Summer in NYC is officially over:( My Project Girlz™ team has returned to their regularly scheduled school program. I’m gonna miss my little “Tooflies”, but I know they are just a phone call away. We had a great summer, especially at the Welling Court Mural Project where we kicked off our first official session. I am super proud of how well the girls did. Thanks to the NJPAC “Ladies First” grant for women social entrepreneurs, I was able to jump start the program this year. The girls did some amazing illustration, design, and handcraft pieces that are ready to be shown. All we gotta do this fall is lock down a location and Project Girlz will have their first official exhibit/mini market. Until then check out what these lovely talented ladies where up to this summer preparing with the TF’ster…

PROJECT GIRLZ™ is a multi media arts summer youth program. It was formed by artist Maria “Toofly” Castillo in 2011 with the help of the NJPAC Ladies First Fund Grant. It is being developed as a bridge for young women artists ages 14-18 to enter the art world by creating fine art, design, fashion, street art, and organizing community events in New York City.

Shout out to Nicole, who shot many of our Project Girlz sessions and created her very first documentary about women artists!

Gotta show the girls the daily artist missions on public transport:)

Shout out to Meres who let the girls paint their canvases at the most wonderful place in Queens, 5Pointz!

Itching to paint…

ANA THE GREAT!

NICOLE AKA MISS PURPLE!

TATI THE BEAUTIFUL!

At some point we will have to re-shoot with our missing link SYD THE KID. She was unable to make the last session but we will soon link up for flick:)
Miss you darlings!!! see ya soon:)

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

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Art of the Streets in Stockholm Sweden is back!!! I’ve been invited to participate again this year, alongside graffiti women MAD C, and BLUE. Looking forward to seeing you ladies again it’s been a hot minute. Especially BLUE, who’s character work was refreshing to look back in the days on walls of the lower east side. I want to send a big thank you to organizers, Jacob, Ceylan, and Tobias for the opportunity to be able to visit your beautiful country again. Looking forward to share my work, and rock some graffiti workshops. See you guys soooooooooon! If you missed it last year,  check it out Art of the Streets 2010.

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Welling Court Mural Project#2 rocked! Lots more walls, lot’s more artists. Big ups to Alison, and Garrison (adhocart.org) for organizing another beautiful event. Sending love to Louie for opening his home, and heart to all the artists again this year. Thank you Welling Court community for supporting us, we hope you enjoy this amazing public art museum for years, and years to come. To my Project Girlz™ summer youth team you guys made me very proud yesterday. I hope you had a blast, get ready for more the summer has just begun! Shout out to all our friends and family who came thru to check out the event. See you at the BBQ’s brunches, picnics, beach trips and much more. Hello Summer!!!!

3-4 hours…

Zam, Toofly, Chorboogie

IN LOVE WE TRUST….

Our youngest little member, Princess Ani…

I live for those smiles:)

You guys ready to rock your first gate?

Shout out to Tanya for hooking my girlz up with extra paint:) Thanks girl!

After a few can control lessons they were ready for their first ever freestyle session…

Project Girlz™ Youth team 2011 baby!

Time for their photo opps…

Little pro, in love with paint…

Cern…lovely as ever…

Cycle, Lady Pink, Free 5….

Street artist process shots…

This lady’s work is amazing!

This too! DOPENESS….

STREET ART is the BEST! Feel right at home in this world…the artists are diverse, kind, and conscious….

Explore…

More gardens, more gardening, more green, more plants, more, earth, more peace, more flowers…

Nature, the true queen of art!

Summer blooms…

Grown with Love, Grow with bugs:) One step closer, we’re getting one step closer….THANK YOU.

For more infromation about the Welling Court Mural Project check out the press release below:

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OOoooooeeee back from Stockholm, Sweden! Wow. What a beautiful 3 day trip to Europe, and what a dope project to take part in. I had a great time at the ART OF THE STREETS event. Everything, and I mean everything was well organized and taken care of. I really appreciate and give much props to folks that put events like this together in a professional manner. Shout out to Jacob Kimvall, Tobias Barenthin, and producer of project Ceyan Holago for organizing Art of the Streets, and making my stay such a pleasure. You guys rock!!! I big thank you Riksteatern and the Sodra Teatern who help make events like this possible to support artists, and ideas that need a voice and a well respected platform. I didn’t realize how tough it had been for Stockholm to get an urban arts project like this to happen. The media was going bonkers over this. Apparently there is a lot of controversy surrounding an event that celebrates graffiti and street art. I guess I should have noticed. Stockholm is a very clean city, and the traditional folks in power are definitely not in support of graffiti or any type of illegal vandalism that could influence youth to go messing with their streets. The debates were pretty intense, I didn’t speak a word of swedish but I could feel the tension. Change is inevitable folks. The new generation will have it’s part and say just like you did. Graffiti and street art is not going anywhere. It’s only getting bigger and wiser. It will be just a matter of time until we are the ones in power making a few minor adjustments here and there to create the world we want…and on that note here’s to the beginning of it { cheers! }

DAY 1 – 14HRS LATER…TF HAS ARRIVED!

Hello Stockholm! Hello Scandic Malven Hotel! Flight was hella long but worth the wait to get to this flyyyyy hotel. Shout out to homie Ayman picked me up at airport, along with Adam Mansbach who wrote for Stress Magazine back in the days. Small world!  Had a nice chat on our way to airport. Peeps is peeps:)

Dope hotel. Organic breakfast buffet was no joke! Wow…too bad I have no flick of that. Really dig that they got Jamie Oliver from Food Revolution TV show to team up on their meals. Love that show!

Room 508, Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Ayo Cinik your on a wallpaper at the Sandic Malven hotel in Stockholm Sweden! lol, I think you better look into it. I wonder what the culture minister would say about this? hmmm….Is this graffiti? is this wallpaper? hmmm….

6PM. Approaching location. Eeek! nervous, but mad excited. Ready to rock a presentation and share my life’s work & Younity up to this point…

Sodra Teatern
Sweden’s foremost International venue for Music, Theatre & Debate!

Ghetto-electronica from Angola, Mexican punk-salsa, political drag from New York, streetsmart flamenco, avantgarde rock from Tokyo, and Senegalese hip-hop.

Every corner in the world has its own aesthetic expression… it’s  picked up, transformed, influenced by and influentially transposed into a world that is both microscopic and awesome at once. In our micro cosmos, we are always searching for new life-models and alternative outlooks.

Södra Teatern holds up the mirror to the world we see around us; presenting music, performance, debates and festivals. We are particularly fascinated with the world’s big cities, where cultures mix and clash to form scintillating new subcultures. On our stages we strive to expound upon new angles in culture, and to open your minds eye to places you have never been before. Here, we want to question identity, mix up reality and have a ball while we are doing it. We want to be the exciting watering ground where everyday you can meet interesting people, discover contemporary artistic expression, and be inspired anew!

Södra Teatern is a part of Riksteatern. We present events all year round on our three stages; The Main Stage, Södra bar and Kägelbanan. In 2007 over 160,000 people visited our venue and saw over 500 productions from all around the world!

Jolie was up first. I was so bummed we didn’t get a chance to catch up:( Haven’t seen her since Berlin in 2008! Wasup Jolie!!! Tough timing homegirl I’ll hit you up through FB. Huggggz!

Wow I was SOooo honored:) Presentation went great!!! It’s a lot easier when you speak from the heart. People respect and get inspired by the honesty and risks one takes in order to follow their dreams. It’s a universal language when you show people you care and how you made the journey to discover who you want to be in this world.  The more you fight for it the more folks will support you because they understand how powerful it is to just do it! I thank everyone for their questions, and chance to understand where I came from and how I got to this point. I’m still thinking about many of the things you guys asked. Truly felt { Loved } THANK YOU!

Finally got a chance to meet and kick it with RosyOne! Love her work. Her style. Her attitude. Look out for her new book coming out soon. Congratulations Rosy!!!

Live painting by ROSYONE

Classic Steelo. PROPS hommie I’ll be in touch!

First night was awesome. Kicked ass on the presentation, the organizers welcomed the tooflowers with open arms, met Rosy, and ate some delicious fish and shrimp with potato…

YUM. This was just the beginning of them little food tickets they provided the artists with. Riksteatern knows how to treat their artist! { bowing with many many thanks }

DAY 2 RISE & SHINE!

Big day today. Woke up and saw the news was all over the event….

Big ups to Ceylan Holago  producer of Art of the Streets event. Woohooooo!!! Breaking barriers one at a time…

Tobias representing for graffiti and street art with the culture minister of Sweden! wow…I couldn’t understand a word they were saying but it felt intense. eeek!

Ok seriously I wanted to pinch myself every time I had them meal tickets and sat to eat at their beautiful terrace…

I was in heaven. Every meal I had was amazing…yum…

TOOFLY WORKSHOP: STYLE 2-3PM

Time to get to work. My Style workshop went pretty smooth. Everyone got hooked up with an unlimited supply of Art of the Streets special sketchbook and markers. There were about 15-25 members and their ages ranged from 10-30+. I was especially happy to see a graffiti dad and his two sons working on pieces together, sketching, and coloring.  That was awesome! Shout to that dad, who reminded me of how much better this all is when you have the support of your family. There is an amazing power and magic that happens when you can share this with your children. Those kids are gonna be amazing when they grow up. You can count on that:)

Zoned out…Art is theraputic…you can’t deny that.

A little technique secrets to go around and folks felt comfortable enough to rock their aerosol skillz. Practice makes perfect…

Shout out to Lotta rocking out on the free for all wallz. Not many women stepped up to rock, and I was especially feeling this drippy marker. Gonna get me one and try some pieces with it, shit is fresh!!! I love drips…drips drips drips…

LIVE GRAFF BY TOOFLY 4-5PM

Here we go…Got 2 hours to share my live classic steelo with the Swedish community…

ART OF THE STREETS – STOCKHOLM 2010 baby!

After a long day of painting, workshops, and panel discussions I headed back to hotel which was only like 5 minutes away. Had to get ready for the closing party!

Found a little bit of street art along the way…

Party time!

{ Drum roll please } If ya don’t know now it’s the time to find out.  The Secret Wars was in full effect for the first half of the kick off and closing party. These guys from what I think I understood are the original art battle creators of the live marker art performance. What a freak’n awesome performance this was. Amazing!!! and the best part is I got a chance to participate:) Yay!

This is how live art indoors at club events should be done. Been saying it for years in NY. You gotta go all out like this if you really want to do it right. Shout out to Secret Wars for developing this idea you guys are AWESOME!!!

Even though I’m personally not a fan of art battles, I needed to feel this one out. 90 minutes of music, marker lines, and some freestyle flows. ATOM & TOOFLY Get Free…

Shout out to our competitors. I was especially digging Olli’os steelo on them vines. I’m still not down for art battles but guess what…Atom and Toofly won the battle wooohooo!

Time for jamz. DJ’s were off the hook. Mad beats…

Sweden’s Hip Hop community…

What an awesome event. No redbull to hold me down just pure happiness and some club soda with Ice. Ahhhh….I feel the blessings. Thank you peeps! You are great people. You have love, and the warrior spirit. Together we can and will share the dopeness and inspire folks to bring back the love:) Big hugggz to all, and many many thanks for this beautiful experience!

Day 3: GAMLA STAN coming soon….

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Back from a fantastic 3 day graffiti urban arts workshop in Brooklyn with the Young Women’s Leadership School. The girls did an amazing job this week. They got a rare opportunity to learn the art and design of doing letters, and characters. There’s nothing more fun than learning about line, shape, and color when your rocking out your name in bubble or straight letter style. Many kids in our community live around graffiti and street art. This was a great opportunity to teach them something from their own block they can relate to! With a few markers, brushes, and paint the kids not only pieced their names they also collaborated on a large canvas mural that will be installed in their school. The message of choice to represent their winter camp: “ENERGY UP!” A conscious daily choice to get their health in check, and help fight teenage obesity 1 day at a time. Shout out to Big City Walls for teaming me up with Young Womens Leadership, and the Energyup.org program this year;) THANK YOU!!! Till next time…

Pilot marker outlines all by themselves! I was proud:)

Great job ladies! Keeping it fun, clean, and graphic…

These ladies were a bit shy, but cute!

Fun, Fabulous, and Fierce! Perfect team for the name tagz canvas…

the fruit and veggie character crew:)

The pink apple lady with gold earrings lol! It’s all in the attitude…

How dope would it be if I had my very own classroom! The art and design projects I can do with these kids would be awesome…

Thinking hard on design elements so they can make me proud!

Good Job!

Little pineapple character with Mohawk hair almost complete…

Last step TAG UP!

TOOFLY & HIGH VOLTAGE rock’n for 2010!

Thank you for the THANK YOU CARDS!!!:)

Energy Up! is the health and wellness program started by lifestyle guru Kathie Dolgin, aka High Voltage, to get America’s girls moving, healthy and energized. Or, as she puts it: “Fit, Fabulous and Fierce!”

EUVA’s (Energy Up Voltage Approved) mission is to fight teenage obesity and prevent type 2 diabetes and other diseases associated with poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle. EUVA focuses on the belief that wholesome lifestyle habits acquired as a teenager provide a lifetime of benefits in the form of weight control, reduced health risks, and greater self-esteem. EUVA’s Energy Up! Program educates and motivates teenagers to make healthier food and lifestyle choices by forging a strong emotional connection in a manner that is fun, exciting and energetic to promote positive physical, mental, emotional and social development.

EUVA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that runs its unique Energy Up! program in schools in socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Want to see more workshop photos?

TOOFLY WORKSHOPS

YOUNG WOMENS LEADERSHIP SCHOOL – Graffiti Workshop 2009

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WOW lot’s to catch up on. NYC is just crazy in the summer lot’s of stuff going on….okay so we’ll set it off with my kids mural workshop that went down this past week…

BIG CITY WALLS – Younity + Toofly Street Art Mural Project with The Women’s Leadership school was a huge success! The workshop kicked off at our favorite summer spot THE SECRET GARDEN in Bushwick. Weather was loving us! For the past 3 days a group of 30+ young women got a chance to experience the stages of producing a collaborative aerosol mural project with a NATURE theme reflective of what we created at the Secret Garden. It was one of my first official street art mural projects with a large youth group and it went smooooooooth as pie. WHEW! I can def get the hang of this every summer, kids rock!!!

Day 1 – Introduction, Project Details, Concept, Sketches, and a walk through the Secret Garden for some inspiration. SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS BELOW >>>

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