Distort

Large white painted brick wall with the words, "Deal Reap Distort" graffiti in gold and purple letters.

A giant wall piece of lettering notably for the type style and the coloring. You rarely see a blackletter inspired piece these days and gold and purple isn’t common either. Don’t get me wrong — I love blackletter and the coloring works — they’re just not in fashion right now. As for the content, I have no idea. The “a” in “deal” is the real winner here though. It’s both a reverse “s” and a two-story “a” even though there’s a a standard two-story “a” in the next word. A deliberate artistic choice or perhaps just an initial experiment that was rejected by the time they reached the second word. It’s all a bit haphazard, yet still somewhat technical.

West Side, Manhattan.

Starter

White sticker with red and yellow border with a pacman character chasing a red ghost. The word, "Start" is written above in a child's handwriting.

Found this sticker in the parking lot outside a small town supermarket. It’s big at about four inches square. There’s a disconnect between the professional vinyl color printing and the childlike illustration and type. I have no idea what it means beyond the obvious video game reference, but I do love the pencil scribbled response. When graffiti causes a response, it transforms into a conversation and eventually into a historical timeline.

Saranac, New York

Space Cat

Die cut sticker of an illustrated fantasy science fiction cat with a white border stuck on a black pillar.

Found this sticker posted up on the west side last week. Really vibrant colors and gradients in the illustration. Still not sure it’s a cat. Maybe an owl? Or a viper? For scale, it was about 3″ x 3″.

Manhattan, New York

More Brains

Street art graffiti of a colorful hand drawn person with their yellow brains showing through their skull. The style is very rough with loose brush strokes and overlayed line work.

There’s a lot to unpack in this piece — loose brushwork, layer upon layer, a frantic somewhat anxious details and an unusual color palette. There’s a pulsing radiating energy to the brain and even the whole piece. I’m not even sure it’s by a single artist or just a various people adding to the mix. I snapped this photo In December, so perhaps it’s serving as a metaphor for the last year representing our collective dread. Let’s hope we can shake it off and regain a bit of our self health in 2023.

Chinatown, New York

Sticker Lettering

A sticker with light blue script graffiti lettering on a black background

Found this little sticker outside the market and the lettering caught my eye. Definitely a practiced hand at work here — which makes sense if you’re going to go through all the expense of printing stickers. Practice, practice, practice before you print. I do wish the color wasn’t so faded. I bet the original blue was much more vibrant.

Westchester, New York

Blue Skull

A large spray painted graffiti of a blue skull

Still mining the archives as the pandemic keeps on going. Here’s a large piece from somewhere in Brooklyn. There’s some nice shading under the eye sockets. The attempt to add a devil lock of hair doesn’t quite work in terms of the perspective, but I still like it. This particular shade of blue isn’t one you see very often either.

Brooklyn, New York

Positivity

White cursive graffiti spraypaint of the phrase, "I like you!" on a green construction board

More unseen gems from the archive. This morning a bit of positivity with your typography. I can only imagine that it’s quite difficult to freehand write cursive this large — and to do it with a bit of style. Check the little serif connector on the letter “y”. Gorgeous. I also remember a bit of photographer’s conceit as I tried to line up the construction light with the exclamation point.

Manhattan, NYC