Rolling Stones World Tour: 42nd Street Billboard
Largest billboard in America, Times Square New York, one city block long. Now gone, building torn down.
My buddy Paul Chan painted the HUGE turbo jet eagle, I did album cover below, the Stone’s “Made In The Shade,” David Bowie in drag in a lawn chair.
The idea was that the album covers would change every week for the Rolling Stones World Tour, suspended by the eagle’s talons.
To get some idea of size, the album cover was made up of about twenty, 4 X 8 foot sheets of masonite. The thing was massive. It took ten days to paint and they called me slow.
I got hired by ArtKraft Strauss Sign Co. because I was good at faces. All male industry, lucky to work indoors. Next job I finally got outdoors, first woman ever. We used cans of pure dry pigment mixed with linseed oil and benzine, Japan drier thrown in to speed it up, everything mixed in place up in the air. Four terrific years covered in paint, got great muscles swinging on ropes, scaffolds, climbing steel framing like a monkey. What a life.
Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints and Framed Prints
mare
Very cool indeed! What a life!
Antanas
beautiful composed
Barbara Sparhawk
Thank you Mare, and thank you Antanas. I got right back into those days writing about it here, reminded of all the excitement I felt. I tended bar weekends in a place in lower Manhattan, filled with poor artitsts. You can’t believe the contempt directed at me for doing advertising! I ignored it. I was, after all, covered with paint every day, had a paint brush in my hand every day, and was being paid for it.. I couldn’t believe my luck.
bites
Excellent in the end we are all working for the man weither its pressing a button on a machine or serving a cup of coffee at starbucks at least u were using your talent to earn the money :D
Barbara Sparhawk
Yes, yes. Thank you for that! I was EXTREMELY proud of myself. I didn’t stop grinning for 4 years, never washed til I got home so I could ride the subway covered in paint. And the biggest, most time consuming work done by all the “artists” in the bar on weekends was filling out forms for grant money.
andygibb
brilliant detail and story to go with it…a bit of rock history
Barbara Sparhawk
Thanks Andy, we were all so young and full of sauce.
Sande Elkins
Wonderful story and attitude. And the billboard is fantastic.
I’ve also been accused of “selling out” in the past. Wish I’d handled it half as well as you and not let it get to me.
Barbara Sparhawk
I remember trying on embarassment at the time, but the emotional high overrode it. It still comes and goes. I had some museum related epiphany once, closely inspecting oil portraits by the famous and revered, and discovering they all used a brush exactly as they pleased, and not like each other. No secret to it beyond expressing ourselves. Now to do that consistantly….
Thank you Sande for all you said here.
alistair mcbride
Must have been great working up there! just checked out your website,looks good and can’t wait for the next chapter of noise! like your writing style! well done Barbara.
Barbara Sparhawk
I think I love you.
Cathleen Taraw...
What a life you lead! How frigging exciting.
Barbara Sparhawk
The last job I did was a freezing November, 25 stories above Times Square on an electric scaffold. First time I’d handled one of those babies, single line of turned cable the thickness of a pinky instead of lots of good rope. My “partner” hated that they let a girl in the business, used to jump on his end of the scaffold to watch me blanche. Unecessary because it was 11 degrees F ground level and probably zero where we were. We ducked into a little unheated room in the tower every 15 minutes to defrost and unbend our fingers. (Oil paint, by the way, gets sluggish but still moves in that temp). For the first time in 4 years or more, I decided they weren’t paying me enough (and it was good pay), finished the job, & quit, having had the experience I’d sought, ready for the next. Would not, however, have missed a minute of it.
Thanks Cathleen. I hate being bored. Clearly something we share.