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.




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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.

Appeal to novelty

someone does not have joy joy joy. Wet blanket.

sure looks like huntington to me.

all for one and one for all.

IME? or four people standing together.

room for five more on the garage.

let them live their lives let them get older

50th post

This is my 50th post.

Scroll down if you don't care and just want to see the graffiti.

I found graffiti that disgusts me and delights me. What started as a fun hobby is still a fun hobby. A place to store these images before they are painted over and torn down. I have been supported by West Virginians who thought the paint and paper on the wall was more than gang markings or the byproduct of the skateboarder culture but a legitimate work of art. I like to think of Graffiti as an edit to the programing of a city or place. It makes the world we live in more personal.


For new readers who don't want to read the backlog but want to see some West Virginia graff.
A slideshow



Thanks to everyone who has sent in photos. Also I would like to thank The Charleston Daily Mail, The Charleston Gazette, and The Harold Dispatch for their work in covering graffiti in West Virginia years before me. Be it Civil War soldiers carving their names in a church or calling out the morons who paint on store windows, our local news is there.
Speaking of
The Harold Dispatch has published an Editorial on their website.
Anti-graffiti push needed in downtown Huntington.

Most importantly I would like to thank the graffiti artists who make this all possible.
And to speak of them here are some good ones





I looked at the other side of the mailbox from my last post and discovered this wheatpaste.It always cracks me up when there is graffiti on the Graffiti bins.

click this one and look at the detail on his chest and the head.
This is just a random mishmosh. By itself bizarre but collected together it becomes something more.

A treat.

A big treat today across from Marshall's campus. I think this is the largest worm I have personally seen. Clean execution.
This tag has been running around a lot recently. I like the gun eye aspect.


Here are some along a garage in blue.
A stencil sticker, and squid on a newspaper box.

Stickers!

40 new surveillance cameras in Huntington

keep your eyes open.



if this critter looks familiar I recommend looking here

This sticker tells a story about two cats and a poop. A true master at captivating the imagination. I wonder how it ended.

I wish it was that cold now.

Some things off the what pile

I had to fiddle with the contrast on this one to make the man easier to see.


Stickers are an east way to create a design and get it up quickly and discreetly. This one was hanging out in a stairwell This one in an ally downtown

Im not sure what this last one is but I am posting it anyways,