Above (artist) - A Chronological List of Above's Travels and Artworks - (2009)

(2009)

On Valentine's Day Above stenciled "First love." This situation depicts a young girl blowing hearts to what can be assumed as her "first love" who is jumping in the air trying to grab a hold of the young girl's floating heart(s). "First love" video In April Above addressed the issue and then current scandal of the US company A.I.G. and how they took millions of American tax payers money to reward themselves. Above created a stencil situation with 4 different children searching for "Easter AIG's""Easter A.I.G. hunt" video

In May 2009 Above started another tour around Europe for 4-months. That tour does not seem to have a title as with most of Above's previous self-titled tours, but judging by his artworks he was focused on his political and social stencil works. Above painted and installed a piece in Copenhagen, Denmark titled "The naked truth" "The naked truth" video where he incorporated an unused cage in the street to create a shower scene. One month later Above painted a social and political stencil piece directly on the Berlin Wall. Above created a multiple layer, and color site specific stencil that is a distinct visual style from other popular stencil artists like Banksy,Dolk,and Logan Hicks. In August 2009 Above returned from Europe and moved to Portland, Oregon where he started a benevolent project involving the homeless population of Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. He stated in an interview "What I noticed upon my arrival to Portland less than 3-months ago was the abnormally large amount of homeless people sleeping on sidewalks and under the many bridges here in Portland. I wanted to address and draw more attention to the homeless crisis here in Portland. I wanted to learn more about this homeless epidemic by listening directly to the homeless community on an individual person to person level. During the month of November, 2009 I rode my bike around Portland wanting to listen to homeless individuals that wanted to share their story and suggestion on what shelters really help out with services as well as where I should donate the money fund raised from this "Homeless not hopeless" print.