Photos 01 Mar 2009 09:05 am
Graffiti’s Back
- While walking crosstown the other day, Señor Swanky’s caught my notice. This is some kind of restaurant that’s been sitting at Bleecker and Laguardia and was originally something that annoyed me, but has become part of the environment. What I noticed was that it had been covered with graffiti.
The yellow brick walls became a canvas for some graffiti writer.
Multicolored spray paint was used on the walls, and eggs were washed over the plate windows. This woke me to the fact that graffiti had come back to the walls of the city. Tough times brings out the spray paint, markers and illegible handwriting.
I started noticing the graffiti everywhere and it took only a couple of blocks of walking to capture a bunch of photos.
In the old days, it was the subway system that was overloaded with writing and drawings. Today, there are few specimen that can be found underground. Here’s the only bit I saw
at the popular Bleecker St. station – a trash can scratched.
In this new world of graffiti, it seems that it’s essential for the writing
to be completely illegible. Even the simplest of scribblings is incoherent.
Word to the wise: if you want your artwork to be noticed, don’t
write on top of print. Your illegible scribbling becomes even more so.
As a matter of fact, through all the mess, I now notice only that a
shoe repair shop is selling batteries. I wonder if they’re cheap?
Construction sites and gate guards are the obvious canvases
for the erstwhile but illegible correspondents.
A good example of the articluate. When confused, cross it out.
Menu board at a Spanish Restaurant with something added.
Is that GOOD or GODD or who knows?
Oh wait, that’s not graffiti !
This one might be some sort of code.
ZOOT! B$ Y.O.K!
A Twitterer without a computer or a celphone.
Mail boxes. When you don’t have anything to write or draw
make sure you’re using silver paint so it looks better.
For some reason, these brown boxes are targeted more often than the blue.
The mailbox (a Federal offence) has been the target of this person
who has earmarked quite a few places in the city.
Sort of a Taki183 for 2009.
I guess the most noted of current Graffiti artists is Banksy, but I think
he’s been too mainstream recently to really be considered a graffiti artist.
on 02 Mar 2009 at 8:11 am 1.Stephen Macquignon said …
You can most likely blame our education system for the poor penmanship.
In Queens where I live we have a small group running around doing what are they trying to spell? I did follow two of these young expressionists for a few blocks after they were done tagging the side of a bridge but I grew bored very fast and headed home instead
on 02 Mar 2009 at 1:53 pm 2.Ward said …
Most of it is just to get their name up – and most of the ‘true’ graffiti writers pride themselves in their handstyles. Some of what I see here are not that good. The ones who have been doing it for a while have some great tag signatures. Illegibility is often the reason for the public to raise some ruckus about graffiti tags, when really, it’s kinda fun for me to try and decipher it. The way the graffiti writer creates interesting and new ways for the letters to connect, the way they add an arrow or star to enhance the name, etc. All of it is rather fun and engaging. Of course, I’m probably in the minority, but what the hey.
on 28 Sep 2009 at 9:22 pm 3.jonson said …
Graffiti is not done for you
on 29 Sep 2009 at 9:28 am 4.Michael said …
Of course graffiti is not done for me; I assume it’s done for the one doing the graffiti.