SIGNS! photo by SUX ICY

They Like Signs!

After I stopped writing my name on stuff, I made a lateral move into sign painting. The materials were essentially the same, (enamel on metal), the colors were similar,( bold and garish are best) but the effect was totally different. When you paint graffiti, you are an outsider that is broadcasting your signal to the center of the community. When you paint a sign, you are broadcasting from the center of the community to the periphery. Graffiti is a youth testing out a microphone, Signs speak into the mike eloquently and with authority. Even as a teenager I could see a huge difference in how my work was perceived versus the painted signs that commanded respect. 

There is an amazing painted sign tradition that permeates the landscape of West Philadelphia. I’ll be adding many more pictures in time, but look at these and see the direction we’re going to take this project. We’ll be reviving the dead arts of  sign painting and wall-writing; The bricks were painted 40-80 years ago and they remind us that West Philly was a powerful place of mercantile style and industrial might, and could be again. The rents are certainly right, the community is certainly ready.