The Writing on the Wall

One of the favorite parts of my wanderings in the urban wilds of Seattle is the art hastily scrawled, sprayed, stenciled, and pasted on walls. Regardless of your take on graffiti, whether it is one of intolerance lending itself to tyrannical screeds on how all street artists are feckless vandals or one of acceptance and appreciation of the vivid colors and images that brighten an otherwise drab landscape we’ve all at some point appreciated a piece of street art or one of it’s gallery hung derivatives.

Granted, Seattle isn’t world renowned for it’s amazing street art, and to be quite honest a lot of what passes for good graffiti here is a hastily scrawled name, but we have a few good artists. In direct contrast to the level of artistic ability and proliferation of amazing murals on brick walls (or dearth there of) is the response time of those tasked with painting over the supposed vandalism. Not all our walls are speedily repainted, but some of the best are in a state of constant transition. While I’m depressed every time one of my favorite pieces is painted over, I can comfort myself with the knowledge that nothing in the world is as irresistible to a graffiti artist as a freshly cleaned canvas and a tenacious building owner bent on maintaining the pristine virgin white of a recently painted slum.

Imagine my excitement at discovering Graffiti Archeology, a site which chronicles, through the use of some extremely clever Flash, the history of walls in San Francisco, L.A., and New York from 1990 onward. If you’ll pardon me, I have some art to indulge in and my head to bash against a wall for not having thought of this first.

Graffiti Archeology via DRAWN!