Daily street art: Noirboston and Roadsworth

Published Mar 21 2008, 05:47 PM by Will Spitz

Yes, I know, I should rename this whole street art series something like "Sporadic Street Art Updates," or "Sometimes daily street art." Let's just say I'm using the term loosely. This weekend I plan on visiting my favorite street art-related spot in town: the Wall in Central Square, so I can capture some photo updates of what's going there. As I've mentioned before, the whole project began last October, when a who's who of Boston and New York-based street artists threw their stuff all over the formerly boring brick outside of Central Kitchen (and on the roof, and other how-did-they-get-there? spots). Then, inevitably, shit fell down or was spray painted over with non-interesting "0's," etc. NOW there's more art over the old art, this layer over that layer over that layer, so it's spanned beyond just a street artist's roll call - it's a concentrated statement of what's happening in cities all over the world, everyday. Here's hoping it keeps going!

I don't know a ton about today's handpicked local artist, noirboston, but I'm a fan of his gold and sometimes neon, Scooby Doo zombie character-like stencils currently lining the streets of Boston with other familiar characters, like Nineta and Goldenstash, like Boston's freaky, unofficial street art mascots, greeting en route to wherever you're going.

As for the non-local, Roadsworth's stuff seems to be popping everywhere, from Amsterdam, to Montreal, to Quebec, to Berlin, if Flickr is to be trusted as a location source. Roadsworth's shtick is using road markings as a base for artwork, transforming crosswalks, manhole covers, and other common city staples into statements of inspired cleverness. This is a somewhat Banksy-ish tactic that I've written about before; and the artists who do this - use pre-existing environments a the catalyst for artistic ventures - are the some of the most interesting. It's a means of changing expectations for what you might see on a daily walk - who doesn't want to stumble across art right under their feet?

In Boston: noirboston

Photos by noirboston.

Not in Boston: Roadsworth

Photo by nomsaleena.

Photo by greynotgrey.

Photo by hobbes313.

Photo by François @ Edito.qc.ca.

Sidenote: Any e-mail responses I've received in regards to daily street art over the past few months have been wholly positive, however, one or two commenters were not so happy about the fact that I use mainly Flickr photos. Sorry dudes, I wish I could be everywhere to take my own photos, but unfortunately I gotta be at the paper's offices at least some of the time, and Flickr's got the best street art collection. I always give photographers credit, but if you ever see your photo up here and don't want it to be, shoot me an e-mail and I'll take it down ASAP. Also, if you want to send a photo for me to use on the blog (with credit, of course), that'd be cool too.

--Caitlin E. Curran