“Community Art”
Searching for graffiti is easy. It’s everywhere once you really start looking. We walk past conditioned to ignore. Hoping it will go away in most instances, but graffiti has been with us since ancient times dating back to before the Roman Empire. The range of expression running the gamut from political protest through abstract art forms.
With so many choices my initial tendency was to narrow my point of view. Come close to highlight a smaller frame and avoid the chaos the larger picture was creating in my mind. However stepping back. Taking in the whole view I found a beautiful piece of art. Silhouetted against a darkened wall. A three dimensional metal canvas layered with paint aged by rain, rust, and weather Pushing into this otherwise strictly human environment. Mother nature adds her two cents worth with a soft contribution at the base. A juxtaposition to the harsher world above.
It’s interesting to consider the many people that contributed to this canvas. A community art project of sorts and I just another participant in the evolution. Another rendition or layer added to the many that proceeded me.
In a town known around the country for building size wall murals Olympia,Washington has their fair share of random graffiti too. In the space of six city blocks the downtown core is awash in alley art. Something I have seldom seen outside of a rail yard or in pictures from a war zone. The coverage in some of the spaces is so layered and thick it is hard to tell where one artist begins and another decides to finish. Visually it’s a little overwhelming. Situationally it’s a little touch and go as well.
You almost have to just stand for a while. Soak it all in and separate the mass before you into digestible size sections. I think I walked one of the alley sections three times before I even brought the camera to my face. Not sure if what I was seeing would translate once I put a frame around it. It was hard not to shoot up close. The larger pictures seemed to just devolve into a mass of color and random expressions spayed across the walls. The truly artistic efforts overlapping with something a child might create if given the chance.
My favorite picture that day ended up being one that showed a larger scale, but my efforts that morning shooting up close were rewarding as well.
