My area of town has some issues with urban decay, and one of the signs of this is graffiti. I don’t mind graffiti art, but a lot of the stuff that I come across is not what I would consider art -particularly when an apparently functionally illiterate person spray paints it on the side of my garage or on neighborhood fixtures… I’ve seen some pretty bad graffiti, wherein the “artist” has attempted to make a statement about something but ends up instead making a statement about the sad state of public education, or lack thereof. In this case, I’m talking about profanity being misspelled -particularly depressing considering so much of it is only four letters long. I’ll spare you the nasty stuff, but I can’t tell you how sad I felt for the poor soul who so desperately wanted to communicate his displeasure with some rival gang by spray painting the gang’s name followed by “Is A Ass-whole”. I don’t normally like to pick apart grammatical and spelling errors, but when they’re put on display for the public to see in large, painted format, it becomes so glaringly incorrect that I can’t help but find it offensive. In truth, I’m bothered more by the grammar and spelling than what the artist was actually trying to communicate. After all, I don’t doubt that several, if not all the members of the street gang that was being called out in spray paint are in fact, assholes.
For your viewing pleasure, I have gathered some photos of the graffiti that Pavlov and I toured on our stroll last fall. It’s not exactly high quality, but then again, it’s probably a little more pure in terms of being real, fueled-by despair and desperation graffiti than some stenciled and carefully planned art piece by a person with gallery representation.
This graffiti’s off-the-beaten-path locale, complete with remnants of homeless camps, broken booze bottles, and drug paraphernalia suggests to me that it was likely done by somebody who has and continues to endure a rather hard life rather than some angsty poser from the suburbs who buys his graffiti supplies at Dick Blick and fancies himself the next Banksy.
Some call it urban blight, but when it’s on structures that have been largely abandoned, I don’t really mind graffiti -provided it is executed by somebody with even just a little bit of talent and vision and that it’s not on somebody‘s personal property or a residence. Heck, in some cases, the structure that has been tagged is so run down and decrepit or was designed with such bland or absent aesthetic sensibilities that the graffiti is an improvement. But enough about things that are symptomatic of a lack of opportunities and concentration poverty in just one area of town. It’s time to bring this back around to what we’re here for: CARS!!!
While I was browsing through my photo dump, I plucked out a few examples of automobiles with varying degrees of “art” adorning their finishes. We’ll browse them and see how they stack up. My criteria for what makes the best of these is based on whether I would prefer a totally stock version of the same vehicle to the custom/graffiti/art version of it. Feel free to make up your own rules when deciding which you like best.
First up, we have a 1950 Ford F1 pickup truck. This one wears more of a pattern than actual graffiti, but it certainly stands out, as it would even if you parked it in the middle of a field packed with zebras.
The Ford F1 is considered to be the grandfather of the modern Ford F-series of trucks, which has made Ford a bunch of money over the years. F1s represented a new direction for the company. Ford gave their trucks their own platform instead of basing them on their cars. They also took steps to make their trucks a little easier to live with in terms of creature comforts.
For power, the F1 came standard with a 226 cubic inch 6 cylinder that made 95 HP and 180 lb ft of torque. One could upgrade to a 239 cubic inch flathead V8 with 100 HP as well. A 3 speed manual transmission was standard, but a 4 speed could be had as well. In 1950, a Zebra print paint job was definitely not standard, nor offered as an option. This is all on the owner of this truck. So, whether you like it or you hate it, that’s who you have to thank for it.
Our next graffiti inspired car is no less garish than our little zebra print friend, and it, too, is a Ford product…. It even has a zebra on it, so it kind of matches our truck.
Underneath all that paint is what I believe to be a mid 2000’s Ford Freestar minivan. This is a front wheel drive rig powered by a 3.9L V6 that’s good for 193 HP and 240 lb-ft of torque. It’s pretty much a straight forward, no frills, grocery getter and kid hauler.
I would guess that the owner of this minivan would consider their vehicle an “art car”. Okay, fine. I’ll let them have that. I wouldn’t really consider this much of an automotive travesty, though I wouldn’t call it an improvement, either. After all, it’s not like the Ford Freestar was hot stuff to begin with.
In terms of art, this vehicle is what I would equate with artwork that is produced when a person buys an old painting on velvet or faded hotel room print from a thrift store, then paints over the top of it, or embellishes it with their own contributions.
Next up we have a tuner car that I would posit is a 2006 or so Honda Accord coupe. This car has been heavily modified (check out the nitrous tanks in the back seat!) and has an after market body kit as well as a custom paint job.
I'm not sure just what has been done to this vehicle, but originally, it featured a 2.4L I4 with 166 HP and 160 lb-ft of torque.
That “Type S” badge it wears on its rear end is not something it would have come with from the factory as far as I know (although I’m not a Honda expert by any means). I would guess this guy got that badge off an Acura RSX type S because he figured it looked cool, and anyway, Acuras are really just glorified Hondas anyway.
Clearly, the owner of this Honda put a bunch of money into its looks, and apparently he really likes skulls.
He also invested in its performance as well. Of the vehicles we’re looking at today, this one would appear to have been planned out and executed with the most precision.
Given my pick between this Accord coupe and a stock version of the same car, I’d definitely choose this one, so I think it’s the winner for the day.
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