August Loveletter

Hello Lovers,

We're in the middle of a rash of murals and in striking distance of our goal of 20. So exciting! Here's what's going on...

1. ONE LOVE THIS THURSDAY 

(AUG 23 6-8PM @ the Creative Allliance, 3134 Eastern Ave. 21224)

We've been talking it up for a couple months and it will live up to the hype! One Love is a one night art show to benefit the Baltimore Love Project. 30 artists have been asked to create original work inspired by the Baltimore Love Project and the results are stunning. Each piece is available as a limited edition giclee print for only $50 unframed or $100 framed. The print run is limited to 10 each, so definitely show up at 6pm to get your favorites before they're gone! All proceeds from the purchase of prints go towards funding the remaining 6 LOVE murals around Baltimore City. Most of the original works are also available. Proceeds from the sale of original work go to the artist. Special thanks for Hoehn's Bakery, High Grounds, Tag Galleries and all the artists that submitted such beautiful work.

(image above: Matt Muirhead "Love is in the Air" /// Setting up title wall for the show)

2. WALL #13 AND #14 COMPLETE

(Western and Northwestern High School)

Still trucking with no signs of slowing. I was able to get each mural up in two days, thanks to some great weather,extra hands and just the fact that I've been painting this image for a few years now. Western High School's piece can be seen right from Falls Rd. I worked with a group of students called the Designer Doves, to push the permitting through administration...what a help! Thanks to the Vaselkiv family, Sherwin WIlliams and Sunbelt Rentals for making it happen!

Wall #14 was on Northwestern High School. I reconnected with an old MICA peer who was working as a teacher at Northwestern to get things moving at this school. Even through a change in principle and faculty, it still got up! Thanks to everyone that purchased merchandise at Artscape. All of that money went directly to funding this wall!

(image above: me in front of wall 14 /// wall 13 overlooking western/poly tennis courts and football field)

BLP love letter #7

Never thought I'd send a love letter out to hundreds of people, but here we are. The Baltimore Love Project following is growing and excitement is brewing. We are working hard on our end to get up the next murals and it looks like a few of them will be happening all at the same time. But aside from paint on the walls, there are a lot of other things to mention!

1. BLP HAPPY HOUR THIS SATURDAY

Meet us at The Field House (2400 Boston St) for free drinks (bottles drafts, house drinks/wines). We'll be there this Saturday, July 31, from 8-9pm. Tell the bartender you are with Scott Burkholder (BLP's Executive Director). If you have a shirt wear one! If not we'll bring some to buy for $20 so you can feel like a part of the crowd!

2. SCION COMPETITION HEATS UP

We are now battling back and forth for first place with Columbus Ohio. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, let me explain. Scion, the car company, partnered with the Baltimore Love Project for their nationwide X-Change Program. People came out, checked the cars and learned about BLP. We raised some money through that event, it was great. Well NOW they ask each city they visited to submit as many pics they can to the X-Change site. Which ever city has the most media uploaded by the end of the tour, wins a big pot of money for their art project. Amount is still tbd, but it looks like it could fund a mural. Please help us! To sweeten your deal, we are giving a shirt to the person that uploads the most media. Right now BLP fan, Bonnie Schupp is at the top!

HERE ARE THE DIRECTIONS:

1. Go to www.scion.com/xchange

2. Click on the “Contribute Art” tab (top left of screen)

3. Submit Artwork (Remember to put Baltimore in there)

If you are feeling extra generous, visit/join our Facebook cause page and make a donation to the project. For the next 2 weeks, Scion will be matching donations, up to $1K and we're not there yet!

3.MEET THE ARTIST WRAP UP

We had a great time at the Visionary Museum's restaurant Mr. Rain's Fun House for their "Meet The Artist" series with Michael Owen. People came out, had some great food, saw some art, and bought some of the new BLP prints. The Visionary showed the Princess Bride on Federal Hill right after the event and a ton of people went over for that to make a night of it. Thanks to everyone at Mr. Rain's for such a great time!

4.INTRODUCING MARNI COOPER

Our most recent addition to the BLP team is Marni Cooper, of Food for Thought Communications. Marni is helping us with our online presence, specifically expanding our fan base and getting more people to our site from google searches. If you notice some changes on there, or added fans in the next little while, thank Marni!

NEXT LOVE LETTER:

-YOUTH DREAMERS RESPOND!

-PRINTS FOR SALE

-PROMO VIDEO

MORE LOVE! BLP love letter #6

Hello!

Thanks to all that came to see us at the farmer's market and SalsaPolkaLooza in Highlandtown this last weekend and welcome to all the new fans. We met a lot of cool people and made some good contacts that will help this important project continue to move along! We made some coloring sheets for kids to work on for SalsaPolkaLooza and they were a hit! We'll most definitely bring them out to the next fair we do.

So here's the most recent scoop:

1.BLP PRINT RELEASE/MEET THE ARTIST

This Thursday, July 15, BLP artist Michael Owen will be at the Visionary Art Museum for a "meet the artist" event. The focus of the event is the release of a limited edition BLP giclee print. Printed by TAG Galleries, these 15"x15" prints are from a painting Michael created a few years ago. The prints, limited to 200, are signed, numbered and only priced at $40. All proceeds will go to putting up more LOVE murals around the city. This event will be held up in the Visionary's restaurant, Mr. Rain's Fun House, from 6-8pm. Happy hour runs till 7 and Princess Bride" will be shown up on Federal Hill at 9pm. Make a night of it!

2. WE'RE 2ND IN THE NATION

We're up from 5th place last week, in Scion's competition to upload the most digital media! Upload your pics, of whatever you want, on Scion's site to help us win money for the Baltimore Love Project. It takes one minute to get a picture up. If everyone would put up one picture, we'd win...hands down! Whoever uploads the most media, wins a BLP tshirt. Our goal is to raise enough money from Scion to fund a whole mural!

1. Go to www.scion.com/xchange

2. Click on the “Contribute Art” tab (top left of screen)

3. Submit Artwork (Remember to put Baltimore in there)

3.NATIONAL ARTISTS TAKE ON LOVE

We only have through next week with the art from Innovate Love. Again, these are the remaining pieces from the fundraiser we had at Silo Point in May. 50% of all proceeds from art purchases go to the Baltimore Love Project, with the rest going to the artist. Some artists are even contributing up to 100%! This curated show compiles artists from around the country, who's piece is themed to "Innovate Love". The work ranges from the nouveau/Klimt inspired illustration by Megan Russell to the street feel of Cory Orbendorfer's "Burning Love"; from the photography of Lisa Koppenhaver's Baltimore landscape to Donald Ely's collage of Baltimore neighborhoods in the shape of a heart. Check it out, it's all very creative. Any art purchase comes with a free shirt as a thank you!

That's about it for now. Hope to see you all this Thursday at the Visionary/Mr. Rain's Funhouse! Stay tuned next week for details on a possible block party. We're just getting warmed up!

with LOVE,

Michael Owen

Creator & Lead Artist, Baltimore Love Project

BLP summer love -Letter #5

Hello fans of all things awesome! (especially street art)

The summer heat has definitely seemed to hit hard right off the bat! Fortunately we have not been spending a lot of time outside painting. Instead, we've been spending a lot of time partnering with some really cool people and coming up with some awesome ideas for the future. Here's where we are now...

1. CALLING ALL BLP FANS, SOCIAL MEDIA JUNKIES, FACEBOOK LOVERS, ETC...WIN A BLP SHIRT!!!

Scion is running a competition between cities to see who can upload the most digital media to their site (pics or vids of whatever!) and we're currently in 5th place. The city with the most media uploaded by the end of the month wins a nice sum of cash for the city's nonprofit...ours being the Baltimore Love Project!!! Whoever uploads up the most media, wins a Baltimore Love Project shirt! Here are the directions:

1. Go to www.scion.com/xchange

2. Click on either the “Contribute Art” or “Face Art Lab” tabs at the top left of the screen

3. Submit Artwork or Create Your Own – Remember to put your city in there & share it out!

2. SCION EVENT REVIEW

Last week we had an event with Scion, the car company, down in Fell's Point, next to Soundgarden. It was really cool to see people coming off the street to support! We raised a good amount of money and Scion matched it all. They are even matching contributions we get through the month! If you're into magic and want to turn a dollar bill into two, donate on our cause page! Thans to the Creative Alliance for bacing us!

3. ART LOVE

Some of you were not able to make our fundraiser event last month at Silo Point, INNOVATE LOVE. I know you have seen pictures from the event, but I just put up all the work that is still available on this flicker site. This is the work that is still available for sale. All artists, from around the country, were asked to create to the theme of "Innovate Love". Which is your fav? At least 50% of the proceeds to the Baltimore Love Project. Some artists have even donated 100%!!!

That's all for now. We have more in the works for July including a block party and an exciting release of a limited edition print, which I'll write about later in the week.

Stay the most up to date with us through Facebook or Twitter

quick update (a lil' love)

Hello Supporters of the Baltimore Love Project!

Don't know what you're up to this weekend, but I wanted to invite you to a pretty unique fundraiser/event we're doing with Scion, the car company, June 19th and 20th. The Baltimore Love Project has been dubbed by Scion as the city's arts non-profit and we are thrilled!

Scion is in the middle of a 30 stop tour across the country called the Scion X-Change Program. Here's how it works...Scion chooses a local arts non-profit, local artist and local boutique. For Baltimore, BLP is the non-profit, Sylvia Ortiz (Innovate Love contributor and all around awesome person) is the artist, and Sound Garden (CityPaper's "Best of Baltimore" music shop) is the boutique.

Here's how it plays out.

1) Come to Sound Garden Saturday or Sunday (1616 Thames Street Bmore 21231)

2) Test drive or ride in a Scion & and tell them what you thought (10 minutes total)

3) You receive a free $5 gift card to Sound Garden!

4) If you're feeling philanthropic you can donate the value of the card to BLP and Scion will match it! $5 = $10!!!

5) Hang out, check out Sylvia's art, say hi to me!

So that's it. No sales pressure, just good vibes all around. I really hope you all can join us! Also, I just looked at few walls yesterday to put some love on (maybe Reservoir Hill and Waverly?), so stay tuned for the next letter!

with LOVE,

Michael Owen

Creator, Lead Artist Baltimore Love Project

BLP Update Newsletter #4

Hello Supporters of the Baltimore Love Project!

Thank you so much for coming out to the Sowebohemian Arts Festival in Hollins Market (Southwest Baltimore) this past Sunday for the live, on-location painting of our 4th mural! This now-completed 4th mural was sponsored entirely through those of you that bought T-Shirts and attended our Innovate Love fundraiser event. The festival was truly a wonderful experience and we were happy to be a part of their 25th anniversary festival. Many thanks to ABC2 news for covering us on Sunday!

We also want to thank you again for your support at Innovate Love last month! We know that in the last newsletter, we had mentioned event photos. The Baltimore Love Project had the fortune of having two wonderful, and experienced photographers to represent us at our event. Many thanks to Dan Ahn and Sue Kyung Kim. We have two separate galleries from our Fundraiser event: SKK-Photography and DAPhotography. A few sneak peaks:

To give you a heads up, we want to announce that we will be doing an event in collaboration with SCION in mid-June! Be on the lookout for more details soon!

We have also received numerous inquires about where we will be putting our next mural. To give you a hint, it will likely be north of the last two murals (Highlandtown and Hollins Market). Feel free to guess where we'll be or send us suggestions for our next walls!

We really do appreciate your continued LOVE and support. Stay cool in this hot and humid Baltimore weather. We look forward to hearing from you all!

With LOVE,

Jae

BLP Update Newsletter #3

Hello Supporters of the Baltimore Love Project!

A big thanks to many of you for coming out to our Innovate Love fundraiser event held this past Saturday at Silo Point. More than 240 guests shared the penthouse with us. The event was a HUGE success much due in part to you all! We had a packed house and much buzz has already been and continues to be generated about the success of this event. We are post-processing many photos from the event that our Baltimore Love Project photographers took so be on the lookout for a follow up email with amazing event photos!

We are also very excited to update you all about our next WALL! We have begun our 4th Mural in the Hollins Market neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore. We would like to invite you all to the live on-location painting and finale for the 4th wall at the Sowebohemian Arts Festival this Sunday, May 30, 2010 from Noon till 9PM! We will also be selling our signature and stylish Baltimore Love Project T-Shirts, so if you have not already gotten yours, this is an opportunity to come out, see a mural, and buy one to support the murals! Feel free to check out this PRESS RELEASE for more information about the Baltimore Love Project at Sowebo Arts Festival!

Our good fortune being in the press continues! We were featured on the front page cover story of 'b' magazine: Story+Meet the Men(b mag). We also had our Creator/Lead Artist, Michael Owen, featured on WBAL TV yesterday! Be on the lookout for some LOVE on the ABC2 evening news on Sunday!

Thank you again for your continued LOVE and support. We look forward to hearing from you all!

With LOVE,

Jae