News Articles

SF 2023 State of Graffiti Tagging

How SF is aiding businesses clean persistent graffiti
SF Examiner (Link, with maps and graphs)

A parklet, a storefront, a billboard.

Graffiti pops up across The City seemingly as fast as it’s removed.

The City launched a pilot program to help businesses clean up graffiti last November in a press conference that featured Mayor London Breed painting over graffiti scrawled over a vacant brewery in the Inner Sunset.

Less than a year later, graffiti still abounds in not only the Inner Sunset but other San Francisco neighborhoods as well.

The $2 million “courtesy graffiti abatement” program was funded for a second consecutive year in The City budget adopted by legislators and signed by Breed last month. It employs workers who will…

Preserving traditional Komon stencil dyeing technique

Tokyo shop strives to digitize to preserve traditional Komon stencil dyeing technique

January 16, 2022 (Mainichi Japan)

LINK to article.

TOKYO -- A workshop in Tokyo that creates products using a traditional Japanese stencil dyeing technique called "Edo Komon" has launched a crowdfunding campaign to digitize and preserve the extremely fine patterns which are on the brink of extinction.

The dyeing studio Tomita Sen-Kogei Co. (Tomita Dyeing & Crafts Co.), located at the foot of a bridge over the Kanda River -- a…

KAVES Sues NYPD for Buffing His Wall

Renowned graffiti artist sues NYPD for painting over his street art

By NOAH GOLDBERG

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS (LINK)

JUN 01, 2021 AT 5:11 PM

A well-known graffiti artist is suing the NYPD for painting over his street mural, arguing that the police department’s recent citywide clean-up mission “endangers hundreds of valuable, recognized, and permitted artworks.”

Michael McLeer, 51, who also goes by Michael Kaves, filed his lawsuit as a class action, asking that other street artists join him in his battle against the paint police.

“Using an undiscerning eye and an obtuse brush, the untrained crew went out to blot out art from street canvases,” wrote McLeer and his lawyers in the suit filed Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court…

Discussing Street Art, Ownership of Public Space in India

How unsanctioned street art complicates idea of 'ownership' of public space, and the inherent politics of art

Unsanctioned, therefore, uncensored street art makes for a viable platform for social commentary and political critique, giving space and form to public opinion.

Tanishka DLyma
May 12, 2021 11:04:17 IST
ORIGINAL LINK

This is the second part of a series on street art in India, and the issue of its ownership. Read the first part here.

In the month preceding India's fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a 40-foot mural was painted at…

Climate Chaos Causing Deterioration of Ancient Cave Art

The World’s Oldest Cave Art Is Being Destroyed By Climate Crisis, A New Study Finds

BY JESSE HOLTH
ArtNews (Original Link)
May 14, 2021 6:02pm

Some of the world’s oldest cave art is being lost due to the detrimental effects of climate change, according to a new study on the effects of climate change on Sulawesi’s Pleistocene rock art conducted by Jill Huntley and others from the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit at Griffith University in Australia. In southern Sulawesi, Indonesia, more than 300 cave sites are at risk of deterioration—this notably includes some of the earliest cave art…

Street Art - On Canvas, in Galleries, for auction, in the Streets?

What Qualifies as Street Art?
Justin Kamp, for artsy.net
Jan 11, 2021 12:43pm
photo: An early 2000s Swoon paste-up on a San Francisco public wall

The ascent of so-called street artists into the moneyed realms of the blue chip is not exactly a new phenomenon—it’s been nearly two years since KAWS skyrocketed to a new auction record of HK$116 million (US$14.8 million) with the sale of The Kaws Album (2005) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, which was followed six months later by the record-breaking sale of Banksy’s Devolved Parliament (2009) for £9.8 million ($12.1 million). These two mononym…

Historical Graffiti Anti-Evil Spells

Medieval Graffiti to Repel Witches and Evil Spirits Found In Britain
21 OCTOBER, 2020 - 17:52 ED WHELAN
LINK

In Britain, a mysterious discovery has been made in the ruins of a church in an abandoned medieval village. On some stones, archaeologists have found graffiti and some enigmatic marking. It is believed that the markings were made to ward off evil spirits or witches. This discovery is a timely one as we approach Halloween.

Currently, there is a major infrastructure project being carried out in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, England. It involves the construction of rail lines and a highway. This project will totally destroy a long-abandoned…

SF Viral Video About Black Lives Matter Stencil Unpacked

Image

She 'Rode That Bias Off a Cliff': Man Who Filmed SF Viral Video on Handling 'Karens'
Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez for KQED (…

Miniature Stenciled Art Rock found in AU

Rare Form of Miniature Stenciled Rock Art Found in Australia
New research suggests the small-scale illustrations may have been made with beeswax
By Alex Fox
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
MAY 27, 2020

In 2017, researchers surveying the Yilbilinji rock shelter in northern Australia’s Limmen National Park discovered rare examples of miniature stenciled rock art. Now, a new study published in the journal Antiquity may unravel the…

Just another day on aerosol earth

Just Another Day on Aerosol Earth
(hi-res image here: NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day)

Model Visualization Credit: NASA Earth Observatory, GEOS FP, Joshua Stevens

It was just another day on aerosol Earth. For August 23, 2018, the identification and distribution of aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere is shown in this dramatic, planet-wide digital visualization. Produced in real time, the Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS FP) model relies on a combination of Earth-observing satellite and ground-based data to calculate the presence of types of aerosols, tiny solid particles and liquid droplets, as they circulate above the entire planet. This August 23rd model shows black carbon particles in red from combustion processes…