Two Things Challenge: Urban / Art

Urban graffiti as art : Silver Spring, MD

This week's Two Things Challenge was Urban / Art. I snapped this first picture a few days ago in downtown Silver Spring. I like how someone took what would otherwise be graffiti and put it on canvas as a way to add some color to the passageway that links one of Silver Springs' parking decks with its downtown shopping district.

Neon triptych : Seattle, WA
(Click images to enlarge.)

These other photos are some more of the neon we saw during our photo walk on Saturday night in Seattle. As the Emerald City is rather urban, I thought these signs were appropriate for the challenge.

To see how others interpreted this challenge, go to Two Things Challenge and check it out!

Tomorrow: Seattle in the daylight.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 12/08

Urban Art or Blight?

Graffiti at the Brookland-CUA Metro station. Note in the center background of the picture,
the bell tower of the National Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

I'm not a huge, huge fan of graffiti, especially when it's meant to mark territory (which generally implies some kind of nefarious and illicit gang-type activity.) Occasionally though, there are pockets of this urban scrawl that catch my eye. One such spot is at the Brookland-CUA Metro stop near Catholic University of America. These two samples are especially interesting to me because, in the first, you can see the spire of the National Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. I liked the colors in this tag and the juxtaposition of the basilica tower in the background.

Tribute in graffiti to slain Washington Redskins' football player Sean Taylor.

In the second, the graffiti is a tribute to Washington Redskins' free safety Sean Taylor, who was shot in his Miami, Florida, home in November 2007. He died a day later. I'm not a Redskins fan (I'm not really partial to any football team), but I thought this was a moving memorial to a young man who died too young and who had so much potential in the field of sport.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08