“Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the real estate agents and barons of big businesses. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – it’s wet.” – Banksy, Wall and Piece

Street art. Graffiti. Vandalism. Creativity. Criminal activity. Artistic expression. Whatever you call it, however you categorize it, whatever you think it is, however you feel about it – I’m [slightly] obsessed with it. So here they are – all of the tags, throw ups, stencils, stickers, pieces, posters, installations, etchings, mosaics and murals  that I’ve come across. So far. Sometimes there’s a humorous story to go along with it. Sometimes there’s just a story. Sometimes there’s a quote or lyrics. Sometimes there’s just the art.

I’ve been toying around with this idea for a while, meaning to get it off the ground since the beginning of my senior year of college. But some of the pictures date back since high school days – a collection in the making since 2009. Maybe you’ll follow this habitually, maybe you’ll come back to it only when you’re bored, maybe after reading this, you’ll never visit the site again. Whatever the reason, I hope you like it (or at least find it a satisfactory way to pass the time). Disclaimer: I’ve never taken a class how to properly define various works of street art, so I can’t really say that there’s a strict methodology by which I categorize these various sightings. It’s one-part my interpretation, three-parts various definitions I’ve read in books and on the internet. So, just go with it.

Consider the Banksy quote above not as a political statement about graffiti and its legality, nor a question of what is or isn’t art. We all have our opinions and that’s fine. But conisder it – let it inspire you to imagine a place where art is experienced, not owned; where the experiencing of art is a dynamic, not static, process; where the paint never dries because the creativity never ends; where we aren’t afraid to get a little paint on our clothes.

Welcome to the places and spaces where art – of all shapes and sizes – lives.