Blog Archives
Genres of Urban Art
There’s the professional, colorful, and complex one.
And the orange-and-black version.
And the spray-painted, hastily-done one.
And the peeling, tan paint, if you are pretty liberal in your interpretation of “art.”
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 9.7.2015
Roadside Eagle
I pulled over because there was a scenic overlook, across a narrow valley to the mountains. But when I saw that graffiti on the rocks, I sort of forgot about the view.
near Fort Davis, Texas
photographed 7.10.2015
Utility
What caught my eye initially were the boxes on the utility pole, the banged-up downspout, and the glass blocks in the window. But then, what had been just a blotch of paint on a pole started to look like a face…
McCook, Nebraska
photographed 8.30.2014
Don’t just dream
Sometimes the best advice is unsolicited and painted on a wall. Like the one I found in Lubbock last winter. Or this one Ehpem and I found the other day in Victoria.
(Although, if you really want to know, I sure did want to find some spray paint and correct it.)
Victoria, British Columbia
photographed 8.3.2014
Fat letters
I used to be a calligrapher, and actually spent quite a bit of time studying different lettering styles. Because I also used to be a drafter (or draftsman, or draftsperson) and once had a job where we had to fill up any empty time by practicing lettering, calligraphy came pretty easy to me. There were some styles I couldn’t learn (like Copperplate), some that were too much trouble (Blackletter), and some I really did enjoy (like the sample below, of something I actually did.)
But this fat-letter style wasn’t one I learned. Which is a shame since the field of graffiti seems to have outlived the field of calligraphy.
Austin, Texas
photographed 4.12.2014
One Day | One Image 