street art

Graffiti 101

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Tagging at a freeway offramp, snapped through a car window

On my way to the garden nursery, I spotted this seemingly random, messy stylized group of letters. What was the artist trying to say?  I wondered, so I took a quick, online course in Graffiti Comprehension.

A tag is someone’s assumed identity, the coded name. Tagging is the writing of that assumed identity. Every graffiti artist starts his or her career with getting a tag name and then learning to develop a tag style to go with the name. This name is chosen either by the writer or it is an extension of a mentor’s name. It is this name, which is the core of graffiti, and the tag is the quickest and simplest representation of this coded identity. The tag is the subject matter, the structure of the art that is graffiti art. The work of the graffiti artist revolves around the development of the name. A tag is the one colour signature of the graffiti artist and their identity. –Excerpted from “How To Read Graffiti,” by Jason Dax Woodward

Day 17 of the #AugustBreak2015 Photography Challenge. The prompt for today is reading.

Reflections on Lent

IMG_0655 Graffiti on Melrose Avenue (Hollywood, CA), my photo
Today is Ash Wednesday. For some, it’s a day of remembered sacrifice, of reflection and repentance, symbolized by the wearing of sackcloth and ashes. Thus begins the 40-day Lenten season that ends on Easter Sunday. I was raised Pentecostal, so we didn’t observe those traditions–not in the literal sense, anyway. That’s not to say that we didn’t make sacrifices at the altar of our faith; we most assuredly did. I‘ve been contemplating this of late; and in all humbleness, I have to say: If could remove one stain from my childhood, I would scrub myself clean of shame-based teachings, religious and otherwise. I believe we are called to walk in sunshine, not shame, and to clothe ourselves in soft, forgiving fabrics. That said, I believe also that we come closer to “the angels of our better nature” when we carve out time for spiritual renewal, however that comes to be for each of us. With that in mind, I’m going to observe Lent this year, in a way that makes sense to me. I’m adding beneficial foods to my menu, expanding my exercise routines & yoga practice, and spending more time on activities that promote mindfulness and personal growth. I’m not sacrificing anything, per se, but the end results will be the same, in that making room for these changes will help me release the things I want/need to give up, anyway. CIMG7639 I’ve chosen this butterfly–the symbol of change and renewal for many–as my icon for Ash Wednesday. The photograph is soft-focus, purposefully so. I’m unclear on some of the details of my 40-day plan, but the ambiguity affords me a space in which to breathe, to learn, to grow. Things will unfold as they will, and I’m allowing myself to be okay with that.

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