I saw this three eyed face on a stair railing in Ravenna Park a few weeks back. Maybe the middle dot is a nose. It looks more like an eye to me. I think this appealed to me (I use the term "appeal" loosely) because I could kind of tell what the graffiti person was trying to draw. I usually can't tell what the scribbles mean or if they are trying to represent anything. This, I can figure out.
I saw this one (below) in Capitol Hill near 10th Ave and Pike Street. This tag line caused me to look twice. I am still perplexed by headline on the plywood, and I don't understand why I find this crass statement so fascinating. Is this the name of the graffiti artist? Why the asterisk at the end of the word? I don't see a footnote. Is this statement an editorial comment on the bands posted below? How long has it been there? How long will it stay? Notice that the people who posted the band posters did not post over the headline, but they posted over the other graffiti. Maybe the idea was to write an eye catching headline, then people might pay better attention to the posters underneath. Look at the marks under the band posters. What does they mean? I have no idea.
I am curious about the person who wrote this headline. It seems they wanted to communicate to a broader audience than just people who understand graffiti. I don't understand 99% of graffiti I see on the street. I know I am not the target audience; nevertheless, why graffiti artists aren't more direct, representational, or clever? Why can't they write haiku, or short witty statements like a tweet? How about pictures of birds or people? Have any of them taken an art history course?
I shared this with my family over dinner last night. They thought it was funny.
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