Do you ever experience synchronicities in your life that boggle your mind, things that are just too coincidental… just too unusual to be random chance?

After five months of painting boats in Rio de Janeiro I come back to New York and the first thing I am invited to do is paint a boat.

Swimming Cities, a Brooklyn-based collective of crazy awesome, insanely creative boat fanatics was preparing for their annual boat party, Battle for Mau Mau Island. Held in Jamaica Bay Queens, the battle was to take place inside a ring of boats. A ring of boats!!! It was the very same idea for our FlutuFESTA party in Rio de Janeiro. Check out our FlutuFESTA poster and the image for the Mau Mau party.

 

?!!^%(&^^)*&?!!!!

This kind of synchronicity for me is a reminder of the magic… a reminder that there is much more to this world than it seems. I don’t know exactly what meaning to give it or why it appears, but for me it is always a good sign.

I follow that stuff.

So we began the preparations for battle!

As one of the twenty or so participating gangs we (6 amazing friends of mine) were instructed to make a boat and prepare for the 7 challenges. The challenges included various forms of combat, racing and of course, a final all-out brawl.

I couldn’t have been happier. I reunited with Nathan Austin, one of my best friends and favorite collaborators (We’ve done many projects together, like The Third Annual New York UnderCover Clandestine Errantry You-Might-Get-Arrested Trespassing Adventure Party, a variety of street art stings, and the annual Massive Mad Hatter Tea Party). We caught up on each others lives as we drove out to Long Island to pick up a canoe to make our pontoon.

Our new canoe, and my dog, Rabbit

We bought the thing and brought it back to his place in DUMBO, Brooklyn where we spent the next two days and a night making our craft. Nathan built the pontoon platform and I turned the canoes into two golden sea dragons. The rest of our team joined us, making extra paddles, a mast and sail.

golden essentials

Walker Fee keeping me company during an all night pontoon painting session

Winkel and Nathan load the van

 

Winkel and Graham unload the van in style

I apply the final coats of varnish

We made Holi powder bombs. We made flour bombs. We packed fruit bombs. We had matching shiny, sparkly, sequined golden swimwear. We were ready for battle!

AND WHAT A BATTLE!

To be continued…