Tag: Graffiti

Guerrilla Grammarians Fix Street Graffiti Spelling & Punctuation

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Calculated correctors, this team of vigilante street art fixers patrols for grammatical mistakes then regroups to decide on edits before hitting the streets of Quito, Ecuador, to deploy them.

Known as Acción Ortográfica Quito, the group consists of a trio who share a strange set of common interests including street art copy editing. Like rogue professors, they use red to highlight their changes or suggestions, but their good intentions do not render their actions legal, hence their strictly maintained anonymity.

“There’s a big difference in saying: ‘No quiero verte’ (I don’t want to see you) and ‘No, quiero verte’ (No, I want to see you),” notes one of the members in an interview with COLORS, “Many times, someone does not realize how a comma or an oversight can completely change the meaning of a sentence. It can change your life.”

The task can be daunting – their first fix had thirteen errors in two lines of text. Whether serious or silly, they suggest “it’s a public service and a moral obligation. We’re against spelling vandalism and we won’t break nor give up until we see a society free of spelling mistakes.”

Above, the phrase: “If in your kisses I met the essence of life, then not kissing you would be the worst sin I could commit,” for which these graffiti activists turned the verb into conditional, added and deleted commas, turned ellipsis into full stop and capital letter into lower case.

The group is also broadening its scope and mandate over time; they are aiming to add a hotline where people can phone in mistakes they spot and have begun correcting grammar on Twitter posts as well. When time permits, they also leave their name stenciled at the scene in red, like a grader signing their work for students.

Meanwhile, a similarly unconventional yet equally geeky German street artist is out to fix tags, turning them into tag clouds – it would seem this group is not alone in its quest to clean up yet preserve the essential meaning of everyday graffiti.

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Senior Citizen Street Art: Young Graffiti Artists Teach Elders

In an effort to democratize both the creation and appreciation of urban graffiti, a group of young street artists in Lisbon, Portugal, is teaching retirees how …
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Tag Clouds & More: Geek Street Artist Remakes Messy Graffiti

In a play on both tagging and technology, this artist turns traditional tags into computer-style tag clouds, among other geeky street art projects.
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Social Media + Street Graffiti = Stenciled Signs of Our Times

For better and worse, self-reflection and meta-art is an inevitable facet of the digital age – this artist recognizes the blurred lines between physical …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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August 2, 2015
Senior Citizen Street Art: Young Graffiti Artists Teach Elders

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

In an effort to democratize both the creation and appreciation of urban graffiti, a group of young street artists in Lisbon, Portugal, is teaching retirees how to create their own stencils and tags.

LATA 65 (lata meaning ‘can’ in Portugese) has so far introduced 100 aging participants to the art of spray painting and student work is already popping up in the form of tags and murals brightening up buildings and walls around town.

Led by veteran street artists, this gang of older students is learning not just how to create art but also about the history of the form, providing them not just with tools and techniques but cultural context for their studies as well.

Their efforts are primarily being put toward enlivening dilapidated areas in need of fresh interventions and additional attention. Underlying the artwork itself, however, is a philosophy of bridging generational gaps and bringing new perspectives to a mode of expression typically associated with youth culture.

While the elderly students are so far following the footsteps of their younger instructors, one has to wonder if their approaches may eventually develop in new and different directions, in turn providing novel sources of inspiration and innovation not yet thought of by their more youthful compatriots.

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Amazing 3D Graffiti Artists: Sidewalk Chalk & Street Painting

These street art images and biographies merely scratch the surface and begin to convey their amazing artistic talents though sample artworks and street chalk …
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Link Roundup: Graffiti & Street Art in Melbourne, Australia

For reasons no one seems to fully understand, Melbourne has become the world capital of street painting with stencils.
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NeverWet Graffiti: Invisible-Ink Street Art Shows Up in Rain

NeverWet has been making headlines as the silicon-based spray that repels liquids from clothes and electronics, but this off-book use shows another fascinating …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

May 31, 2015
Rise of Robotic Graffiti: Drone Vandal Sprays Paint in Midair

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

In what appears to be the first recorded work of public aerial drone vandalism, this off-the-shelf quadcopter was hacked to hold and use a can of spray paint, forever transforming the landscape of potential graffiti targets (image above by Arthur Holland Michel).

Attacking a giant Calvin Klein ad in the heart of New York City, this modified Phantom drone sprayed red paint on the face of model Kendall Jenner, able to fly up to and hover around the area of application much faster (then escape much easier) than a human ever could, finished in under a minute. Robot-made murals and computer-generated street art are nothing new, but putting them in the sky could change everything.

The artist behind this intervention, KATSU, has been exprimenting with drone-mounted spray cans for some time now in controlled indoor environments, but wanted to show the potential for his work to reach places inaccessible to humans.

More proof of concept than finished piece, this particular work of graffiti was difficult to accomplish, with a great deal of effort put into stabilizing the aerial robot – creating a tag with any kind of precision using this method would be effectively impossible.

Per Wired, though, the implications are bigger than this test: “Given the enduring privacy, safety, and legal concerns around the technology, conceptually it makes a certain amount of sense that it would find uses at the peripheries of what most people (let alone the law) would consider acceptable. KATSU’s scribble high above SoHo might not look like much, but it represents the potential that drones have to transform graffiti forever.”

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Night Graffiti: Shake-Powered LED Spray Paint Can Sleeve

The nature of graffiti tends to result in nocturnal excursions, but painting completely in the dark can be a be problem and sometimes you just need a little …
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Paint Me White Again: Tunnel Type Graffiti Taunts Authorities

Well known for stenciling big block-lettered phrases on walls around his native Newscastle, Mobstr made this piece is unusually blunt (as well as hilarious) …
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Gratuitous Graffiti: Wild Robot Makes Random Wall Tags

If there is s science to the art of graffiti, well, this is not it – except insofar as this robot-artist was itself born of scientific experimentation!
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

May 6, 2015
Wanksy: Phallus Graffiti Draws Attention to Dangerous Potholes

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

In a quest to evoke a faster fix from city authorities, a lone street artist going by the name Wanksy is highlighting holes in the ground with (NSFW) spray paintings sharing one thing in common: the rough but instantly recognizable shape of a phallus.

Like Hanksy, Wanksy is a play on Banksy, a world-renowned art activist. Found all around Manchester, England, Wanksy’s penis-shaped pothole sketches are perhaps crude but they serve more than one point. First, they provoke public calls to officials to clean them up while also filling in the holes. Second, but equally important for the safety of the artist, the phallus represents an easy-to-draw figure that can be sketched quickly with less risk of getting hit bye a vehicle. Third, the rough markings serve as interim warnings to drivers who might not see a water-filled hole at night.

Though the paint washes away over time, making these temporary, this response from a local council member shows that the powers that be are not particularly amused: “Has this person, for just one second, considered how families with young children must feel when they are confronted with these obscene symbols as they walk to school? Not only is this vandalism, but it’s also counter-productive. Every penny that we have to spend cleaning off this graffiti is a penny less that we have to spend on actually repairing the potholes.”

The notion of highlighting or filling in potholes by activists takes many forms beyond this novel approach, including a Chicago tile artist who fills in holes with mosaics, a guerrilla gardener who plants pansies in these street voids and even a pothole robin hood who steels asphalt from the city to fill in gaps with his own work and time. In the grand scheme, one could argue that this newest contributor is somewhat juvenile, but if it solves a real-world urban infrastructure problem, it is hard not to smile at least a little at his attempt to lighten the mood while fixing city streets.

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Flowering Potholes: Lovely Tile Plants Fill Ugly Street Voids

An uniquely elegant solution to a dirty everyday problem, these gorgeous handcrafted tile mosaics are turning unfilled potholes back into functional pieces …
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Urban Infill: Colorful Tile Mosaics Patch Potholed Streets

In a city with over a half-million open potholes, one artist is helping address the problem and raising awareness by installing his own creative patches, …
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Colorful Calls to Action: Decorated Pothole Projects

Two gorgeous green graffiti projects are calling attention to the world-wide problem of potholes in city streets…and they’re doing it with humor + beauty.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

April 29, 2015
Urban Spock: 20 Fascinating Leonard Nimoy Graffiti Tributes

[ By Steve in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Mr. Spock, played by the late Leonard Nimoy, was a logically legit pop culture icon. Just ask the many graffiti artists worldwide who have paid him tribute.

As a science fiction franchise Star Trek is almost a half-century old but elements of the “brand” have been seeping into pop culture for decades. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the appearance of Mr. Spock in street art and graffiti is nothing new though sightings have increased since Nimoy’s passing on February 27th of 2015. The very recent tribute above, credited to graffiti artist Gnasher and officially authorized, can be found on the wall of the Pottergate Underpass in Grapes Hill, Norwich, UK.

Horns of a Dilemma

We haven’t seen Mr. Spock looking so horny since he was seized with the Vulcan mating urge and attacked Captain Kirk… hey, it’s not what you think (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Flickr user rabauke77 captured this devilish stencil on a Berlin wall (not that one, another one) in September of 2006.

Logical in London

We’re guessing this door in London’s inner city Shoreditch district neither goes “whooosh!” nor leads to the bridge… well, maybe London Bridge but we digress. The trio of images above were captured by three different photographers. Flickr users Martin K (mpk1313) and Chinaman (Deaf Rave) made the scene a mere four days apart in February of 2009 while Marc Davies (MrLomo) arrived about four months later… just in time to witness the storefront being whitewashed! Did Spock survive? We think so: dude’s packin’ a heater.

Keep Feeling Fasination

London’s old East End seems to appreciate Spock a lot more than Vulcan did. Take the remarkable mural above, signed by artist Paul Donsmith and snapped by Flickr user Frank Long (FrankLong) on March 21st of 2015. We’ll cut Donsmith some slack on his “fasinating” typo – maybe Spock’s trademark expression was, like, trademarked or something.

Vulcan Vegan

We say Vulcan, you say Vegan, let’s call the whole thing off. This cool stencil of Spock flashing the V (interpret it how you will) sign appeared fairly fresh in August of 2009 when Flickr user José Lodewick spied it on a wall in Brussels, Belgium. By November of 2010, however, Spock’s visage was showing signs of age not to mention a nasty case of creeping moss. Guess the local plant life was feeling encouraged.

Phasers on Stunning

Beam me up, Scotty… or in this case Swissy, since the vibrant artwork above can be found in a certain Alpine nation famous for its holey cheese. Yeah, let’s all heave a sigh of relief that the Enterprise’s chief engineer was Scottish. In any case, there’s nothing cheesy about the technicolor Spockian homage above, captured by Flickr user Dominik (Sibilus_Basilea) in March of 2011.

Spock Is The Answer

New York City’s Meatpacking District just got more interesting… well, maybe not just – Flickr users shoehorn99 and cbrgss captured the above group paste-up in mid-2009. Here a bouffanted Mr. Spock finds himself in the company of Albert Einstein, Muhammad Ali, and a patient pooch. Odd, we don’t recall that particular episode but it would have been awesome!

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Urban Spock 20 Fascinating Leonard Nimoy Graffiti Tributes

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Gaza Strip Graffiti: Artist Banksy Tunnels Back Into Palestine

Well known for polarizing political artwork, the infamous street artist Banksy recently returned to the Middle East and filmed a short video about his new work …
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The Ultimate Banksy Art & Graffiti Image Gallery

While necessarily incomplete, this collection gathers over 100 essential pieces that tell key stories about his aims, personality and history.
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Time-Lapse Tagging: Short Film Reveals Secrets of Graffiti

You see the finished pieces all over – ornate, curved and layered – but rarely get such a vivid and complete all-angle, real-time view of how their …
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[ By Steve in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

March 29, 2015
Social Media + Street Graffiti = Stenciled Signs of Our Times

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

For better and worse, self-reflection and meta-art is an inevitable facet of the digital age – this artist recognizes the blurred lines between physical walls and their Facebook equivalents, commenting on our relationship to social media while making light of it as well.

iHeart(StreetArt) is a street artist based in Vancouver whose creations span the spectrum from traditional tags and stencils to this series of works reflecting on our virtual lives and interactions, particularly how young people are raised in this strange new culture of communication.

He variously uses, abuses, twists and repurposes elements of our wireless language, giving hashtags and message bubbles new meaning. While he is not alone in this pursuit of geek graffiti or in using street art for social commentary, his dark humor and unique style set him apart.

This is also only a smaller sampling of a much larger body of work by iHeart which spans various street art styles as well as gallery and installation works on topics beyond contemporary digital interaction.

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Signs of Our Times: Social & Political Culture Jamming

However, refection on life is a prerequisite for living, and the cultural, political and commercial symbols of our times are well worth rethinking on a regular …
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Tag Clouds & More: Geek Street Artist Remakes Messy Graffiti

In a play on both tagging and technology, this artist turns traditional tags into computer-style tag clouds, among other geeky street art projects.
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Culture Jamming: New Subversive Signs of Our Times

Some homegrown artists and culture jammers decided to mix up the morning commute by adding some spice to an otherwise dull landscape.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

March 9, 2015
Snow Calligraphy: Reverse Graffiti Artist Tags Parked Vehicles

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

For years, this graffiti calligrapher has made his mark around New York City, but some of his best work is reserved for special (and somewhat unpredictable) occasions, relying on seasonal snowfall.

Known for his interior and exterior calligraphic murals as well as his signature snow pieces, Faust notes that virtually “everyone has an affinity for writing in the snow as a child. When most people grow up they lose the urge. I guess I just haven’t been able to shake it.”

As with other forms of reverse graffiti, his snowy script is ultimately temporary and removes material that would be wiped and swiped away by brushes or wipers, thus leaving no lasting impact or damage.

Some of his messages speak to the season (of snows and ice) while others are simply signatures left on the hood, trunk, windshield or window of a car as a simple surprise to brighten the dark winter days of passers by.

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42 Unusual Works of Geek, Temporary & Reverse Graffiti

As graffiti and technology evolve, more and more innovative street artists are mixing media to create radical hybrids of graffiti art, design and technology.
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Tag Clouds & More: Geek Street Artist Remakes Messy Graffiti

In a play on both tagging and technology, this artist turns traditional tags into computer-style tag clouds, among other geeky street art projects.
Click Here to Read More »»

Gratuitous Graffiti: Wild Robot Makes Random Wall Tags

If there is s science to the art of graffiti, well, this is not it – except insofar as this robot-artist was itself born of scientific experimentation!
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WebUrbanist

March 2, 2015
Gaza Strip Graffiti: Artist Banksy Tunnels Back Into Palestine

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Well known for polarizing political artwork, the infamous street artist Banksy recently returned to the Middle East and filmed a short video about his new work while also commenting on the culture and conditions in a famously contentious place.

Regarding a cat mural created on this trip, he writes: “a local man came up and said ‘Please — what does this mean?’ I explained I wanted to highlight the destruction in Gaza by posting photos on my website — but on the internet people only look at pictures of kittens.”

His snark knows few boundaries, if any, and is sure to spark global debate on multiple fronts: “Gaza is often described as ‘the world’s largest open air prison’ because no-one is allowed to enter or leave. But that seems a bit unfair to prisons — they don’t have their electricity and drinking water cut off randomly almost every day.”

The title of the video below, “Make this the year YOU discover a new destination,” framed as a sort of satirical low-budget travel ad, speaks volumes about his opinions and intentions in revisiting Palestine, where he has worked previously and along similar lines (mainly on dividing walls in the West Bank).

Crossing into Gaza from the north generally requires Israeli permission, hence the tunnels as an alternative- there is no functioning airport, sea vessels are turned away by the blockade and land access is limited though possible through Egypt in the south. Some argue Banksy’s work is one-sided with regards to Israel and Palestine, ignoring the role of Hamas in the ongoing conflict that has rendered so much of Palestine into rubble, and this new series is sure to spark some serious conversations, arguments and debates.

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Banksy Paradox: 7 Sides of the Most Infamous Street Artist

The following seven examples illustrate the fascinating range of Banksy’s life and works through his most controversial and compelling projects, stories and …
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Who is He? About Banksy: Famously Anonymous Street Artist

Who is Banksy? No one knows for sure but many have speculated about the identity of this mysterious urban street artist – learn more about him here.
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Unmasked at Last: Ultimate Guide to Banksy Art & Graffiti

The internet has long been abuzz with Banksy, the world’s most infamous street artist. But what is the big deal, where can you find his work and more …
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WebUrbanist

March 1, 2015
Weekly Photography Challenge – Graffiti Street Art
In an earlier post I shared a set of some images of street art, also often referred to as graffiti.

If you live an urban area or any city, than likely you have some of this type of art nearby. Graffiti artists range from ones who just seems to do vandalism, to other who are highly talented and skilled artists.

Your job in this week’s photograph challenge is to seek out some street art in your area and photograph it in a manner fitting for the artwork. That could mean some grungy post-processing, a funky filter over the lens, or whatever creative idea you can come up with.

Let’s see a few more examples of graffiti street art:

By Rob Schofield

By Pedro Ribeiro Simões

By Brent Pearson

By Charlón

By Jason Taellious

Share your graffiti street are images here:

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

Need some help getting started? Try these dPS articles:
- How to add a Grunge Effect to your Portraits using Lightroom (works on any kind of image also)
- 4 Steps to Photoshop Artistry Using Fine Art Grunge Techniques
- An Introduction to Urban Exploration
- Urban Exploration Photography – Urbex
- Focus on Scott Frederick – Urban Explorer
By Professor Bop

By Brent Pearson

By mamasuco ……un peu absent

By Keoni Cabral

By badjonni

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Digital Photography School
December 13, 2014
33 Gritty Photos of Graffiti Street Art

Urban photography is a great way to get out and find some unique images, whether in your own city or abroad. Cities provide a multitude of interesting subjects. In this week’s image collection I’ve found a bunch of gritty photos of street art, also known as graffiti.

In some cities like Melbourne they encourage this graffiti and businesses or the government actually sponsor the artists and provide a space to create murals and street art.

Enjoy this series of grungy, gritty, street photography and art.

Justin arrives by Shady ezz on 500px

Street Tagging by Lin Zee on 500px

Colors and the City by Xavier Liard on 500px

street art by Samir Salim on 500px

around the corner by Dragan Todorovi? on 500px

Graffiti Invasion by Liban Yusuf on 500px

Dónde está el 7º cielo?? by Gemma B&N on 500px

Graffiti? by antoni targarona on 500px

Fisheye: Melbourne Street Art by Tom Cunningham on 500px

Pump Dream by Fred Adams on 500px

Vanishing Point by Len Saltiel on 500px

Ace of Spades by Fred Adams on 500px

Colors And Lines by Burak Arik on 500px

Work or Cupcake by Kent Atwell on 500px

graffiti by Vladimir Perfanov on 500px

painting the town by Shady ezz on 500px

{ Walk along } by Thai Hoa Pham on 500px

physical graffiti by victor cucos on 500px

Dark Room III by Xavier Liard on 500px

Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned.. by Mathijs van den Bosch on 500px

woman on the wall by Gabor Nagy on 500px

Lost shoes by Joanna Lemanska on 500px

Graffiti face by Brian Behling on 500px

dark tunnel by Gianluca Sgarriglia on 500px

blue eye by Sergio Spiegel on 500px

Urban Graffiti @ by Philippe PONSIN on 500px

graffiti tunnel 02 by Paul Hinderer on 500px

Mid-Levels Street Art by Postcards from the World on 500px

Reckless Abandon by Nick Cox on 500px

NY Style Pizza, Jing’an by Craig McCormick on 500px

Graffiti Lane by Paul Hinderer on 500px

Surprise! by Brian Sanders on 500px

Ghost train by Xavier Liard on 500px

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Digital Photography School

December 12, 2014