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Nate
: ?An atypically abstract selection from my new favorite photo blog. Old bricks on new? New on old? And I'm not sure what exactly what's going on with the minimalist graffiti. The best explanation I can come up with is paint testing.?
Nate
: ?Graffiti (whether the restroom kind or others) sits on this weird junction between creation and vandalism, between anonymity and community. In this particular case, something undertaken primarily to reduce business expenses wound up making a space not just for alternative cultural expression, but for better—and self-improving—forms of community: "the clerk also told me that the men had cleaned up their language quite a bit in five years. The tone of their scribbles had changed from gross and inappropriate to polite and sincere."?During a long road trip between California and Missouri, I stumbled on a gas station on Interstate 40 in Adrian, Texas, that had come up with an ingenious way of protecting the walls of their restrooms. In an effort to reduce the number of times the restrooms needed to be painted, someone came up with the idea to tape sheets of butcher block paper to the walls. The sheets were inside every stall and on the walls in both the men and women’s restrooms. On the top of each piece of torn white paper was written “Please tell us about your trip”. What followed on every sheet were stories about why people were traveling across the country. Some stories were sad, some were happy, some were angry. The whole gamut of emotions was posted on these sheets. (I wish I had a picture.)
The amazing thing was that the real white walls of the restroom were not defaced in any manner, not one piece of graffiti. After asking at the checkout who came up with the idea, the clerk told me that, to clean up graffiti, the owners had been stuck with a painting the walls of the restrooms twice a year. Since they had put the butcher block paper up five years ago, they had never painted the restrooms.Yet they remained clean and sparkling white. Obviously, the management nudged the public for everyone’s benefit.
Nate
: ?Here we have the desecration—or is it transfiguration?—of a New York City Department of Bridges plaque. I do find it interesting how well the muralist has tied his rework into the apparently official pinkish red of the surrounding metalwork.?
Nate
: ?Mixed emotions here: it's sad to see the beautiful panelled doors at No.8 defaced with graffiti—and yet how thrilling that our vandals have done such a great job of matching the wrought-iron scrollwork of the balconies above!?Nate
: ?The best way to change culture is by making more of it. So, beset by continual graffiti on their Highland Park, LA storefront, the Antonio family hired a crew of muralists to decorate their market with something the taggers might respect. The end result, as LA Times columnist Steve Lopez reports, wasn't quite what they had in mind, but the taggers stayed away ... that is, until the city cited the business for excessive signage and had the mural covered over with dull beige paint. Presented with a blank canvas, the taggers soon returned.?
Andy
: ?Photo by Brian Murphy of a tunnel in Atlanta where graffiti artists have created what Jeff Shinabarger calls "a free haven of true and raw creative talent." Part of a collaboration between Brian and Jeff—and, in a real way, with the unseen graffiti artists themselves.?