The Plot Thickens

“In the brief annals of street-art history, graffiti ranks as something like cave painting — a first gesture, recognized for its primal intuition that public space is up for grabs — and has, in the past four or so years, been overtaken by a host of new practices: wheat-pasted posters, adhesive stickers with oddball images on them, elaborately stenciled images and even three-dimensional objects. And like many things that start below the Establishment's radar, it has caught the eye of the mainstream and is edging into the galleries.”
~ Richard Lacayo, Time, October 2005

Last October I wrote a post called "Random Acts of Illustration" about the whimsical graffiti that had suddenly appeared on the footpath of the Pulaski Bridge, which joins Greenpoint, Brooklyn to Hunter's Point, Queens. Over the next few weeks, the artist added still more aerosol images, creating a collection that invites viewers to imagine their own narratives.

Unfortunately, there were so many images that I have puzzled over how to present them ever since. My delayed decision: introduce the characters today and show them interacting on Friday. Enjoy!

First, the original group: the playful Red Boy; passers-by including Joggers, the Bicyclist and Ms. Shoes; and, of course, the Artist.

The original cast has now been joined by an important new member: the ingenue I think of as Green Girl — a high-spirited tomboy and, one imagines, an ideal playmate for Red Boy.

Watch this space. More will be revealed on Friday.

Note: For most of the year I walk across the Pulaski Bridge almost daily, but here it is mid-February and I haven't been there since late November. It's possible that the graffiti collection has grown, but it's also possible that the construction crews who are working on the bridge have removed it. When the ice melts on the footpath, I'll let you know.