NEWS
2017/10/6

Mural painting in deadliest hot weather & T.A.F.U vol.3 is now available!!!

One day in August, Portland in Oregon. I finished a preparation of shipment at SimWorks USA office earlier than usual, and headed to downtown. My friend from Japan were arriving at this city in order to achieve one big project in his life so that I was very much excited to see him and started pedaling faster and faster.

 
It took about 25 minutes from Chris King headquarter through Chinatown and crossing Willamette River to ADX, which was a share work space for DIY craftsmen. Bunch of famous muralists and painters from all over the world gathered here in order to complete the mural project organized by Forest For The Trees, a public art organization.

 
 
Among those faces, I saw my friend there.

 
Yes, he is Yoshi47.
 
 
He helps out SimWorks as a translator, but at this time he came here just only to do a mural paint in Portland. To tell you the truth, he came to Portland last summer for his mural project at the same place and local people loved his work so much, but some savages bombed on his work again and again and it became famous among those who love art and graffiti. However, the owner of that building didn’t like the fact that graffiti over the mural so that they painted all over in black.
 

Luckily, people in portland raised their voices and his mural was picked on several medias in the world, the organization needed to bring him back in Portland again. Now he was facing the wall twice bigger than last year and needed to finish something better than the one he had done.
 

  
He started painting the first layer on top of someone’s mural work. The temperature in August there was almost 104 degrees in daytime. No humid, but he just painted and rolled over and over in that mad hell weather for a whole day. He finished his fist piece last year by himself, but at this time he luckily got 2 assistants from Portland and Los Angeles. Now I could see that he was treated as VIP artist.

 
Photo by:Yoshi47
 
After he finished the first layer, he used different type of rollers like small to large, and started painting his signature smile face at a time. I also helped him out some lower parts because I’m not good at being on a higher place at all.
 

All the people who walked through the street stopped for a while and looked into what he was doing, and kept saying “AWESOME!!!”. He also never forgot how to act when people took picture of himself. I saw a drone camera, filmed by CHOP EM DOWN FILM, flying around his mural.

 
 
Now he was finishing up the face and moved to the next detailed textures.

 
He stepped backward sometimes to see the whole balance and drew in the air again and again. Once he decided his way, he sprayed on the wall with intense concentration and it amazed me so much. It looked very smooth and easy, but it must have been tough for him.
 
 
I’ve said it over and over again, but it was around 104 degrees in a daytime and he would get dehydrated badly if he didn’t drink any water constantly. It was an extreme outdoor sport like he said all the time. I brought up super cold coca-cola to him and he drank up in a second. I have never seen anyone like him who drank a coke deliciously.

 
  
He started painting from 8 am in the morning till 7 pm until the sun went down for 5 consecutive days.
After he finished his mural, the very next day, he left for his next project back home. He came here and went back like a storm leaving a huge big green monster smile in Portland.

 
 
If you go to Portland or if you live in Portland, you must visit his mural.
 
Location - ADX:417 SE 11th Avenue Portland, OR 97214
 
Because of his amazing mural, people in Portland love Yoshi47 so much and also his funny water bottle is very much popular in both countries, U.S. and Japan. We always have e-mails and words if we still have the first version of T.A.F.U. water bottle in our stock. Now the latest water bottle designed by yoshi47 is available. The design is very much similar from the first one, but when you take a look at closely, it is refined and totally different.
 
 
Not just only the bottle color is changed, but also some body parts such as adding third eye, 6 arms, and weapon tools…
 
 
Yoshi47, he got over his own hurdle by finishing his biggest mural ever in those mad hot days. He believes something more beautiful and amazing world then ever awaiting him after achieving something big. He gets himself into tough situation sometimes, as if he loves to be in it, and also he lives his life humorously with happiness around him. This is the same thing I could say about riding bicycle. Once you ride over the mountain, there will be a beautiful scenery a head of you spreading 360 degrees view. We all want to reach out something that ahead of you all the time, therefore I think the bicycle also has a power to make it happen to us.

 
Now, T.A.F.U. (Totally All F●cked Up) 3 Bottle is ready to launch to the world!!!
 
 

Bottle : Purist bottles made by Specialized
Volume : 22oz (624ml)
Origin : Made in U.S.A.
Price: $15.00- (USD)

 


 
Or available at our US dealers