Green Eyes…..

in a burned warehouse

green eyes glare back suggesting

alien life force

Love Shit…

Apparently so…appears battleship grey momentarily conquered love shit. It’s a shame because we definitely need more of that love shit in our lives to thwart the dark side of human nature.

Some Make It, Some Not So Much…

“Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don’t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they’re having a piss.”  Banksy, Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall

I worked my way into a no go zone of sorts. A burned out business that has had a checkered past since the fire. Eventually it was closed off, but the signs of intrusion and recent dated ‘art’ were evident. An interesting combination (I am sure there is a more artistic/creative term) of urban decay and a canvas for many competing ‘artists’…even the failed ones.  I will share more along the way. Banksy Creations

~

Furnace Roars in Magic World…

optimism in the rubble…

Flowers vs. spray paint

Today, while searching out a tradesman in an area full of vacant buildings, I came upon the usual ‘art’..tedious expressions I tire of seeing…reflections less of rebellion or creativity than self imposed ostracism and purposeful assault. But, that is another story.

No, I was at a dead end, surrounded by vacant buildings, abandoned and tired looking. There in a plot of dry, overgrown dirt nudged up against an old telephone pole was an effort by another type of artists, whose hands I doubt had touched a spray can of late. Flowers blooming, unattended, surviving with vivid contrast to asphalt, concrete, weeds and broken windows. Beauty surviving amidst the negative vibes. Nice

 

Monuments to What?

Usually the first thing to catches the eye is the graffiti, the lighting, the angles and lastly the canvas. The mind might think of what type of person sprayed the ‘art’ or markings on the building? When did they do it? What does it mean? Any more, given the amount of such markings about town, I could care less.

These days, my eyes are drawn to the row upon row of exquisitely placed brick and mortar. The door way with the diagonal inserts, the tradesmen that created a structure so others might fulfill their enterprising dream and others might provide support for themselves and families. 

The monument of a craftsman trumps the spray can. Odds are the hands holding the spray can will never hold a brick trowel. Rationalize it how you will; I refuse to anymore.

Window on a Waiting Canvas

Artistic Expression…Vandals? My Bias

Oh a beautiful day! Not a soul in sight. A cold Winter wind keeping most away. What a nice image, a tunnel from long ago enhanced with a new beautiful wooden structure for those so erstwhile bicyclists that have a sanctity in the Pacific NW.

Upon a closer look, a sigh. Must certain people deface everything, especially in nature?

Some view tagging and such defacing as ‘art’. I have seen very few instances of the mural like adornments that qualify as ‘art’. Mostly it is gang markings of territory or ‘I was here’ tags for posterity. On fences, buildings, street signs, sidewalks, walls, garage doors, seemingly everywhere…they piss me off. They assault my sense of livability and I frankly could give a shit about the social angst that supposedly justifies their expressions of self. 

Oh my. I enter the tunnel to find through its entire length, hundreds of passersby have etched their names, initials, comments upon/into the interior walls of the tunnel. At least some used chalk!

WTF! I suspect that the overwhelming majority of visitors to this area are to some varying degree lovers of nature having ventured up the Gorge for more than a place to find privacy to do certain things. No, most are probably revelers in nature. So this man made structure supporting up a long ago man made tunnel carved through the rock a hundred years ago apparently is a ready canvas for self expressions? Group think vandalism? 

Did cave dwellers and transient clans come upon the etchings on rocks eons ago and utter their versions of profanity at the site of ‘I was here’ markings? I don’t know. Right now there are no mitigators in my psyche for this pervasive form of artistic/self expressions/vandalisms/annoy/defy others markings that are ever more visible. You might want to avoid me when I come across spray painted artistic expressions on rock formations, grave markers, historic buildings……. 

Projects up the Historic Columbia River Highway