I haven't been out to West Philly in a while to see all of these but I got to check a couple over the summer. This is a great project by Steve "ESPO" Powers. It's amazing to see him getting paid to do this since he used to do things like this back in the day anyway...along with bombing the subway tunnels and walls throughout the city. He's a pretty intense and was/is a really cool dude...I met him a couple times and he even drew some things in a sketch book for me and gave me some old rare can of green (that I still have). I doubt he remembers that. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing these in person once the weather gets a little warmer and I can go for a bike ride out there. Some of them are best seen from the "el" though since they're meant to add some color to the dull brown view of the roofs.
If you're not in able to see them, definitely check out the website-> A Love Letter For You
I love seeing people really elevating the art form of graffiti. This is from Libson, Portugal. I have no idea whose work this is. Please let me know if you do so I can give proper credit.
One of my first posts was an animation by this artist by the name of Blu. His style of animation blended with painting and graffiti is really dope. His newest animation is a collaborative piece done with David Ellis and is one of the best motion graphic pieces I've seen in a long time.
I love this stuff...I've posted a fair amount of graffiti-based projects (click here) and this is one of the better ones I've seen in a while. I like the simplicity of it and that it speaks to the temporary nature of graffiti. Unlike traditional graff that can been seen and exist with out photography but is sustained by photography, Halo requires photography to capture the moment making the act of graffiti an interactive experience.
Halo is one of many projects by French designer Aïssa Logerot go to his site for more info and other projects which really don't add up compared to this one. AissaLogerot.com
Yep, 3 graffiti posts in a row...I could keep going but I have some other stuff to post after this. So, this has probably been done before at some point since it's a pretty simple concept. Plus, people have been tagging with lighters and torches for a loooong time. Still, the pictures of this process are dope.
Thanks to tdw for letting me know about this digital graffiti wall by YRWall. I love it when graffiti can transcend the streets and reach more people. This type of installation has HUGE potential and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of this in the future.
This is kinda dope. Unfortunately, the testers in the video couldn't really do anything but it has a lot of potential and looks like a lot of fun. It's not quite on the level of the Tagged In Motion project I posted back in the summertime (HERE) but, still this is quite impressive.
David Ellis is an amazing contemporary artist. I've seen a few of his pieces out of context and didn't look him up. Very inspiring work. What's truly amazing is how big his body of work is at this point and how diverse he is. I have to wonder though...were any of the records used, still good? I've seen some terrifying acts by artists that didn't know how hard certain records are to find and then just destroy them. Yes, painters and sculptors can also increase the costs and rarity of records. For all you people out there either doing art on/with vinyl or know people that do...PLEASE make sure they are worthless records!! I can't stress enough the importance of preserving hard to find records or even common records that are in excellent condition. Anyway, check this dudes' work.
Really nice work by UK-based artist She One. She just came out with a limited edition spray paint of only 500 cans being produced by Montana. Kinda weird to buy 'limited edition' spray paint but for only $25 you can own a piece by a great artist.
Here's a few new explorations into graffiti worth checking out:
PaintThatShitGold allows you to bomb any other site on the web. It's part of the promotion for Atmosphere's recent album (I don't know if it's the most recent one)
Graffiti Playdo allows you to do graff with other people over the web.
Green Works' Reverse Graffiti is a really cool project. So simple but thought provoking in different ways. Thanks to one of my professors, Tony G from Grow Design, for letting me know about this. You can see a lot more pictures of these pieces on Flikr
Tagged In Motion is insane!!! I love the blend between the primitiveness (yes, it's a new word now) of graffiti with the cutting edge computer/tech/geek/vr stuff. This still blows me away when I watch it. I first saw this about 6 months ago and it's stayed in my mind since then so it's pretty damn impressive.
Hektor is another project I've known about for a while (although I was late...it's a few years old). It's essentially just a couple of motors and a string that moves the can of spray paint around. It makes the images from basic vector art and then figures out the path that it must go in to produce the art, similar to a CNC machine.
this blew me away when I first saw this about a month ago...the still images would still be really nice but this artists known as Blu. I've seen TONS of graffiti in all different styles from all over the world but this really stands out to me. It's cool too that he leaves his mark only by a clean black or white surface for the next artist to use.
