FOLIO OLIO

A BEGINNER'S FIELD GUIDE TO PUBLIC ART FROM SOMEONE WHO OUGHT TO KNOW

The stars aligned in 1975 to move me from my comfortable studio to the streets. That was the year I was awarded my Master's Degree and with a wife and two children I needed a job. It was also the year that the whole country was preparing to celebrate the Bicentennial, and much of that celebration involved public art. I never went back into the studio and have over 400 murals to date.

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There is a new trend in murals; gluing enlarged photos onto a surface. I'm not all that fond of the trend, although some of them are impressive, as is this face on stairs.

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THOU SHALT NOT ADMIT ADULTERY.
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This is a full-sized boot with all the necessary accessories glued and/or welded to look like a click-off model kit. I like it very much. Mostly I like it because I have never seen anything like it before. Novelty has a powerful allure for me, but there are limits, as will be illustrated later.

I am a huge fan of reuse. This gate is a wonderful example.

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More Americans than ever have been diagnosed with Attenti...
hey, wanna go get a Red Bull?
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Who wouldn't smile rounding a corner and coming upon this? I'm big on the smile factor.

The double-take appeals to me also. I would have also smiled.

I have never seen anything like this, but I have serious reservations about it...just too goddamn cute.

Why? Just to prove you can?

This is one of those double-take pieces. I kind of liked it until I read that it was on the front of an automobile dealership, which puts it squarely in the advertising camp.

I don't even know if this is art, but utilizing a war memorial as a playground has a certain appeal to my irreverent side.

A winner from anyway you want to look at it. These, of course, are not 3-dimension objects. These are metal rods that only look like this from one viewing point.

I like money. I once said that I don't crank my truck without money up front. But there are those among us who work for nothing. The upside is that you get to do whatever the hell you want to do.

Hard to tell anymore if this is a Banksy or a rip-off of his style.

The real Street Art Guerilla does not even sign his work, which when you think about it puts the ego out of the picture.

This is the guy (or gal) who is wanted by the police for doing things like this.

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TRUE?: "Beer Can" when said with an English accent sounds like "Bacon" in a Jamaican accent.
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In times like these whimsy is sorely needed.

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TRUE: Some people profess to enjoy losing money every single time they play poker because of the "fun". These people are known as Rupert.
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This one only makes sense at night with the use of the shadow from the street light.

This guy uses words and there are a whole bunch of them.

But check this next one out....Brilliant!

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You know what's sad? We all know exactly how to end this recession, but we refuse to do it. All we have to do is to all start spending money, but spending money on American made products. What's up with that?
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Now let's get all cerebral and shit.

A real artist's dick gets hard over stuff like this.

Aram Bartholl has been going around NYC installing a number of anonymous, offline, public p2p file-sharing networks in the form of wall-embedded UDB flash drives which anyone can connect to in order to upload/download random files. Five of these "Dead Drop" locations have been set up so far, with more to come, including expansion to other cities.

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TRUE: Two Kansas City police officers who thought they were being shot at from inside a van returned fire, only later did police realize that the van was actually backfiring and the man inside was not armed.
I mean, SHIT!
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One of my very own...