Of all the ways to get around while traveling, one of my favorites is on foot. It’s the perfect speed to see, hear and smell my surroundings and I rationalize that since I’m getting so much exercise, I can eat heartily and get the flavor of my destination, too.
Meandering makes it possible for me to enjoy the street art. Like the children in the Mary Poppins story, I linger at the chalk scenes on the sidewalks and try to figure out the sentiments expressed in spray paint on cinderblock walls.
Now, a new film, Outside In, The Story of Art in the Streets takes on the controversial question of whether graffiti is art. The film is being celebrated with an accompanying exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA, cute, eh?) through August 8, 2011.
Where do I stand on the subject? Firmly on the side of the street where the spray paint can be found.
Anime in Tokyo
Street art is a world wide phenomenon. In Japan, where my sister Lee and I traveled in September 2010, we spent a lot of time trying to distinguish the different forms of anime. In this photo, Lee is posing with a particularly lively example of this uniquely Japanese art form. Note the round eyes and shocked expression. (Not on Lee silly, on the gal in the painting!) Big hair, big eyes and outsized facial expression depicting emotion are all typical in anime.
The following month I was in Iceland where I had a hard time not going overboard photographing everything. Not since traveling to Costa Rica have I seen a real place that looks so much like it was created from the colorful imagination of some flamboyant painter.
When the city from above looks like this;
Reykjavik from the tower of Hallgrímskirkja Church
then its not surprising to find an entirely different kind of street art and plenty of it.
Did I love the contrast between the soft-edged figures and the brilliant use of colors? Yep. And I’m not alone. The graffiti in Iceland has been turned into a coffee table book with a very clever name, Icepick byThodis Claessen. I even spotted a car in Reykjavik sporting its own graffiti-inspired paint job.
I want to spray paint "vroom vroom" on this car
Geneva 2011
Paris has a long history with graffiti, as political statement and counterpoint perhaps to all the fine art housed in the city’s museums. I’m guessing that much can be attributed to simple whimsy.
I was surprised and delighted, however, to see how much street art there is in Geneva. The city recently designated certain areas open canvas for urban artists. This makes turning a corner an unexpected visual treat and a contemplative journey.
Author of The New York Times bestseller, The Crash Detectives, I am also a journalist, public speaker and broadcaster specializing in aviation and travel.
