Wheatpaste, Stencils and Things Like That

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I have posted a ton of GUS and MSG wheatpastes from Augusta, but this one comes with a story.

GUS and MSG really wanted to meet me and NEGATE. I don't remember how we connected, but we finally met on a Friday night, crawled into their incredibly cramped and decrepit and tiny car, and road with them as they pasted up this exact piece. Which is huge, by the way. It was at least twelve feet tall, and ran for over 20 years until very recently when the building was finally town down.

Along the way, they explained their wheatpaste formula to us: flour, water, honey and of all things, Jack Daniels (which they may have been joking about, but knowing them, might not have been). They used squeegies they stole from gas stations, and paper they got for free from the Augusta Chronicle (which kind of surprised me because, to hear them explain it, they just asked for it and were given it... I have worked for that newspaper. They never gave away ANYTHING for free).

Now I want to stress, this was Friday, DURING RUSH HOUR, and while the sun was still up. And while Ellis Street in Augusta is one of the least trafficked roads in town, it was still buzzing. Cars driving by constantly, and we are out in plain view. Me and NEGATE off to the side, trying not to be seen, watching as they diligently worked to ply their craft. And me saying to NEGATE, "How have these guys not been caught by the police yet?" I mean, they could not have picked a more conspicuous time. And they didn't exactly pick small targets either. This piece was on the side of an upscale antique store's warehouse. Those people had money and lawyers. Ellis is only one block over from Broad Street, the main drag downtown. This was prime real estate, and certainly something the property owners and police would care about.

Needless to say, they did not get caught that night. It was several years before they got caught. They were attempting their most ambitious work, a massive city with multiple huge parts, pasted onto the side of what was at the time, the AT&T building. Not exactly a run-down building either. I wasn't there, but I found out, and they spent a year in jail with a ton of community service, effectively ending their wheatpasting careers.

I don't rightly know what happened to them. I have always been directly involved with the art community in town, and they didn't ever show up again in it. They just kind of vanished, so I suspect they moved. Who knows? They were both transplants from another state, so who can say?

 

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The homie Q:

 

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