Graffiti Worldwide

Earlier this morning I went for a short bike ride with a friend of mine down Venice Beach while it was still pretty quiet and undisturbed by camera touting tourists. Strangely it was my first time journeying the strip of sand, surf, and shops on two wheels though I’d lived in surrounding areas for years not long ago. Normally my trips to the beach where spent kicking up sand, dancing to the beat of a drum and waiting to cheer when the sun kissed the edge of the water and the sky goodnight at the Sunday drum circle. The world beyond the circle was filled with nothing more than wandering lost souls looking to get a snapshot of the woman and her two aliens. If the people dancing in the circle seemed bizarre, then the folks strolling along the pavement were even weirder in my eyes.

As I cruised along the sidewalk listening to mechanics of the bike working with my feet, I glanced around soaking in my surroundings. Garbage flowing out of trash cans to my right and graffiti covered buildings to my left. I kept my attention to the left, not because the garbage to my right made the graffiti more desirable to look at, but had the garbage not been there at all, I would have marveled at the work. I never noticed it before, but it’s almost as if your can feel the pumping of a racing heart with each spray from the can. It’s as if there is this strange range of emotion embedded in tags left by restless artistic night crawlers, vandals, designers or whatever you wish to call them. My eyes searched for hidden meanings or stories, but finally opted to just enjoy the colorful legal and illegal works against the wall.

The thing is I’ve always sort of liked graffiti. I started thinking of various other places where I had seen it on walls, trains, or other miscellaneous places. So, basically what I’m really trying to provide you with not my overly dramatic romance blurb of a girl, a bike, and graffiti, but some awesome places online where you can check out art from taggers around the world. Wooster Collective is a popular one showcasing street art worldwide. Another one worth viewing is graffiti.org where you can see pieces from Gaza, Japan, Iran, and South Africa to name a few. Nice way to pass away the time and see the world from a different view.