Graffiti Beach owners launch fundraising campaign through unconventional, artistic method

By Anthony King | SDUN Editor

South Park-based retailer and emerging-artist supporter Graffiti Beach used a somewhat unusual method to launch a new fundraising campaign.

On March 1, owners Melanie Michaud and Brandie Mata invited Crochet Grenade artist Marcy Kraft to “yarn bomb” the front of their store, where Kraft knitted and placed multi-colored covers for surrounding trees and streetlights, as well as a bike rack and surf board.

“Graffiti Beach’s partnership with Marcy Kraft is founded on the company’s commitment to support emerging artists, designers and creative types from dynamic backgrounds,” organizers said in a release for the event.

Kraft, who began her work out of “boredom and curiosity,” they said, is known for similar “bombings” around San Diego, including a recent Westfield Mission Valley event promoting a do-it-yourself workshop.

“Many street artists today are re-evaluating the term ‘graffiti,’” organizers said. “As street artists seek to express themselves without damaging property, yet in a style that conveys their dynamic personalities, they are challenging the negative connotations associated with street art.”

The three-day public art installation ended March 3, and Michaud and Mata said the exhibition could come down at any time.

The co-owners have a mission to promote emerging artists worldwide, in part from Michaud’s own personal experience of watching her father Thomas – a Flamenco guitarist – have a difficult time in reaching a larger, public audience.

“My mission in life became to create events, stores, marketing techniques and tools that would help support these talented individuals,” Michaud wrote on the company’s website. The pair is looking to fulfill this mission in ways that reach beyond giving space to designers and artists at their retail store.

“We chose to bring yarn-bombing to our store front and our lovely South Park neighborhood as a part of an effort to raise money to print our ‘Unconventional Street Art’ issue of Graffiti Beach Magazine,” Michaud said in the release. “Our magazine is based on highlighting emerging creatives around the globe in order to give them a voice and a place to showcase their talents. The mission of our magazine is to create an advertisement-free publication that puts the power of design and creativity back into the artist’s hands.”

The March 1 yarn bomb served as a launch to Michaud and Mata’s Kickstarter campaign, an online-based fundraiser they said would help print the summer issue of Graffiti Beach Magazine. The initial goal is to raise $18,000, however organizers of the yarn bomb event said the more the company raises, the longer they can continue to print.

“This is more than just a magazine, it is a carefully crafted soft book filled with rich imagery and content that acts as an avenue of inspiration as well as creative freedom,” Michaud said.

If Michaud and Mata are able to raise the initial amount, the first print edition of the magazine on May 7 will feature Kraft’s yarn bomb with 20 other “unconventional” street art installations, including a San Diego Street Art map, they said.

Supporters of the Kickstarter campaign will receive their own issue as well as merchandise packages from the Graffiti Beach store in South Park. The campaign will run through March 31, and at 18 days remaining organizers had raised over $2,500.

For more information, visit Graffiti Beach at 2220 Fern St. or call 858-433-0950.  Additional information, including the link to the Kickstarter campaign, can be found online at shopgraffitibeach.com.