EVOLVE New York Shitty
Another Canadian street artist kicking ass in New York Shitty.
I had seen this EVOLVE stencil last year on Meserole in Greenpoint. This time I found another instance of it on North 13th in Williamsburg!
it’s akin to a similar stencil he has done in Toronto.
EVOLVE: one nation under CCTV
so i’m walking under the bridge at queen street east and degrassi street (yes, my international followers, you read that correctly – there actually IS a degrassi street that the tv show is based on, and it’s located here), when i spot a familiar face on the walls….
if you look at my EVOLVE category, you’ll see that he has a thing for cameras, super 8s and the like, so this is an expansion of that theme.
such a great stencil, so well done:)
this looks like it says CAUSE but the lettering resembles the calligraphy found on a deck of cards or something… like the C, A, S, and E were formed from hearts. The C itself looks like a half-heart.
just another day in Toronto …
As the world EVOLVEs
expect a little bit of a photojaculation here, munchkins. i have a rare form of OCD where i must photograph the same piece a bajillion times over just to MAKE EXTRA SURE that i got it on film. it’s a sickness combined with a giddiness.
anyway, recently EVOLVE let me know of a secret rooftop location where one of his pieces was erected. he has specifically asked me not to reveal the location (at this time), probably out of respect for the property owners. he said that the only way to access the piece was through a woman’s apartment. no trespassing for me this time, i would have to ask the property owner super-nicely if i could gain access to the roof to photograph it. so after some sweet-talking, she agreed! huzzah!
and boy was it worth the grafting. LOOK AT THIS PIECE!!! I knew EVOLVE was a fan of beauty, but this is just a sumptuous feast for the eyes.
the property owner had warned me ahead of time that the roof was flooded, so i wore my huge ass winter boots. as she led me through her apartment to the roof and swung open the door, i saw that not only did a foot of water sit on the roof, but also a layer of thin ice that had formed! i had to smash through all the water and slippery ice and not fall on my ass down to the street below. i also had to jump over some obstacles, wires, and furniture up there too. I’m getting much better at being all bendy and limber when it comes to graff-photography.
this looks like a combination of stencil work and free-hand fun with brushes and splatters.
i love this idea that urban art can incorporate classic, canonized images into the work, yet still retain a modern, political viewpoint by expanding upon the original image.
would you call this vandalism? i sure as shit wouldn’t.
would you rather have an advertisement for Pizza Pizza in this location? i sure as shit wouldn’t.
street artists deserve protection, security, and some kind of compensation. until our city’s hostile environment toward graffiti changes, the walls will continue to be bombed with beauty. KILL THEM WITH AWESOME, EVOLVE!
Check out my EVOLVE category for more of his work that I’ve photographed!
EVOLVE adhesives
instantly improves the look of your neighbourhood! sticks to any surface! and looks great! why not stick it to your city today!
found in Little Italy.
the house doesn’t get built unless you’re swinging the hammer
i finally hung the piece of art that EVOLVE gave me.
who can swing a hammer? DIS GAL!
check out my EVOLVE category for more of his work!
you’ll follow me back with the sun in your eyes and on your own, bed-shaped and legs of stone
I’ve profiled the work of street artist EVOLVE several times, I’ve been following him for months, and photographed his work from Toronto to New York. So imagine, to my delight and surprise, when I received this beautiful package from him in the mail! An EVOLVE original!
On the back of this piece is a dedication to me, so I was really touched by the gesture, and also by the work. It’s so lovely and moving.
I love making connections with all the amazing artists whose work I really admire. It strengthens the bonds in the street art community, and makes us all feel like a little family. Fanks so much EVOLVE!
Check out my EVOLVE category to see more of his work.
EVOLVE in NYC!
i’ve been following EVOLVE‘s work for many many months now, and i always assumed he was a toronto graff artist because his stuff is all over toronto and is themed to toronto politics. i wonder now if i’m wrong about his citizenship.
i’m walking through greenpoint, which is just north of williamsburg, brooklyn, when looky what i find.
OMFGuy.
I SPRAYPAINT NY. which is the exact stencil he did in toronto that i found! (except it said I SPRAYPAINT TO, natch)
hahaha, “who arted?”
the night before, i had been wandering through Bushwick, and i found this stencil on a garage door shop covering. i knew it said something about graff, but i couldn’t make it out in the darkness. then when i got home, i uploaded the photos to my computer and took a better look only to discover…
GRAFFITI KEEPS ME CLEAN….
EVOLVE!!
dude is everywhere!
most graff and street artists know that going international, and having an international presence is the first step to building your canon, your brand awareness, and ultimately, a successful career. i truly hope that EVOLVE pops up in more cities, because his work is really clever and brilliant (and until i get confirmation, he’s a canadian treasure).
check out my EVOLVE category for more of his work that i’ve photographed!
the canon
I found another fatty!
and another unwanted!
and another EVOLVE!
these guys are now officially part of the toronto graff canon.
EVOLVE in Chinatown
more EVOLVE! this mysterious street artist has done some of my favourite pieces in the city, and the other night i started skipping like a giddy school girl when i found his Super-8′s in the back alleys of Chinatown.
A note about those back alleys….hey Chinatown! Here’s a tip: PUT YOUR STUFF IN THE FRIDGE.
Check out my EVOLVE category to see more of his work.
EVOLVE: i spraypaint Toronto
earlier in the summer, i found some EVOLVE stencils around the city depicting old-timey lamp posts, but i haven’t seen any of his work lately. that all changed after taking a stroll down Yonge street!
this was on Yonge, a few streets north of Dundas, but i forgot to note which street specifically because i was shitting myself at how fucking cool this stencil is.
i spraypaint toronto!
i hate rob ford, toronto!
this especially made me giddy because i fucking hate walking down Yonge street. Yonge street is such a shit hole and is only good for peelers and dealers. i hate the Eatons Centre, i hate the gaudy monstrosity of Dundas square, and even though it’s the longest street in the world, it makes me want hurl. real Torontonians stay the fuck away from that street.
Schadenfreudegasm
Lindsey Kelk‘s book launch last week (fanks Harper Collins Canada for invite!) was a blast, and the Globe and Mail took our photos to prove it. i hope this doesn’t make me a socialite now. i’m a writer sweating through pepto-bismal nights and entire unusable chapters. verging on something brilliant, brewing in the head.
katie and i had brunch on the Drake Hotel patio and were sweating out stories and sunlight. our pores unclogging fluids, florid tales, and emotional refugees. at the next table, a couple had a huge fight, and we all pretended not to hear as the woman got up and walked away. at first it seemed that the man might be left with the bill, but the woman returned, paid the entire bill, scooped up her uneaten plate and stuffed it in a doggie bag, finished off her cocktail in one stinging gulp, and walked away.
sometimes i am a dead girl.
katie then took me to a hipster house party where everyone wore vintage heels and dresses of polyester. the men were awkwardly handsome and the food reminded me of literature. like we were eating plates torn from the pages of Neruda and Marquez. i took this above photo, the saying was mounted on the flue mantle, hidden behind other ornamentals, almost missing my attention.
if i were to fill in this blank, i would put, “…like a blind woman, bathing.”
i’m used to spending time alone. i wander the streets of the city, biking with no where specific to go, wrapped up in my own thoughts. i never bother inviting my friends to come out with me, it never occurs to me until later when i’m sitting on a bench outside a falafel joint, watching heat rise from the pavement, and couples with awkward body language teeter-totter past me, that i think “i wish i could elbow-rib-cage my girls about this.”
flexing chimp stencil in an alleyway off dundas west. in my head, this is my mirror image. i am always internally surprised when someone recognizes me, or knows my name. i don’t know why, maybe it’s the idea of owning real estate in someone’s consciousness, and not being able to see how they’ve maintained the weeds, that’s the mind-fuck. perhaps this stems from years of …. actually i don’t want to talk about that. too lazy to delete.
“We’ve never met b4 but I think I just saw u riding ur bike on the esplanade. I am not a stalker!
U rang ur bike bell at a few guys who were walking in the middle of the street…one jumped! LOL! it was pretty effing funny!”-LG
yup, twas me, fanks for message guy. i like bombing along the street and scaring the shitfuck out of chumps who are doefully expecting lady cyclists to be in floral dresses and wedge heels. fuck that noise.
although i prefer the aesthetics of the city bikes with the slim tires and really high handlebars, i just would never be satisfied riding them. those hipster rustbuckets have NO gears and you feel each bump like a crack in the coccyx. i’m not riding these streets to look like a daisy, i like my shit-kicker bikes that have been slammed around. i want to go uphill fast, downhill faster, spinning over loose gravel, wiping out, and standing on the pedals the entire way.
last week, i was T-boned by another cyclist who was making a turn too fast without using her breaks on the wrong side of the bike path. shitface clearly didn’t know what the hell she was doing. my bike flipped and yet i somehow jumped off the bike, landing on my feet, not a scratch on me. my bike’s rear, however, was totaled. i tore her a new asshole when she dared to say that i was going too fast. YOU WERE TURNING INTO MY LANE AND YOU HIT ME, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. CHRISSY MAD. CHRISSY SMASH. i hope she gets gonorrhea and her face turns into a scrotum. suffice it to say, i had to buy a new bike – a 21 speed schwinn mountain bike with shocks.
when i cycle around the city, my sweat is 50% lube.
one of the best graffiti finds yet, near bathurst and dupont.
i definitely prefer stencil graffiti (and wheatpaste street art) over pure spray-paint writing.
the street lamp reminds me of Spitalfields and Brick Lane in London, haunted with jack the ripper and sherlocke holmes. i miss living in London most days when my ligaments tense up.
Dark Horse on spadina.
the Fringe Theatre Festival is still going on, i’ve seen some amazing plays in the past week. one of my besties, Luis, wrote and stars in P-Dale, a sketch comedy piece about convenience-store-heist-ers who do everything wrong. there’s rapping, there’s dildo-masks, there’s ironic hipsters, and there’s a hand that gets blown off. it’s fricken brilliant. go see it!
another favourite was Swoon, which is essentially staged like a collective creation, cataloguing sweet and bittersweet moments that occur at the beginning and end of relationships. if the writing were an abode, it would be a shining castle.
when dusk hits the Fringe Tent, you’ll see me in flip flops and a dress that blows up every so often so i can see my feet, heading to the theatre to find something not yet written on my body.
if i was scared, i would, if i was bored, you know i would, if i was yours, but i’m not.
