Don Williamson Stripped the Rock

CONCEPT

Flintstones. Get mad.

Article by Carol Azizian at the Flint Journal:

Robert Katrinic, a Burton artist, has rescued the layers of painted graffiti that once covered the huge concrete rock at 12th Street and Hammerberg Road and converted it into art.

"It was radiating emotions and feelings," he said of the pile of paint someone scraped off "the rock." "I had to take the pile and make something out of it."

So far, he's constructed a nonfunctional purse, a large abstract painting and a palette with paint pan, spray can and roller, all found on the site.

It all started more than a year ago when Katrinic painted the message "Help Wanted 2 Clean Da Hood" and his phone number on the side of a S. Saginaw Street building near his Leatherman workshop.

The sign drew the attention of Don and Patsy Lou Williamson. They eventually contributed 2,000 gallons of paint, an automatic sprayer and trash bins to spur his efforts to cover graffiti-covered buildings and make aesthetic enhancements to streetscapes.

Katrinic said he and another man painted nearly 100 graffiti-scrawled buildings, houses, fences, trees and viaducts.

Recently, Williamson's anti-graffiti campaign targeted "the rock," where local residents for three decades have painted messages ranging from their feelings on the war in Iraq to memorials to birthday wishes. Signs erected nearby warn of a $1,000 fine and work crews twice coated the city pump station, dubbed "the rock," in the mayor's trademark anti-graffiti brown color.

Katrinic first saw the paint lying on the ground near the rock when he drove by it one day last summer. Someone had inscribed the words "Don Williamson painted my town brown" on it."It caught my attention," he said. "I looked down and couldn't believe what I saw. This madman had stripped the wall (the rock) and it really upset me.

"I saw a pile laying there and I freaked out," he added. "My conclusion was it was one of these graffiti guys."

The rock holds sentimental value for Katrinic. Back in the mid-1980s, his wife and four children weathered the cold February temperatures to paint the words, "Happy Birthday Leatherman" on it.

"It (the paint) had come off real smooth in one piece," he recalled. "It weighed a ton. I had to rip it in pieces to get it into my truck. When I brought it back here (to his workshop), I started playing around with it.

"It stacked like paper," he said. "You go through it and find wild colors, patterns, textures. It excited me." One piece says "Remember the Troops."

A self-described compulsive junk collector, Katrinic is known for his large leather sculptures. One of them, a Statue of Liberty, has been exhibited at a Coach leather show in Paris and at the Coach headquarters in New York. A chair and robots constructed of Harley-Davidson motorcycle parts is en route to a car and motorcycle show in Germany.

Katrinic said he'd love to make more art objects from the paint scraps if he had a sponsor or help from fellow artists.

"I don't want to throw it away," he said. "I'm willing to share it with anybody who wants to make something out of it. It has created a lot of good feelings."

I hope a giant block drops on Don, all Otranto style.