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I will admit, I like graffiti on walls. Not those stupid “tags” that some no-talent idiots draw with a marker on a door, I’m talking about nice colourful graffiti, which I usually can’t read, but at least can admire. Some of these guys are really artistic, painting impressive renditions of people on the walls, or even cartoons of characters doing things. All in all, as long as it looks decent, and that someone with talent was the artist, I think graffiti is quite nice to have on an otherwise drab wall.

It’s because of these no-talent dimwits that graffiti gets a bad rap. What is the point of “tagging” a door, or a wall, or even the TTC, with a scribble that a three year old could do, or even improve upon? That’s just plain and simple vandalism. Graffiti to me, is art.

On the subway between the Keele and Dundas West stations, there is a wall down in the parking lot on the south side that has some wonderful graffiti. There is a depiction of B.B. King. There’s a woman who looks to be from the 1920s. There are some amusing cartoon characters. All of it is colorful and while you can tell that this was put together by different artists at different times, it does flow together really nicely. For the longest time, I planned to take a panoramic shot of it, just so I could have it. Unfortunately, I never got around to it. Now, some fucking asshole has used a paint roller to put his idiotic moniker up over some of the best drawings on the wall. For what? What does that prove? If I knew who was responsible for this, I would happily kick the shit out of him.

Anyway, enough ranting.

Guy forwarded me a link to a short movie where some artists in Buenos Aires and Baden created an animation short using graffiti. The time involved to create this blows my mind, as they would have to paint each frame, then paint over it, and paint the next frame, and so on. Some of these frames are the entire sides of buildings, so this was no small feat. The animation itself is pretty good for what it is, yet the imagery is pretty messed up (people coming out of people’s mouths, etc), so some of you might not like it. That’s your only warning. View at your own discretion.

Also, as a joke, I sent the following to Mike as he watched it and noted how messed up it was:

Surgeon General’s Warning: Do not consume mushrooms or other hallucinogenics prior to watching this animated short.

Check it out: http://www.blublu.org/sito/video/muto.htm

If YouTube is better for ya, use this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4