Revisiting Banksy

A few years ago, Banksy engaged in a 30 day residency in New York. Each day offered a new work or performance. It was all ephemeral as street art tends to be. One piece remains visible from the residency.

The streak of red on the boy's forehead and the flash of light under the hammer are reflections on the protective sheet of plexiglass covering the work. Many of Banksy's pieces from the residency were protected with plexi, or roll down metal gates before being removed. One piece, Geisha is still behind its protective gate, but it might as well be elsewhere.

The boy with the hammer was protected by Saul Zabar, of the Zabar's across the street. He is genuinely fond of the work and wants everyone to enjoy it. Still it seems so strange to have street art protected by plexiglass. It is maybe a little poignant.

For more about Bansky's work, check out this awesome page:

https://www.artsy.net/artist/banksy

Once Colorful City Fades to Gray

I have been working on these photos for a while but the subject feels oddly appropriate right now.

Over the years, I have noticed more and more buildings turning gray. Brownstones are resurfaced without the brown.

Gray painted brick looms over Miss Lily's Sunny Jamaican Diner.

While many Georgian townhouses are gray or black, they are usually next to other, lighter colored townhouses. Most new buildings are, of course, gray.

Sometimes it feels as if whole blocks are losing their color.

Two years ago, I posted this building in Williamsburg that was being gut renovated. There was nothing left but its cheery facade.

The graffiti creatures along the buildings base looked as if they were imprisoned in the construction shed.

A tumor building was constructed around it and it has been adorned with the most hectic graffiti.

Here is a closer look.

I am not sure what the misshapen lump in is, I think I see a footprint in there. I do not like this graffiti at all and not just because it was also temporarily adorning a Douglas Elliman office. There are so many better examples of graffiti murals. Once there were murals all around New York City. They are slowly disappearing as the gray buildings become more common. In Bushwick there ares still lots of beautiful walls.

This one is so nice we have to look at it twice

I love the image of this young woman. She is my inspiration.

Following with Chanel's descent into lipstick revolution is all the more depressing.

Let's clear our palette with a cat eating a bat.

I also love these odd chaotic spots of tags.

Near White St. and Moore, the warehouses are all painted with tags and art. It gets panted over with new work every few months.

La Borinquena

The Williamsburg Bridge is always getting tagged, with the dedication plaque as a favorite spot.

The city tried to clean the plaque, but it did not last. This was the first tag, the plaque is covered once again, but it isn't as nice as the Stay Human art above.

Summer, Some Strange Eyes

Taking Pictures With One Arm In A Sling

I was hit by an opening car door while I was riding my bicycle and I injured my shoulder. For a few weeks, I had to wear a sling when I went out. It limited what I could carry.

I could not even carry my little point and shoot camera. The only pictures I have taken with it were on this one afternoon when the light was pretty in the garden.

Instead I used my camera phone as I wandered around the city, staring forlornly at the cyclists reveling in the mellow autumn weather.

All of my pictures were a little tilted, thank heavens for Photoshop.

When I was photographing this post Halloween confetti of party fliers, a car drove up on the sidewalk just to my right. It made me feel as if the city was trying to kill me. Indeed, 13 pedestrians have been killed by cars since Halloween. According to the Gothamist, 4 of them were on the sidewalk when they were struck.

This is what Bike Snob NYC calls a hipster high lock.

I have been out of the sling for two weeks. This is actually from a week ago. I was about to post it when I heard about the attacks in Paris. The blog post didn't feel important so I left it a few days. Violence continues, even today, in Mali. I could wait forever.

Pictures I Took Since August

I did not realize how long I had been working on my last art piece, until I posted the pictures to my blog.The last entry was in August. I have been taking pictures, but every time I was in front of the computer, I was working on that image.

These are some of the pictures I took.

I sometimes suspect that my phone camera increases the saturation on its images, but this silver fence really does throw some wild light and reflections around.

One morning in early October the rambling garden of the church arcross the street glimmered in the light.

Gentrification continues in Williamsburg. This brightly painted building facing the bridge is being eviscerated while its pretty shell remains.

I tried to photograph through the window to capture the sunlight filtering down through the roofless ceiling.

The graffiti monsters at the building's base looked forlorn behind the scaffolding, as if they were imprisoned. I wonder if they will be restored in the finished building.

This empty space will probably soon be filled in as well, the colorful tags hidden behind glass and steel.

A little November light

France, lots of graffiti, a little JR

I was in Le Croisic for a wedding. My bedroom window offered a view of the ocean

The sky would melt into sunset.

Le Crosic graffiti

The wildest time on my trip was on my birthday when I was stranded in the walled city of Guerande with a lovely Spanish lady.

We wandered around the city and spent hours chatting on a cafe terrace about the importance of letting adventures happen. I tried to keep the spirit of the day throughout my trip.

Then to Paris, and this was the view from my window.

There was no light in the wc for a few days, which gave me a chance to take a picture by candlelight.

I went to see the JR installation at the Pantheon.

 The photos were printed on plastic that would sometimes reflect the light.

All of those faces looking straight at the viewer were very intense.

I visited the petite ceinture which is like the high line in New York, but left to run wild. It is unlike the French to let nature do its thing but they were very proud of protecting the abandoned railway's ecosystem. I thought it was far better than the fussy nyc park.

Here are some thistles behaving a lot like weeds.

On the parapet walls of the railway, the graffiti blended with the vines.

Sometimes a tagger would paint over the dead branches.

I had planned on taking photos for my dream project, but the light was never what I expected

There always seemed to be additional layers things were never as they appeared. It was like living in one of my dreams.

I wandered through the neighborhoods where I lived, remembering lost adventures and enjoying the colors.

My dream project will just have to fit with the images I have.