#30: Tits!

What else can be said about tits that hasn't been said yet?  Jennifer Love Hewitt called her own "Thelma & Louise" after the obsession the press had with them when she became famous.  Scientists in the 70's concluded that tits became relevant to humanity once we became fully bipedal (quadruped females use other 'techniques' to entice males to come on over and preserve the species).

Here's a odd visual take on these seductive appendages.

#29: I see dead people.

Swiss-Italian painter and sculptor Alberto Giacometti is one of my favorite artists.  I read somewhere about his comments after spending some time studying the human face.  His conclusion was that the only things in a human face that were really alive, were the eyes.  

This guy was really intense.  I love it!

#28: Art As Therapy

They say art can be a therapeutic outlet for the artist.  A way to drain their internal issues.  

The reference to a "foreign" boy here... seems so.... autobiographical.  Glad he/she got it out of their system.  "yeaih!" for the healing power of the Sharpie.

#27: Smell-o-Vision

Somewhere in the 60's the movie industry came out with this new gimmick called Smell-o-Vision.  The technique involved adding smells and odors to the experience of movie watching with the intention of making it more life-like.  Maybe that's why NYC feels so "real".  

I wonder if the MTA (the New York City transportation authority) still uses this technique.

#26: Facial Reconstruction

Isabelle Dinoire was the first person to survive a partial face transplant in 2005.  And only last month, doctors in Spain managed to perform the first successful full face transplant.  Apparently it took a 30 member medical team 24 hours to perform the operation.  

That is really very impressive, but I have to say that here in the tunnels of the NYC subway system, it only takes a team of 1, a couple of seconds to perform a similar operation.  We're just that good here in New York.

#25: Le Mustache II

Will the real defacer please stand up, please stand up.

Last week, a friend emailed me about these funny mustaches that she had seen in the 49th St station on the N train.  The defacer wrote the word "mustache" with the drawing itself.

A couple of days later, two different friends sent me photos of those mustaches that they found somewhere.

And then this weekend I found them in two different stations by the Lower East Side area.

Is this the work of a single defacer??  Or are some of these the work of copycats repeating his/her design around town?? hmm…  If we had security cameras in the subway like they do in London, we could find out.  But... if they did have cameras we probably wouldn't have any of this wonderful art!! …like in London!!  

This post marks the first time I include photos that are not mine.  I've always made the point of posting my photography only.  Thank you Emily for the email, thank you Monica and Lou for the photos.

#24: D'oH!!

Hehe… hehehe….. he….. hehehe   …. hihi……   Who ever said NYC is not a happy place!!???

#23: Damage Control

Wow!  This girl has either a very devoted fan or she has relatives living in the neighborhood.  A few days ago i took the photo of this New Jersey based reality TV show star, with a nice piece of artwork painted on her mouth.  And then a couple of days later I came across the same poster... and the piece was gone!!!  Someone actually took the time to carefully remove the offending material without damaging the poster!

I have to say that the clean up work was even more skillfully done than the original drawing.  One could say it's a sample of "restorative art" if there is such a thing.   (And actually, there is.  But if you google that term, you find things related to 'fixing up' dead people for their funeral.  Weird.)

#22: One of My Favorites!

A couple of weeks ago I found this poster for Toni Collette's TV show "United States of Tara".  It made me very happy to find it.

And about 3 days later I passed by the same poster again and….

….  it was just perfect.  If I had any negative thoughts about the problems of my life while walking down that train station, when I found this poster, they were all gone in an instant.  That's one of the things I love about these works of art.  

And it reminded me of an earlier post in this blog "#4: A Genetic Urge".  Those faces in those posters are just there, like a canvas begging to be bathed with the ink of our artistic outbursts.  

#21: Le Paris Metropolitain!

Let's make this clear, this blog is about the New York City Subway.  But!… I had the chance to ride the Paris Metro this Xmas!  The one in France, that is.  And of course I just had to explore their poster defacings, because… well… because they were there!!

They don't seem as common as in NYC, but you do find them often.  However, even though I spent several days in the city, it was really hard to find something that matched the level of the great work I've found here, some of which is represented in this blog.  I didn't find much humor in them either, but then again, the french aren't exactly known for being funny.

So here's a sample of the ones I liked the most.

You know, I did spend a few days in London too, but I have to report that this kind of art is almost nonexistent there.  At least I couldn't find any.  It's probably related to the fact that London is blanketed with security cameras.  I saw cameras everywhere in the Tube stations.  Damn you Big Brother!!