biffmitchell.blog: Fredericton's Forgotten Art

I don't know how many times as a college student back at the dawn of time, I'd be downtown partying and hear the call and head for the closest alley to commune with all things natural, and almost always, staring back from the urine stained brick would be some totally unnatural painting of something that might bend the senses if I tried to figure it out.

Over the years I became toilet trained, but one does find oneself in alleys from time to time, and I eventually saw so many of these flash drawings and beautifully crafted scrawlings that they lost their sense of unnaturalness and became an expected part of every underexposed brick surface in the city.

I'm talking about graffiti, the stuff of hurried art, the execution of same as much a part of the art as the finished work. I'm not sure, but I think they used to shoot graffiti artists on sight. Their bodies were hung from lamp posts in front of city hall as a warning to anybody with a can of spray paint and a lack of respect for the sanctity of urine stained brick.

Graffiti was everywhere in the city, some of it just nasty batherings from sick minds, some of it proclamations of eternal love, some of it thoughtful statements worthy of their wall space, some of it downright brilliant art.

But recently, I've been taking pictures of graffiti art to post in the UNB Art Center's Facebook gallery of art found during the summer, and I've noticed that much of the art is gone, either painted over or blasted away or just dissolved in the bleach of time. And there seems to be few taking up the can and keeping the flow of alley expression alive. I did find a few cool pieces though

This one is more like graffiti lit ...

These are about twenty feet up and about ten feet from the top of the building. My good friend Beth and I sat at Wilsers tonight wondering how the hell they painted them.