More Graffiti in downtown Vancouver

Jesse and I felt it was once again time to return to two favourite alleys in downtown Vancouver to examine graffiti.  The city recently undertook an energetic campaign to eradicate all graffiti in preparation for the Winter Olympics, though I cannot imagine any tourist stumbling upon our hunting grounds.  Now that the city has withdrawn further funding from street artists painting large murals and store owners repainting alley walls, we suspect that these many 'canvases' will soon be attracting the efforts of graffiti artists.

These photos were taken as the early morning summer light was being diffused by the time it reached the ground level of the alleys. 

It is not uncommon to find people making statements by pasting words either torn from publications or their own handwritten or printed statements.  Eventually these sheets slowly dissolve and the colours of paints take over, either from recent application or from beneath the paper.

We were delighted to find a new type of art on one of the walls, a bas relief, or sculpted face emerging from the wall.  I have no idea whether this should be classified as a graffito, but I liked it and hope to see more soon.  It is very expressive, almost a theatrical mask portraying what so many of the other artists attempt to express through colour and words.