"...another "sign of something" on a wall. about two blocks from The Kremlin, in Moscow. While the intensity and importance of the messages are obvious, the meaning is oft as obscure as those in Manhattan." artquest1.blogspot.com

Thank you Bob!

They are Here

If only for a brief moment, there is proof of life beyond the borders of the accepted, painted and plastered on city surfaces. There will be a cover-up, the evidence will be hidden by elements and others. But we are here. Now. Witnesses of this moment.

CHAPTER 1 Relay Mailbox Graffiti Chatter: NYC

Unintelligible messages irreverently scrawled on icons of print messaging. The unlikely pairing of static structure and impermanent illegal art, these layers of archaic media stand boldly in the face of a digitized world.

Penguin Stencil Art. March 09.


The long winter thaws and penguins march across vast urban plains in the futile search for sustenance. They cannot eat. They cannot see. They cannot know. that we see them.

The Bowery at night. August 09.


"Beau." Beauty imprisoned by plaster and paint. Anguished eyes demolish walls with disembodied, over-sized sorrow.

The East Village, side street. August 09


With little else to do, the door beckoned to the passerby: "I will be your canvas, I will tell your story...sit no longer in silence, I will be your voice!" And so it was that the door became alive; rhythmically inhaling the subversion of one and exhaling the singular expression of the collective unknown.

Sidewalk stencil graffiti scattered across the city, pictured here in the East Village. August 09


"Method of Defiance." Truth in advertising for the Brooklyn-based drum & bass group.

SoHo. Lafayette & Prince. April 09


She is the projected, objectified non-real. "Shit is coming," the Ad Angel prophesies, eroding under the city's rising tide of chaos. Whatever WAS now IS something completely different, transformed by the art of time and pressure.

Empty spaces inevitably get filled with ads and art that get torn and worn, then the spaces take on a life of their own.

This space is particularly chaotic, which makes the "AVOID AVOID AVOID" warning at the bottom left all the more pertinent. But what I really love about this scene is the proximity of the McDonald's beverage to the AVOID poster. Accidental politics!