Open Walls Baltimore - Jetsonorama, Arizona

Chip Thomas, aka Jetsonorama is a physician/photographer who has lived and worked on the Navajo Nation in Arizona for 25 years. Since 2009,he’s wheatpasted his portraits, vintage and recent, of his Native American neighbors.  I’d known of Chip’s work for a while and we’d emailed back and forth so I was especially excited to finally meet him in my home town of Baltimore for Open Walls.

In Baltimore Chip had several projects big and small going at once. First he had to go out and shoot the photos he wanted to paste, get them printed and meticulously cut them out.  Most challenging was a huge portrait of pigeon flyer, Tony Divers to be installed on a wall near his home. The paste failed to stick to wall #1 so Chip had to reprint the photo and extend his stay a week. Meanwhile he and Baltimore artist Nanook pasted up versions of a photo I had taken as part of my ongoing SoWeBo documentation . For more about Jetsonorama and his Navajo Nation check out his blog, Speaking Loud and Saying Nothing.