Check out these spray paint artists at the fair
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BLACKFOOT – Several spray can artists are sharing their unique art form, and they’re doing it for a good cause.
Andrew Latham, founder of Space Art, Chaz Lake and Macen McFadden, 16, are showing their skills at the Eastern Idaho State Fair.
Latham and Lake brought the spray paint and fire performance art form to the 2016 EISF to honor of local spray paint artist Matt Sorensen who passed away in February 2016, and to raise funds for the Matt Sorensen Starving Artist Scholarship Fund.
“When I heard Matt had passed away I thought, ‘We have to do something to honor him,’” Latham said. “Gaye (Sorensen’s mother) called the fair board and learned that Matt had already reserved a space in the fair. We are giving 15 percent of each painting sold to the scholarship fund. We are also making this an open forum for anyone who wants to try spray painting.”
The artists raised more than $1,000 for the scholarship fund last year.
Both Latham and Lake were inspired to the art after watching YouTube videos of Sorensen.
“I’m so glad to get to be here,” Lake said. “Matt was one of the first videos I started watching. So to be here with his family and the scholarship is a big deal.”
Lake, a resident of Portland, Oregon, has been painting with spray paint since he graduated in 2010 and has been working with the youth to inspire others the way he was inspired.
“I go to some festival and art walks,” Lake said. “I have also done a lot of work with an after-school program in Portland. I want to help kids find there are better things to do with spray paint, now people tell me they started spray painting because of me.”
Latham and Lake are both intrigued by space and space is a common theme in there art with the moon and stars overlooking landscapes. The spray paint artists can be seen daily throughout the week across from the Photography and Fine Arts buildings in the EISF.
