Graffiti exploration: West Philly

  Waking up rather late on this Sunday morning, I decided that all  my days of traveling in and out of the city by train during the week really gives me an itch to get out and photograph all the graffiti I stare at through the smudged plexi-glass window's of the train. I never get to stop and really enjoy the graffiti itself. 

  So today, I was going to find and photograph all the graffiti I could and get as close to the train tracks as possible.

  I pulled my best friend out of bed and the two of us hopped in her Toyota Rav 4 and decided to follow Septa (train service) Regional Rail Route R5 line, (local to Paoil/Thorndale, PA) from Ardmore PA which goes through West Philly by car on Lancater ave,all the way down to center city.

 The reason why I chose this specific route is because this railine ran next to Lancaster avenue the only road that ran from Philadelphia all the way to Lancater PA. Also, this is the same train I take to get to and from my house to Philadelphia everyday. I was always awed by the amount of graffiti that lined the tracks, it was easy to occupy my 30 minuet train ride just by staring out the window. It was icandy, a puzzle I liked to untangle in my mind. Everything about train track graffiti, the colors, the saying, the fonts and tags. 

  As we got closer to center city we decided it would be best to park as close to the tracks as possible in a nice parking lot and walk to take pictures of the graffiti. At first we started around 51st and Lancater, where we found a slight opening and carefully climbed up the tracks to take pictures of some of the graffiti. After our adventures in West Philly, we ventured in more to 30th street and the Schuykill River.

This is what we found.

The Originator

Ever wonder who was the father of Graffiti? How it started and where it started? Look no further than this man...


Cornbread on starting graffiti in Philadelphia


YES THE MAN TAGGED AN ELEPHANT!


Cornbread the grandfather of graffiti became very famous for tagging an Elephant at the philadelphia Zoo, as well as the side of Jackson 5's private jet.

Click here to read more on Cornbread!

SPRAY PAINT ART!

     A few months back on a Sunday while I was attending an outdoor event in the middle of center city Philadelphia(Around 13th and Chancellor street) I came across a graffiti artist I had never heard of or seen before. He was doing spray paint art on the side of the street on paper. I had seen this kind of spray paint art before, just never local. Spray paint art, is a type of art form that uses mainly poster board or any other type of material and the artist uses lines, shapes, colors and patterns to create different scenes or landscapes with various spray paint techniques. 

    Unlike the traditional graffiti art done on walls of streets or buildings and are usually one of a kind of art for spectators to enjoy, this type of spray paint art is often just repetitive. An artist who makes spray paint art learns by creating and using the same mediums over and over. For example, to create an earth, planet or moon, the artist may the same circular disk to trace the shape over and over in each design. This type of art does require a lot of skill and many people who get into this type of art must learn or train themselves to be precise and crafty when it comes to producing this kind of work.
1 min spray paint art
    Although I knew how this kind of spray paint art was done, I still decided to stay and watch. Name name of the artist was "JOSHUA MOONSHINE"and after watching him repeat his process using various lines, shapes and colors to achieve his city skylines and various beach scenes. He was a performer and a a definite crowd pleaser. I enjoy his energy so much and his various choice to use recyled material as part of his tools for creating his landscapes that I cracked down and bought a piece right on the spot just to watch him make it for me. I told him what I wanted and this was the end result. If you ever get a chance to watch a spray paint artist at work on the streets. Stop and watch because you will be amazed.

JOSHUA MOONSHINE AT WORK WILDWOOD NJ 2009

 

JOSHUA MOONSHINE, BEACH SCENCE

Graffitti Exploration #UNO

     I started enjoying various street art at a young age. It wasn't until my early teens that I found myself skimming over the glossy cover of Juxtapoz Magazine, flipping through the various graffiti creations by names like "Bansky", "Mr.Mucho", "Gaia", "Lady Pink" and "Obey".  I remember stopping to the creased centerfold of one particular artist. All I could make out was a huge block of colorful lettering and a tiny figure the size of an ant, placed like an alienated figure in the center. "SABER" ( or SABER-ONE), was the name of the artist as well as what was spelled for his LA River Piece . I discovered that the overwhelmingly 250'x 50'( nearly the size of a football field) sized tag, took him nearly one and a half years to finish and is one of only two of the largest illegal street art pieces ever done with rollers and paint.
   After doing more research, I found that SABER is an artist based out of LA but has done pieces all over the U.S. some even created in my own city, Philadelphia PA.
    SABER is just one of many artists who does large scale graffiti usually words or pictures painted an magnanimous array of colors usually reflecting his political support for the revolution of Egypt through social justice of the U.S. in order to create world peace. 
THE DESTRUCTION OF SABER'S LA RIVER PIECE!
      After trying a year to create my own graffiti art and reading more into the culture I realized I wanted to document and investigate this type of art in my own way. I wanted to find a way to preserve graffiti art that you may see one day and completely miss the next. As a major in documentary film, I decided to create a blog dedicated to graffiti art culture in Philadelphia PA. Every week I hope to document through video and picture Philadelphia street art and share graffiti to a larger audience before it is completely washed away.

“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
 
 First Graffiti Exploration
1) 12th and Carpenter (behind Philadelphia High school of Creative and Preforming Arts). 2) 20thd Chestnut street 3)18s 20th street (next to JFK Blvd)