Sharpie Withdrawal

One thing that is NOT so great about Philadelphia is that you can't graffiti on things.

There are amazing murals all over the city, and Maloney told me that when people are caught doing graffiti in Philadelphia they have to do community service by working on one of the murals.

In theory, this is great. It's better to train creative people and give them a canvas than to incarcerate them like Guliani used to do.

At the same time, however, it sort of defeats the purpose of graffiti, which in New York was not only an absolutely necessary answer to commercial pollution, but a great, citywide conversation, and a very democratic gallery. Sort of the wikipedia of art.

I miss defacing things. The city was like a giant version of a student's composition which I could write comments on. But I've had to retire my paper pigs, sharpie, and googly eyes since I've come here.


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Thinking of big vs. small, and the graffitti scroll paper in Dan and Sam's living room on Flatbush, and Excalibur (my favorite sharpie) inspired this tribute.