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Calligraffiti

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I have just been enlightened to the work of Niels Shoe Meulman. A street artist, designer and calligrapher out of Amsterdam. I discovered his work while researching Krink paint markers for upcoming live art events. Shoe, as he is called, started tagging in the early 80’s and has gained gallery notoriety be melding the grit and aggression of graffiti with the beauty and elegance of calligraphy. I am not one for words, so here is an excerpt from his site.

WHAT IS CALLIGRAFFITI?

The simple answer:

Calligraffiti is a combination of Calligraphy and Graffiti.

Calligraphy is about the art of writing and can have many forms. Whether it be Japanese ancient brush characters, Arabic pictorial scripts, illuminated mediaeval books or swirly quill writing… all calligraphy.

Graffiti is the art of getting your (pseudo) name up by writing on an urban environment. Perfected in New York City and now a worldwide phenomenon.

The fairly new art of Graffiti and its somewhat rigid rules prompts us to look further back into the history of writing. This is exactly what Niels Shoe Meulman has been doing since his teens, consequently starting to combine the two at the beginning of this century. Thus resulting in Calligraffiti: traditional handstyles with a metropolitan attitude.

Here is a selection of images from his Calligraffiti site, but you should really go on there yourself and check it out:

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Under the Bridge

There is not a whole lot of graffiti around my town and even less worth mentioning. Being up in the foothills of California we don’t see a lot of graffiti. Most urban influence on the local culture dissipates soon after you pass the Central Valley. We don’t have the vast spans of concrete or dark allies that act as a breeding ground for street art, but if you look hard enough you will find some.

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Graffiti

This is some script on the side of a mail box in San Francisco, CA. I have a great fascination with graffiti, but not the stones, nor the disrespect for public property to participate. Or course I live in a small, rural town which still holds some natural beauty, rather than a concrete jungle where most graffiti is found. And, of course, the possibility for anoninimity drops incredibly as the population does. I will post more graffiti as I capture it.