrate their collection with Union Los Angeles during NBA All Stars. And to be honest, any time I get to work with a brand for a second time only solidifies that I am on the right track of my own journey.

So for this project, the goal was to hand paint 50 basketballs and whenever I told someone that, I was met with disbelief. But that happens a lot though and yet that's what I love about my work ---when someone assumes it can't be done, I can take these moments to show them that it is indeed possible.

Now mind you, every project always has a set of challenges, one challenge in particular ...was time.
I only had two weeks to knock out this project and ensure they all had a sense of cohesiveness and even then, I took the liberty of making every set of ten balls a little different because whoever took them home would essentially have a conversation starter and something that's unique to them.

In order to maximize the time I had, I created what I refer to as an "assembly line" workflow.
Where I first hand crated the stencils and spray painted all the balls to dry overnight then I hand sketched the artwork to ensure placement was correct. From then I laid down the first coat of paint as my studio assistant Ace followed behind with second coats.
After all the paint and details were placed, we sprayed all the balls with a top coat leaving to dry overnight before they were picked up and taken to the Canada Goose store in Soho.

The second installment of this project was to create a workshop experience where attendees could further customize the balls if they choose to. We provided additional textural elements like felt fabric, tufted rug pieces, and gems. Projects that allow me to engage with people is a sweet add-on because it allows me as the artist to further connect with people who have either supported my work since day one or meet new faces who have no idea who I am.

As I move on from this project, I can only hope to do more activations like this yet super thankful to the Canada Goose team, Flower Bodega and my team for making this event a fun one!