Dragon Fly Tiling
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
Sweet bit of street art on Jay Maisel’s building in SOHO.
Candy Factory Shedded
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
Long-time a center of Manhattan’s pasted paper scene, the Candy Factory, is now covered with a construction shed.
I should get a shot of what the official construction notices say.
When the glass and steel invaded Wooster Street, I knew the Candy Factory was a goner.
Santas on 14th Street
Sunday, December 25th, 2011
The bottled air paster went full color for Xmas. This Santa is lucky and rich enough to be able to afford bottled air for his 14th street deliveries. I could use some myself. I’ve been knocked out with a bad chest cold for the past 10 days. Fever has finally broken, I hope, was 103F last night, down to a tolerable 100F now.
Dunno, looks like he’s about to cry. Xmas tree seller 14th Street and Second Avenue.
Faile Wall
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
This has been up for awhile but this was the first chance I’ve had to see it. The distortion comes from the photo being an Autostitch panorama, knit from four photos.
A Last Refuge for Pasted Paper
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Since 11 Spring was buffed. This building at Wooster and Grand, once a candy factory but now gutted and awaiting some other fate, has been one of the last refuges for pasted paper street art in Manhattan. Jay Maisel’s building on Bowery and Spring is still going strong. You can also find a small pasted facade on Mercer Street and small pieces stuck up all through SOHO. But the Rivington Street spot where Swoon had a mural for some years, was buffed and now is occupied by a sprayed on tag. You can also find some paper off the West Side Hwy in the 20′s. There must be pastings somewhere in the Meat Packing District but I haven’t checked recently. I guess I should include the legal wall at Houston and Bowery to complete the tour.
Muffin Milk Paste
Friday, September 30th, 2011
I started seeing the tag “Muffin Milk” scrawled on walls around the neighborhood this past February. It is so incongruous, making illegal graffiti with such an innocuous concept, that it makes me laugh. Now it looks like the tagger has gone on to something else. Mickey Mouse body and is that a Nike swoosh?
Neighborhood History on an Elm Stump
Friday, September 23rd, 2011
This Elm was cut down in 2003 and I shot these photos then. It may have been afflicted with Dutch Elm Disease. Some neighbor nailed wooden tags to the rings giving radical perspectives on local and national history starting in 1931. It looks like the tree was a few years older than that. The stump is no longer there, the tags lasted a few months. The tree was near the corner of 10th Street and Avenue B. No tree has grown there since.
I was inspired to dig these photos out of my archives by the initiation of the online interactive map for my Tompkins Square Park Tree Identification Project. This project is rolling out slowly, I have thousands of photos to edit and add.
I shot these photos in 2003 with my cheap first digital camera and have enhanced the tags for legibility. The 1981 tag refers to the discovery of AIDS. The 1988 tag has police riot scratched out and replaced with “dirty animal.” The 1989 tag mentions Dinkinsville though David Dinkins wasn’t Mayor until 1990.
Faschion Shoot
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Speak now or forever hold your piece. A Lipbone Redding photobomb.
