Today’s watercolor experiment:
In my wanderings around Manhattan in the 1990s I repeatedly came across a peculiar symbol, a five-pointed star. In today’s example this star was emblazoned on a warehouse door. It is the only non-text symbol present. The other adornments took the form of writing in white.
My version of the door consisted of a series of nested and adjacent rectangles. I opted for my own color scheme, making the door a lighter color than the original. This made it necessary to outline the white text graffiti with a fine-tip ink pen, so it would be visible to the viewer. I did not have to modify the circle and the star, which already had black borders.
Star Graffiti on Warehouse
6″x4″ 140# Mixed Media Paper
In the next few days I will find the images of the star icon in other photos I’ve taken. It will be interesting to see the differences among the icons, both in terms of design and placement.
That will be fun to see. A few years ago, people were stenciling the same cryptic saying all over the city on the sidewalk…of course I can’t remember what it was now. But I always enjoyed discovering another in an unexpected place. (K.)
Yes, it is interesting to see the same scrawling in different parts of the city. Who knows, perhaps the star is a trademark of a famous graffiti artist. I don’t know. There should be a field guide to graffiti icons. Thanks for your support, K.
j
Yes there should! I wonder if anyone tried to compile one back in the day.
It isn’t quite the same as the yellow stars painted on the houses of jews by the nazis (and pinned to their clothes) but it’s similar and makes me uncomfortable for that reason…
Interesting. I never made that connection even tho I am Jewish. On the other hand a 6 pointed star (star of David) gets my immediate attention tho