Area Artists Apply Talents to Paint The HOUSTON FOOD BANK Logo on Warehouse

Artists At Large paint for a good cause, click for more.

HOUSTON…Thanks to the talents and volunteer spirit of some of Houston’s best known artists, the Houston Food Bank warehouse, located at 3811 Eastex Freeway, is getting a fresh new sign and logo painted on two of its large, two-story exterior walls.

On Saturday, September 30, a team of six artists assembled scaffolding, donated by Betco Scaffolds, climbed up the precarious platforms and began the monumental task of painting the black, purple and gold design onto the sides of the building.

Mitch and Carolyn Cohen, decorative painters, artists and organizers of the Yale Street Arts Market and Artists At Large, are spearheading the volunteer painting project. Assisting the Cohens are Adine Rotman, watercolor artist, regular at the Yale Street Arts Market; Michael-Ann Belin, whimsical and impressionistic artist and vendor at Yale Street; Steve Evatt, web tech; John Mercado, abstract and landscape painting; Duke Jones, musician and regular entertainer at Yale Street Arts Market.

Amazingly, the artists are painting the huge sign freehand, forgoing the use of stencils, using a classic pin striping enamel. Says Cohen, who recruited his fellow artists for the community service project, “We’ll probably be out here for the next several weekends. Hopefully, the temperature will improve as we get more into fall.”

On launch day, September 30, the temperature approached 100 in the full-sun of the wall that faces south. Says Betsy Ballard, director of communications for the food bank, “I definitely plan to figure out a way to keep them cool for the next painting session. And maybe we’ll be lucky to have cooler temperatures by then.”

Leading the fight against hunger, the Houston Food Bank feeds the hungry by distributing nearly 40 million pounds of food through nearly 400 hunger relief programs in southeast Texas, enough to feed 80,000 people each week. Founded in 1982, the Houston Food Bank is a private, nonprofit organization with community services that include nutrition education and job training. The Houston Food Bank is a certified member of America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network.
www.houstonfoodbank.org