Graffiti Gone Wild

I got this incredible shot the evening of 9/8/2009 on the UP in SLC.

http://www.utahtransit.us/mural1.htm

thats pretty cool. I dont condone it either but when you get a something like this to took time and obviously some creative talent I dont mind it. Its when you get teh crap like what was on the NYC Subway back in the 70's and 80's that i dont like. Murals=coolness, tagging=gay.

Great shot.

One thing I don't understand is the "tagging" if you will within the lavatory on-board the locomotive. Why a hogger making $30+ an hour will stand over a smelly toilet and write on the walls of the lav are beyond me.

Who ever did that took some time to do it. And an arm load of paint too! We get tagged from time to time at Septa, usually over the weekend or at an outlying point. Certainly nothing as artistic as that, just some yahoo's handle or his posse's name.

Gosh, they even got the Helvetica typeface correct. (Not perfect, but pretty amazing for freehand.)

Too bad they covered up the reporting marks and car specs, though. I've seen a lot of grafitti'd cars in which the "artist" went out of his way to leave the reporting marks intact. Obviously what they did was still wrong, but you kind of have to appreciate that they had the sense to realize that those letters and numbers are important and shouldn't be covered up.

MEC407 wrote:Gosh, they even got the Helvetica typeface correct. (Not perfect, but pretty amazing for freehand.)

Too bad they covered up the reporting marks and car specs, though. I've seen a lot of grafitti'd cars in which the "artist" went out of his way to leave the reporting marks intact. Obviously what they did was still wrong, but you kind of have to appreciate that they had the sense to realize that those letters and numbers are important and shouldn't be covered up.

They would have a better chance of their "work" lasting if they left the tech info of the car visible, or even worked it into their work. Now, the car will sooner or later be shopped when possible and the cars info patched over the paint.

It is an amazing piece of graffiti, and even more so how the blue of the sky on the car matches the blue in the real sky PERFECTLY.

Graffiti is a part of railroading, unfortunately, and its never going to go away, but some pieces you really have a to take a step back and admire the work of the "artist" - even though it is the wrong thing to do, it does look pretty damn good! Too bad they couldn't do it in a more legal way.........on paper maybe?? haha

When someones "Art" is put on property that does not belong to them without permission, i see it only one way, as a crime. Especially when these idiots paint over car numbers and other data.

Is it not an advertisment ???

David Benton wrote:Is it not an advertisment ???

It's an advertisment for the graffiti vandal. The next page shows his signature, or "Tag".

NV290 sums it up perfectly: it's vandalism and a crime. Look upon it this way: what if someone tagged your automobile or house? Some of these guys actually tag HO-scale cars and sell them at art shows... maybe they're raising money to buy more spray paint.

We've come a long way since Bozo Texino.

I was thinking about the graffiti problem and came up with a wild hare idea about how to combat the issue: Sanction tagging by actually offering up cars needing paint to taggers. Park cars at locations where they can have at it, with one condition- that being that all car data (reporting marks, instructions, etc) would be masked off. Think of it... the railroads would save money by not having to repaint cars, the biggest operational headache (the painting-over of car data) would be reduced/eliminated, and (eventually), the taggers may get bored with the legitimacy of it all and move on to other pursuits.

Ok, this is a bit tongue-in-cheek but, liability issues aside, it would probably be more effective than preventative measures being taken now.

Moderator's edit: Consecutive posts merged 3 December 2009 630AM CST