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"QUANTUM SHOT" #231


Funniest & Most Creative Graffiti

What would our cities look like if everyone who had a creative urge could contribute to artistic expression without official obstacles and red tape? Not every artist has the taste and style to enhance the environment, plus some "negative space", or simply blank walls could be a good thing sometimes. We are glad there are regulations in place, but are enthusiastic to see the best street artists getting their due exposure, so we are starting a new series - "The Best in Street (Graffiti) Art" (note the "art" part)


(image credit: Innocent English)

As for the debate is graffiti an art or a crime -


(image credit: chickencrap)

Funny Street Art

Some witty "writers" (we can not call them "artists") contributed the following little masterpieces to the street scene:




















(image credit: Saynotocrack)












(image credit: Striatic)
















Sources: Oddee, Jibjab.com


Intense Street Artwork

Graffiti can be not only eye-catching and witty, but also spectacularly well-done and esthetically pleasing. For example... A girl's face:


(image credit: Nancy McClure)

Full composition... Artists: The Mac, Reyes


(image courtesy: FunkAndJazz)

Graffiti in Paris achieves almost baroque style:










A true masters of the form: "Aerosol Fiends" (see full gallery here, including their endless "scribblings" on the walls of train cars)

















(image credit: Aerosolfiends)


One of the most beloved artists on the web is Banksy from UK:
(See more images at his site)


(image credit: Banksy)


Some of the most colorful graffiti, created mostly by Reone across US.
(see more on this page)











(image credit: Reone)

An input on the "what's better, Vista or Linux" debate:


(image credit: Shadowpuppet)

The Russians (and Ukranians) have a graffiti look of their own. (at least one artist featured on this page, does have kind of folksy style) -











(images credit: EnglishRussia)


Graffiti by Light

The most recent and very popular development is graffiti made with a flashlight and a long exposure photo technique. One good thing is that it does not actually deface the city walls, or goes against any bylaws. The technique is not really new - check out this photo of Picasso experimenting with light:



"Painting with light" has been popular with photographers for long time, but now it's being brought to the streets, combined with urban imagery. ColourLovers has a good article describing the art, and Makezine shows you how to make it. Here is some artistic expression you can finally do on city streets without being harassed by officials.














(images credit: lichtfaktor)

Abstract graffiti is a good place to start:


(image credit: Adam Sherbell)

or try to make your own signature:


(image credit: Dizzizit.nl)

The best light graffiti is the animated one - see this video, made by Jamie Kivisto as a commercial for Sprint:



or check out this graffiti animation at train station in Belgium:




A Machine can do it?

Almost as an insult to true artists, here comes a mechanism which can draw on the wall (not quite by itself, but following the art on connected laptop):



Graffiti / Human Interaction

One of the most creative approaches to graffiti, we think... No machine can imitate the following works of photo-graffiti art, created by Alexandre Orion in San Paolo, Brazil:




















(images credit: Alexandre Orion with permission)


This is the start of a new series, so please send us the examples of most creative and witty graffiti you encountered - we will include your contribution with credit and a link.

Also Read:
Painted City Blocks and Cool Murals and Painted Buildings

Permanent Link...
Category: Art,Weird



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YOUR COMMENTS::

13 Comments:

Blogger mchristian said...

VERY cool! I hate graffiti when it's just a way of pissing on a wall to mark territory but when it's art it's amazing. So glad you included the fun folks of Graffiti Research Labs.

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Blogger mchristian said...

- and then there's this brilliant idea: graffiti as interactive storytelling: http://tinyurl.com/27xw98

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Blogger Unknown said...

I love Banksy! He had a secret art showcase in Los Angeles last year, too. Awesome artist/activist.

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Blogger Avi Abrams said...

M.Christian - interesting interactive idea, thanks...

___  
Blogger ads asd said...

More street art from melbourne, australia.

http://davowade.blogspot.com/2007/02/street-art-pt3.html

http://davowade.blogspot.com/2007/02/street-art-pt2.html

http://davowade.blogspot.com/2007/02/street-art.html

http://davowade.blogspot.com/2007/01/more-megs.html

http://davowade.blogspot.com/2007/01/graf-pics.html

http://davowade.blogspot.com/2007/01/train-monkey.html

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Blogger Avi Abrams said...

Thanks Dave!
Definitely good material!

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Blogger Christy said...

Awesome collection of images and videos!

Here is another form of street art...3 dimensional figures made out of milk crates. These have been popping up all over Melbourne for a while now.

Rockclimbing
Rockclimbing 2
Don't Jump!
Post on March 28 2007
Parkour?

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Blogger Emiel said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

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Blogger Emiel said...

this one is really worth checking out aswell:

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/28073/bcdd6f21/omgekeerde_graffiti.html

Reversed graffiti, and not allowed either...

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Blogger Nora said...

These are great. I noticed a lot of fun and artistic graffiti when I studied abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland. I don't have all of my favorites online yet, but here are some good ones:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nora.mcdaniel/Graffiti/photo#5190169559015112306
(on a the back of a podium at our technical school)

http://picasaweb.google.com/nora.mcdaniel/Graffiti/photo#5190166410804083714
I found this one around town. The writer wrote "you wish"...

http://picasaweb.google.com/nora.mcdaniel/Graffiti/photo#5190166410804083714
This was on the inside of a bathroom door at school. It says "my height," "my nose," and "my mouth."

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Blogger The A of DNA said...

And this is some more about Light Graffiti... as well as my own attempts..

http://www.thednalife.com/2008/09/light-graffiti-is-fun.html

You can also see other art we find interesting on our blog.

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Blogger Elly :) said...

http://www.ekosystem.org/

check that out,
Its got the most AMAZING graffiti posts
i mean it
Im a graffiti artist here in Sao Paulo, brasil
Iv been all over,
but nothing compares to the art we have here
so check out the Sao Paulo section
With love,

Elly.

___  
Blogger Unknown said...

very nice selection of meaningful graphity !

good job

___  

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