flores: You wanna go get a beer?
me: Naw. I gotta get home.
flores: What could possibly be more important than getting a beer?
me: I 've got a graffiti artist coming over to tag the house.
flores: What?
me: I'm doing my part to lower property values in Allandale!
We have four, white, neoplastic walls arrayed across our front yard. We've wondered if they would be targets for taggers, but thus far, being a neighborhood of good boys and girls, the walls have remained white.
Until now.
A few weeks ago, a local outdoor muralist, Frederico Archuleta, posted on facebook that he would come to your house and install a stencil for a nominal cost. It was a cool stencil, but not exactly our style. But what a great idea! Our favorite local stencilist is Dave Lowell. So I hit him up with "You should do this!" which ultimately turned into him and his g-friend (who also happens to be the vet-tech to our kitties [oddly small world...]) coming over for dinner and "tagging" the wall (on what turned out to be the hottest day of summer at 106!).
Dave, a degreed artist, prefers "install" to "tag" (not sure you can call it tagging when you have a glass of wine in your hand [and, yes, I know what tagging is]). Nonetheless, it was fascinating watching his process, using half a dozen stencils to reach the final result. This is the same diving girl we have in our house, so we avoid pangs of regret for having this excellent piece outside and unmovable.
One of the joys of art/graffiti installed outside is its ephemerality, how it slowly fades either because of the elements or later additions to the art environment. Another joy is the uncontrolled wabi-sabi of the install environment, something that changes with the light, the seasons, and human activity.
Our diving girl is not visible from the street. Instead, she's a surprise treat for anyone coming up to the house. She still surprises me when I get home, splashing a smile across my face.
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