"This is NOT a medium ass canvas" - A Story of a Creative Idea turned Business
“I have an idea” - me
It was ATX springtime 2012, the best time of the year when the city comes alive.
I was working at lululemon on 6th street, living literally right behind Barton Springs and riding my fix gear all around town. I was reading, practicing travel and doing weird stuff to stop caring what people thought of me aka dressing up in fur and red patent leather boots with painted nails.
My friend Travis, an Alaska transplant by way of a few world tours, and I were running around town finding our way into events across the city.
I have no idea where the idea came from, but I distinctly remember when the idea flew.
We were hanging out in my apartment when…
“I want to just make a big ass canvas and put in the street for people to paint on.” - me
“Let’s do it.” - Travis
“And then we can sell it and donate the money to charity.” - me
“Let’s ride.” - Travis would say something like this.
The idea evolved quickly.
The best spot was The Drag on the University of Texas campus, the main thorough way for students, a hot spot for restaurants and stores and one of the busiest walking streets in the city.
Early May right before graduation? I’d say 20,000 people walk down the street.
Travis started building the canvas.
I started designing flyers and spreading the word.
Tyler’s agreed to let us post up in front of their store.
We partnered with Explore Austin, a local nonprofit that empowers youth to reach their full potential through mentoring, leadership, and outdoor adventure.
All green lights.
From the idea to the day of probably only took a few weeks max.
Starting with a Bang 🎨
The hype was exciting!
Big Ass Canvas had come to life, dodging some inevitable obstacles like Tyler’s bailing and deciding, “Screw it, we won’t get permits.”
We started at 7 am right around the time the morning classes were kicking off.
Everything was set up but no one was interested in painting.
I was handing out the flyers, trying to convince people to paint, but so many people gave me the cold shoulder and just kept walking, shrugging me off.
But then some magic happened.
A group of probably 35 high schoolers touring the campus strolled up. They were beyond excited about the idea and almost immediately everyone grabbed a brush and started painting.
The canvas was white, empty, pure…
And BOOM it started filling up with so much creativity.
Here’s the video to see the time-lapse and a recap of this whole idea.
From 7 am to 7 pm
All-day people stopped to paint, totaling easily 400+ contributors.
It was so cool to see total strangers standing next to each other practicing their creativity, talking and throwing paint.
Another interesting realization was the ebb and flow of the canvas.
At times, it would be hideous. It just looked terrible, messy and disorganized.
But then others would weave in their own creativity, overlapping what was once ugly and lame with something fresh, new and beautiful.
(…and always lots of eyes 👁)
Young kids, college students, professors, University workers all contributed to the canvas.
After 12 hours, here’s what it looked like:
Needless to say, it was a hit and people loved it.
So we kept it going.
Over the next couple of months, Travis and I organized at least 5 other street art experiences, each canvas evolving uniquely.
Travis and I at the South Congress Canvas
2nd Street District’s “Sound Check Festival”
People started to notice and they wanted us to host similar experiences at their events.
This was at the original Formula One Expo even before Circuit of the Americas was built.
After that, we partnered with Seton’s “I Back a New Brack” campaign with pop-ups at Blues on the Green in the summer of 2012.
It was fun times until they abruptly ended the partnership after Travis let some girl paint her boobs and press them against the canvas!
For that full ATX spring, Travis and I worked on Big Ass Canvas.
We’d build a canvas, strap it to the top of his car and drive to the location, lay out a tarp and start recruiting people to paint.
At one point we even bought out all the local art store’s oversized canvases.
Big Ass Canvas was featured in Tribeza, KUT and more local news sites.
A Decision to Make
Things were picking up for Big Ass Canvas and there was opportunity on the horizon.
But I had already booked my one-way ticket to Europe.
Would I delay my trip to keep building Big Ass Canvas?
It was a seriously tough decision at the time.
After about 5 years of trying to build a handful of businesses, Big Ass Canvas had momentum. We had a paid partnership with Seton and more in the works.
But could it be a viable business model?
Trying to monetizing Big Ass Canvas just didn’t seem like it would work because selling art is hard. Especially big art.
After careful consideration, I chose to travel… the right choice.
