ART
©2009 Craig Ashby
Digital Photograph

ART is an all capital affair. Why just go with capital A? It’s a good enough shot to warrant caps lock.

I just remember that this piece was taken on Eighth Avenue above 42nd Street. The landscape of that area so changed now I can’t place it. Overall the piece is a beauty in its ugliness.

That middle seam fighting the printing and graffiti process is great. The paint unable to reach into the crease. Defiant in its construction.

There is so much weirdness going on in the bottom half of the picture I can’t even. Did someone just black out the letters and then start editing the imagery too? How and why black out the images?

This paired with the middle tar like brush work is so good. Blacker letters showing through just because of stroke direction. Moved to where?

This is all done on a harsh red and yellow color palette. One that instantly conjures images of the rising sun with it’s hard angularity. It’s so beautiful in its horror.

All of this is what garnered it caps lock ART. It is yet another photograph I would love to incorporate into painting. Timeless and so very New York City.