Monday, May 18, 2009

1st & Lenora: A Tale of Two Walls

Today we turn our attention to Belltown's only (to my knowledge) fully-sanctioned graffiti wall and it's non-sanctioned challenger. Both occupy opposite sides of the same parking lot at 1st & Lenora. Observe:

The sanctioned wall belongs to Vain, a hair salon located in the building that used to house the Vogue, back when it was a goth-magnet. It closed down in the nineties and moved up to Capital Hill. I haven't seen a goth in Belltown for at least 10 years. Anyhow, they have a fairly extensive graffiti wall:



Pretty flashy stuff, no? Actually, I'm indifferent-to-mildly-hostile to the illegible lettering, but I am pretty partial to the Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole renderings. They're not bad and the people who contributed to it aren't without ability. So yeah, it's not all terrible. Obviously, somebody took some inspiration from this and felt the need to show the Vain wall what he was made of - and chose the opposite wall to make himself known:

Wow, way to express yourself in an urban environment, dumbass! What's that you say, it's not finished? I'm pretty sure it would look even worse then. Whoever did this has no business wielding a spray can. Dude, someone of your ability shouldn't venture outside of tagging dumpsters. Take lessons or something, willya? Somebody please paint over this!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree that the graffiti on Vain's building is attractive! However, the artist(s) erred in not painting it higher up on the wall. When the parking lot fulfills its function and cars are parked along that side, you can't see the art as it should be seen. A lot of thought and effort that went into that mural should have included planning for maximum visibility.