Not dead yet

Whoa sorry, my bad blog readers. My academic, social, love, family life all went a little haywire for a bit there but about a year latter I return to talk about the place I love and all of the paint, stickers, wheatpaste, and whatever else poster all over it. I have a mess of mail and a large slush pile of photos to post. That said back to updating.

Great little editorial out of The Herald Dispatch about a "victory for the community"

"Two graffiti vandals, who were charged in April with defacing a traffic control box in downtown Huntington, will begin their punishment Monday, spending 30 days in jail under a work-release agreement that allows them to maintain their employment. That will be followed by five months probation, during which they must complete 100 hours of graffiti removal."

You got caught breaking the law so you pay the price. The problem here is both a legal, business, artist issue. Not everyone putting art up is Picasso or Banksy but graffiti is part of the narrative of a place. Admittedly this is not the narrative the lawmakers and business owners wish to tell. The artists only have control over where they put their art and subject matter, they lack control over the ability to produce art. The drive to create is inborn and can not be stopped. In the case of these two gentlemen the place was an electric box. Not a store window, nor a street sign, but a traffic control box. The City of Huntington owns the traffic control box and the artists are citizens of the city and I argue have as much claim to the ownership of the exterior of the box as the city. Designate public space for art and the graffiti will self-regulate in the unoffensive, thought provoking, harmless spaces. Cooperation not conviction is the key step in solving the problem.




k

A bubbling crude.

Sorry there were no updates last week. I was stuffing my face.

"WR WC"
this could be IMP but you could also interpret this as three people standing together. Not the cleanest execution but a provoking collection of lines.


SMOKE. This face was across from SMOKE and it leads me to believe that "SMOKE" is not a tag but an expression of the artist at the time of conception and the artist's opinion on the benefits of smoking.


Tagging the bulletin board is pretty ballsy.
I first thought this said dose but there is an extra o making is doose which is perplexing. The arrows really help us dumbass on the street find your tag.

Keith Albee controversy

This is the tag that is causing all of the controversy.
Photo provided by the Herald Dispatch.

To summarize someone tagged the front of the historic Keith Albee theater. The only way to get on the roof is from another roof. They have gone far enough to offer a $1000 for information on the "artist". I think the whole thing is asinine. Props to drop beats for pulling off this insane stunt. I agree with thinklogically's comment on the herald dispatch. Probably the only comment that didn't call for blood.

The artist need an outlet and want for their work to be seen. Now, how many galleries are there in the city and is the city attempting to do anything to discourage the placement of "art work" on private property? The city of Huntington has miles of mostly unpainted flood wall. Designate some of it as a public art forum. ... [more] There is also a giant unpainted wall directly across from the court house that was slated to have a piece of art on it until it got scrapped around the same time that we got our new mayor. Designating either of these location as public art forums would cost the city little to nothing and lower the chances of destruction of private property. You could also divert police officers to activities that actually make Huntington a safer place.



bring the hammer down.

Now this is satire at its best! For those who don't know Jammie Oliver has taken over Huntington's public image. So this cry for help is particularly amusing.
look at me Im Andy Warhol!


This is always a good spot for Zombie tags.

A bit of gossip.

I was walking down an ally taking photos of some nice graffiti (not this post maybe the next.) and this gentleman came up to me and asked what I was doing. I told him I was taking photos of graffiti. He said "I walk down this ally all the time and I see graffiti, you know who I would like to meet?"
"Who?"
"Zombi, that guy is everywhere but you I heard he got busted by the cops and he started tagging payback everywhere."


Found this on a pipe.


same pipe.


Someone ran through here and put up leaves on the bulletin board at Marshall's campus. We know its fall you don't have to make fliers for it.

what is this blue mark?

Z
Zane. shouldn't of used cheap pen like that. Won't stay for very long.

maybe I am

Saw this on the mailbox near Marshall's campus. This mailbox is a tiny gallery.
The German translates to "My world has changed"
A quick tag on the side of a power box. 304


This one is a little dark but you can see ANKY at his best.

some big letters from the train tracks
This is a clever sticker. "Panda's are cute but will they kill you?"
maybe.

Just enough space at the bottom.

False is a Charleston tagger. This was taken downtown.

Here is a little one on the edge of a newspaper box. Look at the parallel sides on with his letter sizes.
some random stickers with those pleasant borders on a window.



The full text reads: "If trees could scream - would we still cut them down? unless they were screaming all the time and for no apparent reason. In which case we would kill the whinny trees"

If this is true, where is the advertisement?
"It's a goddamn beret." Kind of looks like a pancake to me.

Here is one of those eggs I was talking about! Someone has since tagged over it. What a shame.

Here is a better shot of this sticker and the gun sticker on the bottom that I posted last time.

A crazy bird thing on the curb.

right next to this. I don't know what on Earth it says but I like the arrow at the bottom.

Kanawha County

False! Accusation? Joe Wilson? Alas he is not our senator. If Byrd had a tag he would stencil a bird at hunch height.
Live every week like its shark week,


being who you are is its own punishment.

fractals. black and white maddness.

okay so this one was a bit weird to take but there is a gun on the one space. <-