Last September I did a post on some heart motifs in graffiti: Graffiti Mystery Theatre: Same Old Same Old. The mystery began which I observed the heart motif in this piece, by Zen1:
It’s just to the right of center at the bottom of the left stroke of the ”n”. As I went on to explain, that piece is in Osaka, Japan and appeared in a DVD that accompanied RackGaki, by Ryo Sanada and Suridh Hassan.
The heart motif, in that form, seemed interesting to me because, 1) I haven’t seen it very often, and 2) but I have seen it in graffiti I’ve photographed. Here it is in a piece by Then or Then One that I photographed in 2006:
Most of that post was devoted to describing the characteristics of this motif and then to tracking it down. Did Then One in Jersey City and Zen One in Osaka invent this motif independently, or did they get it from a common source. I don’t know, but there is a well-known book that they might have gotten it from, Subway Graffiti by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfont. If you look at the cover you’ll see it near the bottom at the right edge. There’s a piece by Heart, and the motif is on the bottom of the first stroke of the “H.” (Here’s a link to the book at Amazon.com. If you click on the cover image, you’ll get one large enough so you can see the piece I’m talking about.)
Well, I’ve now photographed three more examples of that motif, all in the Erie Cut (aka Bergen Arches) in Jersey City. Here, near the East end of the cut, you can see it at the bottom of the “n” in Blank:
These two are next to one another at the West end of the cut:
Given that they use the same colors I’d guess that they were painted at the same time. It’s not obvious to me, however, that they were done by the same person. Look closely. The styles are a bit different, even to the hearts. But not vastly different. Perhaps its two writers; or perhaps its one writer, writing two styles and two names.
Who knows whom? And who were they influenced by? The mystery continues.
This is pretty dope , it's art .
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