Distort

September 24, 2023

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

August 12, 2023

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

June 3, 2023

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

January 2, 2023

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

November 27, 2022

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

January 29, 2022

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

January 23, 2022

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