Category Archives: graffiti
my graffiti hunting days have taken me far and wide. nowadays I have the time to unhurriedly sift through thousands of old files on flickr, find the best of the best, crack my knuckles and get down to the business of re-living and writing about such a ‘once odd and unique obsession’. from the simplest of stickers on a lamp post, to a freight train waiting on the tracks or, my favourite, the isolated or abandoned place so out of the way, only the artists know where to go…
this cool find was back in ’07 Weimar, Germany
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Emetophobia plagued me growing up. Then I became a nurse to overcome this irrational fear. Talk about facing s*** head on.
Then I got myself in to street art, namely graffiti where all references to doing so are vomit, barfing & throwing up related.
It’s kinda sick, really.
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ok…now here’s a funny scenario:
Vernon’s wearing a rather sporty trilby hat and I find the cutest wide eyed baby mouse that needs a home.
I sneak the beautiful designer box that his expensive hat came in away and set up a nest for the mouse.
Vernon then tells me that he doesn’t like the hat anymore and wants to return it for a refund.
Errrr…
“Does that mean you’ll be needing that box now?”
I have to scramble & clean out the box, you know…straw, droppings and dirt…
wait a minute…
I wake up from sleeping. The windows are steamed up and the sleeping bag soaked through.
Ford Taurus blvd is no more
than quite possibly the blvd of broken electric dreams.
and I find its raining.
the windows stuck down.
Glorious rain is fallin’ finally on our heads…
Vernon’s bought coffee
and he doesn’t seem too mad about the hat box at all.
I have no idea where the mouse went.
We’re back on our feet and out of the tin can.
Its more than a relief for both of us.
change is always good.
You know, really good…
Now in the evening, I’m back on 2nd and Broadway.
Bringing art to the people.
Street art.
Street smart.
“Girl, you’re too good to be out here”
“No way. Thank you but no way.
Out here is where I’m meant to be…”
no fault line
a long and winding road
regrowth // a collaboration with vernon rust
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what an honor and priviledge! hugs and grats - serious grats to Liz for taking a chance on an unknown kid...hehehe
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A dear friend asked me earlier on this year if I could write about Vernon & myself. Kinda how did we get together…
I have thought long and hard about this one, as our friendship has surely endured tough times and since I promised to never again minimize my own discomforts or anxieties, I mean tough times. More so than most people.
It has been over a year ago that we ran off together from a crazy alcohol and violence soaked lodging house and found ourselves on the street. My arm broken. My health in a poor way. We have stuck together through it all. Joined at the hip. Siamese if you please.
Our lives have followed such similar paths. We have endured the same bumps in life’s road. We have made the same mistakes. Share identical neuroses. A double bipolarity.
I left the library in tears the other day. I had been looking at my huge catalogue of photography that really took off when I moved to San Francisco and filed for a divorce from my ex husband.
The photos of me don’t lie. I am now a mere shadow of the confident vibrant chick roaming the planet happily armed with a camera at all times. I’m amazed at myself. I was everywhere! There wasn’t one graffed wall that I missed.
I had so much energy. I ran up the Pacific Heights hill from the Marina TWICE a day! I wanted to be the best and greatest artist and photographer in the world.
I couldn’t sleep. I needed to self medicate to even get a nap. I started to burn out, screw up at work. Argue with people.
I have since realized with the help of a couple of caring and dedicated professionals (and the wonderful Paul E Jones author and fellow bipolar of ’the up & down life’) that this was indeed a manic phase that lasted a year or more.
It’s so hard to remember when the tide turned.
But I hit a depression.
Not just a ‘I feel blue day’ but a whole body lethargy, an unbelievable feeling of complete & utter worthlessness and hopelessness.
Every day I thought of suicide. And I thought this was normal! Doesn’t everyone feel this way going through a divorce?
When life gets a wee bit hard ?
When things don’t work out right? I didn’t know what was wrong! And I’m a medical professional! A nurse for God’s sake! I had truly worn myself out trying to figure myself out.
Thats the problem.
Always overly analyzing my thoughts, actions and reactions. Its something I simply can’t turn off.
Except with drugs.
The divorce was an incredibly painful drawn out experience, as I was looking at paying him alimony for 10 years.
10 years! It seemed like a prison sentence!
I fired my lawyer, emptied my accounts, defaulted on bills and spent like crazy. I indulged myself in a million things that I hadn’t had during my marriage to an emotionally abusive control freak.
I tanked. So bad I wound up addicted to heroin and coke for 2 years. It could have been longer, I really can’t remember. But the physical scars are there to remind me…day in, day out.
The emotional scars a constant regretful companion along for the ride. For the rest of my life. I was fired from my job. Alienated myself from my family and friends.
I have been around and around the mental health care revolving doors. detox. counselling. crisis stabilization units…
I wound up quitting by myself and I have done well. It would be a lie if I said I had been totally clean for the past 18 months, but there is no way in hell, heaven or earth that I could go back to that kind of misery.
Barely existing from one fix to the next. Sticking myself for a vein 20, 30, 50 times. Eternally circling the drain…
I have called myself many things over the years. Stupid. Idiot. Addict. Junkie. Fool…
But, you know what? I’m alive!
I now call myself a survivor.
And with Vernon,
We are soul survivors…
Vernon & Helen 2011
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It’s the eve of the release of THE song and message…’A lot More Jesus’ and Vernon, Tony Buenger of Guest House Studios, Eclectic, Al and myself have been hard at it with preparations…
Of course, Vernon & I are making good use of the computer facilities at the library and God bless the Nashville library system for their awesome public service.
I’m not quite sure how many days we have been livin’ out of our car…it was very cold last night and Vernon kept saying we should have invested in some Sterno for the dashboard…. I made sure I had on about 4-5 layers.
Old Bessie’s heater isn’t too great and that’s a lot of gas runnin’ the engine all night.
We woke up flat broke this morning.
I worry a lot less nowadays, ever since I got together with Vernon.
I’m much more likely to put my faith in God, and let him take care of all the anxiety…what will be, will be and he will always provide. Still it’s hard and sometimes I do find myself pretending not to worry…
Anyway, we have resources and have been in much more precarious positions over the past year.
So, chin up as my Mum used to say. Soldier on…
Luckily Mapco’s givin’ out free small coffees right now so we both amped up and headed under the bridge where we had spotted some graff earlier.
It’s a crisp December morning, bright sunlight but there’s some great shades and shadows under the bridge.
And, what an awesome, fantastic find too! Its been a while since thegraffitihunter has found such a wicked cool spot.
Totally hidden.
Completely abandoned.
Vernon is the perfect companion on a hunt. I’m a handful to keep up with and I always jump right in, feet first.
My life’s motto is ‘leap and the net will appear’ ! It was pretty slippy the last time we came here and I couldn’t shoot because of flat batteries…
You have to slip and slide to get where you need to go down here. There’s a fast, icy cold creek and a lot of these places are tricky, tricky, tricky….
Irregardless of our homeless situation, we find ourselves everyday chock full to the brim with Jesus …with hope…with faith.
It’s all because of Vernon’s song and message ‘a lot more Jesus’ ! It’s completely and utterly… infectious.
It has breathed a new life in to me, each and every day is an opportunity to share this message and spread his word of love and peace…
So…having spent Christmas time helping our friends on the street, giving out warm clothes, hot coffee and lending an attentive, caring ear, we were thrilled this morning to run in to some new friends under the bridge of brightly painted walls…
We hung out for a bit, in absolutely no hurry at all, swapping stories, telling jokes, sharing our joy of community and spirit of freedom and diversity…
Man listening to Man.
No pretension.
Only acceptance.
check out this wonderful video clip from this morning…
a beautiful song
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Where, ‘oh where’ has thegraffitihunter gone?
It’s as though I don’t have time anymore for what once gave me great enjoyment and a lust for life.
Or maybe it’s just that I don’t take the time…
It’s so easy to get wrapped up in other people’s lives, their pursuits, their goals…that we start to lose ourselves.
This has happened to me before and things did not turn out too well, so I woke up this morning with a sound resolution to not let it happen ever again.
It’s a wee bit early for New Year’s resolutions and quite frankly I never did like the idea of making them nor the promise to make such imaginary changes just because it’s a new year.
Firstly, it’s never a good idea to view making improvements as ‘giving something up’.
I think of quitting smoking, cutting back on this, that and much of the other as examples of New Years’ resolutions that I have attempted and failed at miserably in the past…
It has always made me feel like I’m depriving myself of something that I enjoy…that I’m not totally in to or 100% about changing that certain something regarding myself which would purely and ultimately do me nothing but good and serve me well to heed.
Secondly, self improvements should be considered and planned upon every day of the year and not just prior to an annual event. I have always approached life like this, invariably to the point of ad nauseam because too much self-reflection can make you so ‘sickenly’ self-absorbed.
Often, I have found that this time sets my mind in a whirl. Perhaps it causes me to focus too much on negativity instead of projecting a positive vibe, seeing the good or the best, in every situation even if my approach wasn’t the greatest.
But at the end of the day, when all is said and done, I do like to ponder the days events. Achievements, disappointments, mistakes and day-to-day interactions with others. Could I have reacted in a better way, avoided certain errors, been a little bit nicer?
My answer to myself is always a resounding ‘YES’.
Time spent on self-reflection is a very healthy activity. It constantly reinforces the need to be a much better person, to always treat people as you would want to be treated…
I have spent the past couple of weeks surrounded by people, people from all walks of life…they are nearly all complete strangers. People I am meeting for the first time…
People with their each and own unique view on what should be or shouldn’t have ever been…
Some I couldn’t agree with more, many I simply nodded and let them take their stand, realizing that our worlds could not have been any further apart or different. But I let them say their piece, allowed the time for their opinions to flow unobstructed and free of my own feelings…
My only wish is that they too, at the end of the day, take time to reflect on their own actions and interactions with others. And that they too, make the decision to constantly improve themselves and strive to do better at their treatment of others.
That they too, incorporate a daily reflection upon their human interactions and always look for ways to make improvements.
Hopefully, they won’t wait until the start of a new year.
Meanwhile, I had better get up out of here and start re-exploring and re-discovering my passion…
Afterall, I have long called my graffiti hunting and photography trips my one true anti-depressant and right now the medication sure as hell isn’t working….
tgh 12/12/11
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great graff train
You have to check out the link above. You just have to…
It’s a wonderful, unique 2 minute indulgence in to the scandalous world of graffiti art
and what better way to watch it than as it rolls by on a train
As it was meant to be seen..
In motion….
A friend on Flickr wrote me the other day:
“to think that this “rolling billboard” rolling wall” travels from canada into the usa and through nashville. cool stuff,
and vice versa, stuff from nashville rolling into canada into the big cities.”
Too cool…
A fellow enthusiast is loving my stuff, from another corner of the world! He’s giving me insight too, filling me in on some tags, names so I can give credit where credit is very much due…
He wrote,
“I did a road trip this year through Washington Idaho Montana and North Dakota, and I noticed that there aren’t many cities but a lot of small towns, and for a lot of kids trains are the only change in scenery.
So I found it cool to think that there are kids out there that make sure to watch each train rolling through town, and how it must inspire them to become apart of this movement.”
Video recording really helps. I’m going to try to capture better footage, so please forgive the shaky cam.
I get a bit excited when one comes by. There are so many, you’d think I was over it by now.
Yeah, Right?
I’ve started posting mini snippets of boxcars rolling by.
I could sit and watch ‘em for hours too. There’s something relaxing about it. It’ll put you to sleep if you’re not careful…
My hope is that the artists, their family, friends and fans get to see their art,
their creativity….their self expression.
I’m just out there because I love it! Looking and recording,
Ready to share my love for such a unique, captivating art form.
Plus as thegraffitihunter and with so many international contacts, I now have a reputation to live up to. tgh
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I was once accused of ‘less than average’ photography. Believe me I did not take the comment to heart. But I did dwell on it a wee bit too much back then. The owner of the negativism was a regular ‘downer’. You know the kind. No matter how humble, honest, or proud you are they always have doubt.You can just hear them ‘Hummmpf…I don’t know, somethings not right’ !!!
Killjoy would always complain about my ‘crazy angles’. I have always favored dynamic angles when lining up a shot, especially graffiti. He felt that the subject should be photographed straight on. Stand right in front, well…let me grab a ruler.
Ansel Adams said “a good photograph is knowing where to stand’ and I couldn’t agree more. To me its all about movement. Its personal.
Anyway, it was quite a while ago and I still use and abuse my crazy angles. I would mention a learning curve? But then why? Life is ONE big learning curve. I would never offer advice or commentary to another, unless I was being positive or encouraging.
Not to say, I can’t take criticism though. Its long been a strange pill that I’ve struggled to swallow since English secondary school days.
And over the years I have developed a more than adequate covering of callous skin, enough to handle this cold cruel world by any means….
To be honest, I welcome people to rip holes in my stuff,
Go ahead…I really don’t mind.
In fact I prefer to hear, ‘I don’t like that’ or ‘Errrrr…k’ !
What I hate is to hear ‘Why don’t you change…’ ‘why don’t you…why don’t you…’ and it usually is in reference to colors used or angles taken.
Art and Photography, respectively.
Different passions? Grossly intertwined….
You can’t have one without the other.
I will let you in to a little known secret but I did not draw or paint for 20 years.
During that time I developed my photography, but kept art at arm’s length. The person I was with, for a majority of that period maintained that I was of no talent what so ever.
So that might have had something to do with it. Still, it’s neither here nor there now…the old water under the bridge.
But I was very, very tired of tip toeing around life and I was supremely relieved to find myself flying solo once more. I seriously flipped out over pens and paints. I am fortunate to discover a second childhood. What makes it mean so much more is having one special person to share it all with. That one person who wants nothing more than for you to be the best that you can ever be…
It’s as though bringing the two together has changed my perspective. I don’t see things quite so black and white. My mind has expanded unconditionally, respectfully, thoughtfully.
When I first started to write about photography…write about art, I felt as though I had to pick a topic, or a theme. My writing lustered lack and white. It lacked an unrestricted flow…of ideas, of expression.
I had yet to free myself up. To not be afraid of digressing, embellishing and elaborating.
I began to apply this to all ventures and aspects of the human experience…photography, art, writing, living and loving!
I began to mix it all up in a big bowl of life and blend all the adventures, experiments and energies together. 
“The greatest friends I ever made were on the streets”
thegraffitihunter
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Most of the time, the message I feel from the street art and graffiti that I have seen and photographed on my travels is very positive. So much so that I have amassed quite a file that is full to the brim of neatly placed hearts and sentiments of undying love. Funny thing was I woke up today and really didn’t feel like writing. Since life, and love for that matter has been treating me fairly well lately I spent the morning pleasantly perusing these photos. I remember when I returned from Tokyo, a colleague at work wanted to see the photography from my trip. She was an older woman and I honestly didn’t think she would be that keen on the scads of graffiti shots I had taken. Nevertheless, not being one to shy away from proudly sharing my passion with anyone who shows an interest I picked out some cool rackgaki – Japanese graffiti. Imagine my delight when she went absolutely nuts about one in particular. So much so, she asked for a copy and enlargement of one in particular. “Oh, even the graffiti is beautiful in Japan!” She said and of course, I couldn’t agree more.
On many a walk in San Francisco, I would find myself being pulled sub consciously toward the Golden Gate Bridge. It really has to be one of my most favorite and enjoyable stretches of scenery from all my travels. In fact, the view from anywhere you wind up, in San Francisco is going to be pretty, pretty awesome. So, you can imagine my delight one sunny, but cool day up on the bridge, when I spotted this….
A photograph that rapidly became a member of my ‘best of all time’ and one that has been copied, framed, mailed and emailed many times over for family, friends and fans.
A photo that is truly dear to my heart. Just like the City of San Francisco will always be.
Now this cute little ‘arrowed’ heart was found very recently on my trip home to England. I had hiked miles over London taking pictures and was just heading back over the Thames to St Paul’s. As per usual, I had ended up at The Tate modern gallery and one of the nicest ways to cross the river is via the pedestrian Millennium bridge. Since, it is a place of high volumes of human traffic, it is very much devoid of any street art or graffiti. Except on this day and for this one small white heart. Placed lovingly on a very romantic view from the bridge. Very much, a peaceful and loving message. One of happiness and contentment.
I remember reading about when John Lennon had met Yoko Ono at a gallery in New York. She had an art show and he was invited. In the middle of a room stood a step-ladder, which he climbed up to find one word, written on the ceiling by Yoko. The word was ‘yes’. John was struck by the simplicity and positivity of such a small word and in turn, fell in love with Yoko.
Which brings me to this photograph, spotted and lovingly taken following one of a thousand visits to the Alemany Sunday flea market in South San Francisco.
This photo is very much adored by friends and Flickr followers alike. As soon as I posted it, I noticed a lot of people checking it out, labeling it a favorite and taking the time to offer up nice comments like ‘great find’ and ‘excellent composition’. I couldn’t agree more and in spite of the drab surroundings, such a simple, beautiful message to be found on a wobbly sign post.
Well, I sure did wind up writing quite a bit more than I planned or even felt like writing today. I think it has something to do with the small and sweet messages behind these photos. More importantly, it’s because of the beautiful memories that I have while out and about taking them. I remember taking each and every shot like it was yesterday and hopefully I am able to share this feeling with you.
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