makmbut ar theur: 2010 SmartARTs Festival

Event: SmartARTs Festival, 64 Pine St, Chippendale.

Time: 12-6.30pm

The day started off with some frantic last minute shirt printing, then rushing to get to the festival to set up my "Quest for Jackie Chan Stall". In addition to the "Rush Hour" came a flat tyre on the way to my destination. Thanks to "Marka" a local Carramar Pacific Islander who too the time and heart to lend me a hand and change the flat tyre.

Then I continued my journey and hit the scene by 11.15am, priding myself on the super uber close car spot and setting myself next to textile artist "Andy" and jewellery artist "Jimmy" who ere super groovy and so down-to-earth characters.

Maria Tran & Andy

Maria Tran & Jimmy

SETUP: I had 20 shirts of all sorts of colours on sale for $15, hundreds of badges, a message book and a camera set up for people wanting to send their messages to Jackie Chan.

"Quest for Jackie Chan" clothes rack

The assortments of mini badges

Stall visitors send their regards to Jackie Chan

OUTCOMES

As you know, after months of learning the art of shirt silk screening, badge making and graffiti art (legally [although disputed]). I ended up selling 3 shirts (for $10 so people can afford them) and a handful of badges at 50c each). Its funny how people ask where the profit goes to when really I'm making a loss. Lol! But that's not the point on my quest. The point is to see my capabilities, be creative and guerrilla about certain ideas and risks. Also to connect, I had about a hundred of people coming from all sorts of backgrounds from Jackie Chan fans, and anti-Jackie Channies alike who just want to leave their mark.

PROFESSIONAL RANDOMIST: Jack Ngu & Maria Tran

HIGHLIGHTS

Meetings twitter pal CaptainOz2002 whom I only connected via twitter prior to this meet. The story is he met me when he signed up for twitter and search for things he like, "fitness" and "Jackie Chan".
Meeting people who are enthused of the project.

CaptainOz2002 sport his cinema ticket as he tuned into "The Spy Next Door" recently.

HO-HUMS

People making comments that my project is stupid, unnecessary and that Jackie Chan and high profilers alike hate people like me.
Anti-Jackie Chan fans expressing their extreme derogatory expressions.
Skeptical questions such as the "How?" of the project. Conversations would go down like this:

Stranger: "How are you planning to meet Jackie?"

Maria Tran: "Well, after flying around Australia in September in 21 days to meet up with JC fans, I will head over to KH to his office with all the video messages, letters, fan mail representing Australia and meet him."

Stranger: "Is that certain? Have you got an agreement?"

Maria Tran: "Of course not. Then it wouldn't be "reality" anymore would it? It may be the case that Jackie Chan doesn't want to meet me and i will have to end the film documentary there."

Stranger: "Then whats the point?"

Maria Tran: "I live once, I've made a movie so the next step is to go see Jackie Chan. Simple. I want to bring hope to other Australians who want to get their messages across to him. If I don't see him, at least I tried. But if I do then the success is not only mine but everyone else. Everyone has an inner desire to meet Jackie Chan, whether they say it or (some even want to fight him). I'm compelled to shed light on this life journey, how hard he has worked to get where he is today, his unraveling connections to Australia, certain positive traits that others can learn from, his generational influences and also a question posed on the future of young people and their storytelling abilities. Finally, for my personal development. To build confidence in embarking on a project of this caliber."

LIKES

People travelling afar to meet me, get to know and contribute to the project.
JC symbol is becoming iconic, people have seen the graffiti and the "Quest for Jackie Chan" symbol.
Meeting up with my inspiring street art tutor Chris Tamm and Bunkawaa
Being interviewed by Sydney University students who are want to do an assignment on it.