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Friday, September 30, 2011

Charleston adora[tion] - September 30, 2011

Again, a little background for those of you who don't visit my blog regularly, I try to write a post every Friday that is based on something that I enjoy about my town.  The only (self-imposed) stipulation is that I must visit the place the same week that I write about it, which is meant to get me out and about in the city that I love. 

I am so excited to share today's post with you because it is somewhere that I love to go and definitely not a place that is on the radar of most tourists visiting Charleston.  It may not even be on the radar of some residents of Charleston!  So without further ado, let me introduce you to Doug Panzone, aka The Sheepman.  Although I've never actually met the man behind the name, I've admired his artwork for years. 

First of all, I should say that I have a slight fascination with graffiti.  Yes I design buildings, and yes I own a home, and no I don't think that it's anyone's right to destroy someone else's property.  I do not condone bad behavior.  Although, when there is talent involved, I think it's worth sharing.  And in the case of the spot that I'm sharing today, this is the backside of an old strip mall on the way out to Folly Beach, and if anything the fantastical images portrayed on these walls does nothing but improve what's there. 

He isn't only a 'graffiti artist', but is also a 'muralist'.  His murals just happen to look a lot like graffiti!  And of course he paints them with spray paint. 

You must admit that producing these insanely detailed images with cans of spray paint is quite impressive.  No? 

What is really interesting is that the NY Times did an article on visiting our fair city called "Charleston on the Cheap", and even they took notice of this incredible artwork (image 10 of 12 in the slideshow).  The unfortunate part of this story is that in some spots, the graffiti has already been painted over with boring gray paint.  Beautiful art beneath, lost forever. 

Since it's hard to tell the scale of these, I took some photos of
myself so you could get an idea of how large these painting are.  You
could also scale it off of the concrete block. 

So there you have it, one more thing that I love about Charleston.  What do you think?  Do you share in my love of graffiti?  Can you guess who my favorite graffiti artist is?  No, he's not mentioned in this post, although Sheepman is a close second!  Also, did you know that one of the most famous graffiti artists in the country is from Charleston?  Shepard Fairey who started the OBEY/Andre the Giant phenomenon, and more recently the Obama portrait.