Down the Rabbit Hole: April 2011

4.27.2011

So what if I did?

Whateva whateva
(I do what I want)

St. Louis graffiti at the Flood Wall

Work in progress

copy and paste

putting up some stickers

Stickers on the St. Louis graffiti wall

Slug! Delmar

Stayed on through the winter!

Smiz, CWE, St. Louis

Rabbit Rabbit

Sticker Silhouettes

4.25.2011

As May approaches, I am reminded of the fact that last year at this time I was living in Spain and vacationing my way through Europe. After a week in Italy, my friends and I finished our last stretch of travels on the tiny Greek isle of Santorini, where we rode ATV's and dove off cliffs. Even on this quiet island I was able to spot a bit of graffiti here and there. But most amazing were the sites. This post is more focused on photography than graffiti, but only because Santorini is was one of the most photographic and beautiful places I have ever visited.

Sunset over Santorini during descent onto the island

Greek tags

Slightly blurred, as we were driving ATV's, but found a cool tag on the side of this rundown building.

Volcano (in background)

Stumbled upon this already written in the sand at the Red Beach

Santorini, May 2010

Fishing Boats, Satorini, May 2010

Cliff jumping, Santorini, May 2010

4.23.2011

Dance with me until I feel all right

Still in the Lou. Started making some new stickers this week, excited to put them up. This weekend STS9 is playing at the Pageant. I went last night and it was awesome, so I am going to have to go back again tonight. Can't wait.

Blueberry Hill, Delmar, St. Louis

Kriest and other sticker tags

React Tag, St. Louis

All about the Benjamins

MookieSays1Love

STS9 April 22, 2011, The Pageant, St. Louis

[smiz]


STS9 April 22, 2011, The Pageant, St. Louis

See you nips tonight at the show...

4.22.2011

Through the looking glass

SHARED THOUGHTS...

In Rome there is a hidden keyhole that overlooks a well-groomed garden, framing St. Peter's Basilica in its backdrop. A twenty minute uphill trek from the ancient Circo Massimo, the Knights of Malta keyhole is one of Rome's most perfectly designed historical sites. The keyhole-viewfinder opens onto a still and perfectly composed scene. Cropped trees line a straight path lit by the slivers of light that make it through the dense leaves. Ahead on the path, the hill drops off the horizon just as the basilica is fully revealed. It makes for the ideal photograph, like a split-second moment that's been captured, cropped, and frozen. Still, you are not actually looking at a picture, rather the other side of a facade that is just a wall with a door and a lock. The first time I saw the keyhole I was thirteen, and it blew me away.

Door #3

The Keyhole

Through the keyhole, St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, 2010

The way a photo can capture a moment is incredible. Over time our minds alter our previous thoughts and recollections. Our memory souvenirs smudge and blur. With my camera I am able to permanently preserve moments in time, something that my own mind is incapable of mastering. I remember the exact moment in time I took each photo every time that I look back at old photo-albums.

I guess lenses amuse me because they are the only means by which I am able to permanently capture my visual perspective. No one can see the world as I see it, just as I cannot tangibly see the world through anyone else's eyes. The objects that one notices and chooses to shoot, the composition, focus, and framing will always vary when placing the same camera in different hands. Whenever I let someone else take my camera, I'm amazed at how much their photos differ from the ones I would choose to take under the same circumstances.

Seeing yourself in a photo is an underratedly surreal experience. Photography and video are the only two ways one can view him or herself from an entirely outside perspective. To view yourself in another moment, frozen, through someone else's subjective point of view, is a rarely acknowledged out-of-body sensation. I've always felt trapped by that fact that I can never understand myself by any other means than the narrow perspective I have being who I am. Before the invention of film it was not possible to see your body completely detached, to watch yourself moving separately and outside of your own being.

4.18.2011

Come back to me like hipsters to blogspot

I decided, mostly out of boredom, to make myself a tumblr for my photos, which aren't always graffiti-related. I'll still be writing and posting everything graffiti on here though!

kriest tag on the Loop

Tagged and abandoned store front in downtown St. Louis

LD crew, kriest and other stickers

Groovesect sticker

Check out the site. Not sure what to make of it. Or if it is a hoax? Marketing ploy? Just biz?

Stencil on the WashU campus

4.16.2011

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies

I want to start making more stencils. Yesterday I saw a few on the loop that I'd never seen before. Also a bunch of new stickers by Peat Wollaeger, QAEK, MESMR, and LD crew.