Graffiti at the Grounds for Sculpture

As I mentioned in the last post, the 42 acre park that is the Grounds for Sculpture is kept in beautiful condition, which makes it a fantastic destination for viewing a wide variety of sculpture. They even have what they call a "Park Etiquette" list, which explains things such as which sculptures can be touched (those with a green tag) and which sculptures should not be touched (those with a red tag). They tell you that you shouldn't mess with the peacocks (if you do, they make a fantastic squawking sound), no "roughhousing," and to "keep writing, drawing, and painting implements away from walls and artwork."

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As I sat down to take in the view from the benches at the top of this tower, I noticed graffiti throughout the space. Sure enough, there was the standard junk such as "Joe was here" and idiotic stuff like that. But there were also a series of interesting drawings, including some made by someone who obviously has a fascination with drawing eyes. But in looking closer, it seems that these two drawings of single eyes (they were in completely different spots, and both of them showed just a single eye) are made by two different graffiti artists: one is signed "by Alise" (below left) and the other appears to be signed by a "SB" (below right).

Then we’ve got two more similar but separate drawings of a mythical-like man, whose long hair almost seems serpentine. Their similarities certainly appear to be the work of a singular artist, but one is signed "by Gideon" (below left) and the other is signed "Qasim" (below right). On a side note, just for curiosity's sake, I did a Google search for "Gideon Qasim," and guess what ... I found our graffiti artist - a student named Gideon - has similar drawings on the Deviant Art website. Check out this one - it's almost the exact same as the one below right.

Here’s a few more to round out this post. What's up with the guy on the far right? His tongue is sticking out and he's holding some scissors? Go figure that one out ...

Move on to Chapter 5 here.