For the past few years, I’ve been lucky to witnesses first hand the growth of Pow Wow Hawaii from a local neighborhood event on Oahu to now adding color and life to walls internationally in various events throughout America and Asia. Coinciding with our move from Hawaii to Portland, I asked Jasper and Amy if Pow Wow would be expanding to Portland…they said unfortunately not, but because a similar event already exists called Forest For The Trees. So new locations, new adventures, similar feels…super blessed to be connected with communities like this no matter where I go!
“Forest For The Trees is a non-profit project dedicated to the creation of contemporary public art. The project brings together local and international artists in a collaborative setting and provides them with the creative freedom and resources to create lasting works in environments that are freely accessible in the Portland community.
The mural festival’s name comes from the phrase ‘they can’t see the forest for the trees,’ which signifies the inability to understand the greater picture when you’re too focused solely on what’s in front of you. Forest For The Trees hopes to pull Portland’s residents away from their daily routines and provides them a moment of appreciation for the creativity that surrounds us in the Pacific Northwest.”
Unfortunately, my extremely busy week only allowed me to come out for one day during the actual event 🙁
But I made the most of that one day and got to hang out with Ola Volo and Zach Yarrington.
Fortunately for me, there were some latecomers to the party…Insa, Zach Johnsen, and Portugal. The Man who collaborated on this! 
This is what a week of painting, a 177 foot mural, 4 cool dudes jumping, 15+ photos, and a week of PhotoShop looks like…it was so awesome to witness the process behind this!
…and this is what the mural looks like if you’re having a really good trip 😀
See more of Insa’s GIF-iti here!