urban decay - The Lardner Report

“Uber” Inspiration

February 28, 2017 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Abstract painting in the Short North Arts District, Columbus, Ohio.

How my first ridesharing app led me to some kickass street art.

As you may know, I’m a total graffiti freak. Every city I visit I try to collect a few shots representing the community’s street art culture. Sometimes it’s just pure urban decay and colorful textures from well-worn factory facades. Other times, it’s an expression of wild imagination by largely unknown artists. In either case, once you start scoping it out, I swear, every city offers unexpected visual treats. And the off-beat art experience is free.

On a visit to “The” Ohio State University last week, I found myself in 8-degree weather with no gloves and only two hours to explore. I thought I would try Uber for the first time, and man, did I luck out.

(Pic #2) Urban farming color blocks

My driver’s name was Bill Gannaway, and the first question I asked was, “How well do you know this city?” He’d lived there most of his life, but I needed know if he knew the back alleys and funky parts of town — not the shiny tourist attractions. I told him I knew this was a weird request, but if he was game, I’d like to find some radical art — and I would be thrilled if he could give me a tour of the most ratty, run-down sections of town.

Pay dirt. Bill not only knew the coolest painted walls in town, he pitched a drive-by to an old manufacturing no prescription ambien plant that had seen better days, sporting a phenomenal green patina on its wood and metal shingles (Pic #6). Then, under the overpasses we noticed the work of an artist who just may be “a little obsessed” with the amorphic forms of jellyfish, and who’d covered decrepit cement walls with dripping spray paint forming the sea creatures’ tentacles. He’d grouped them in sets of 2, 3 and 4, in different hues (Pic #3 and Pic #10). Then, in an urban garden project in the middle of nowhere, we saw these raw color blocks in assorted sizes. (Pic #2)

Check out the photos from my 2-hour tour with Bill below. For me, the day was a total hit. And the cost? $32.50. Uber, you just might be the guy for me.

Footnote: This just might be the best PR Uber has received all week…. considering the managerial missteps reported in the news today. Despite the kerfuffle, Uber Bill remains my local hero.

(Pic #3) Part of a series of spray painted jellies on the walls of an underpass in Columbus, Ohio.

(Pic #4) Back alley, Short North Arts District, Columbus.

(Pic #5) Section of photorealistic panels near the Uber office in Columbus.

(Pic #6) Textured patina

(Pic #7) Back alley, Part 2, Columbus.

(Pic #8) Detail, photorealistic screws

(Pic #9) More industrial patina

(Pic #10) More jellies

San Francisco: Homegrown Graffiti Explosion

April 30, 2015 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Exterior, home in the Mission / painted utility box, center

“The difference between graffiti and art is permission.” — San Francisco Police Dept.

On your next trip to the 415, check out the miles of high energy, super bold, larger-than-life street art. It’s everywhere. It jumps off the wall and then into your head. Much like the strip of graffiti art on Rue Denoyez in the Belleville section of Paris, many SF artists are now building up layers and creating a sense of dimension and heft (Pics #1, #2). They are painting in broad daylight, and sometimes, it’s even legal. A non-profit arts organization called “Precita’s Eyes” organizes artists to design and paint murals and mosaics on “approved” walls. But for the most part, what you see on the street is considered “vandalism” by San Francisco Police.

The city spends $20 million a year on graffiti cleanup.

(Pic #2) 3D graffiti mobile, Mission district

The San Francisco Public zovirax Safety Ordinance reads this way: “Graffiti is detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the community – in that it promotes a perception that the laws protecting property can be disregarded with impunity. This perception fosters a sense of disrespect that results in an increase in crime, degrades the community, and leads to urban blight.”

Precita’s Eyes believes its mural projects are “a bridge to the community; that artists communicate with the people; and the result is a reflection — a mirror — of that community.”

There may be truth in both of those statements, but the bottom line for me is: true art can be discovered anywhere. It may emerge from the cracks in the sidewalk or the drips on a can of paint. And if it’s fresh and new — even if it’s whimsically splashed onto an electrical panel — there’s a good chance it’s the real deal. Check out my photos below, and let me know what you think.

Alcatraz (Part 2): Off the Wall

March 31, 2015 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Close-up of weathered Alcatraz inmate dining hall wall.

Time and decay reveal unintentional works of art.

Fresh from a visit to one of the most intriguing exhibits I’ve ever attended anywhere (See TLR post: Ai Weiwei) — I had to share my obsession with the textured, storied walls of our country’s most famous, historical federal penitentiary: The Rock, in San Francisco Bay.

The 6-month exhibition allows visitors to walk through inmate workrooms and guards’ gun galleries heretofore off limits. The halls and walls are eerie and decrepit, and you get a sense that decades of dark history could quickly be exposed with CSI on the untold number of layers of chipped and crusty paint. (Pics #1 -#9). Between the coats of mint green and institutional gray, you catch shades of peach, rose, and rust. The infirmary entrance sports three shades of what could be described as Martha Stewart Mediterranean teal (Pic #9) with scratches of powdery pink — a totally counterintuitive color palette for the world’s creepiest “pen.”

(Pic #2) Dning hall.

(Pic #3) Infirmary bathroom.

(Pic #4) Alcatraz inmate “hall of industry”

(Pic #5) Defunct “hall of industry” commodes.

(Pic #6) Jail diflucan cell wall; cell Block B

(Pic #7) Infirmary entrance

(Pic #8) Hospital room.

(Pic #9) Infirmary bath, with Ai Weiwei white ceramic flowers installation.

Factoids from “The Rock:”

Where did Alcatraz get its name? The name Alcatraz comes from the Spanish explorer Don Juan Manuel de Ayala, the first European known to navigate San Francisco Bay, in 1775. He called it “La Isla de los Alcatraces,” which means “the island of the pelicans.”

Why did Alcatraz close? According to Smithsonian Magazine, in a word: extravagance. “The cost of housing a prisoner on Alcatraz, where all supplies – including potable water – arrived by boat, was more than three times higher than at other federal prisons.” In 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy announced Alcatraz shut down the historic facility for good.

For a comprehensive look into the life and work of Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei, click this link to Artsy.net.

(Pic #10) Curious door frame next to warden’s quarters.

(Pic #11) Exterior vent, prison guard quarters

(Pic #12) Dining hall; check out the imaginary form of mother and child

(Pic #13) Operating table, inmate infirmary.