In my opinion, however, there's a big difference between contributing to an existing piece, adding to it creatively, or even covering it (creatively) to make way for a new thought or idea, and obnoxiously spraying a bland tag over the entire thing.

People hate Shepard Fairey. They think he's a sell out, they think he's a plagarist, they think he's a hack. Whatever they think, they hate him for it and they're downright giddy when his stuff gets bombed. Sometime in the early morning hours of Sunday, May 15th, Fairey's These Parties Disgust Me mural, which was pasted up over a faux wall on Houston Street at the end of last month, was tagged.

It's not the first time someone has taken aim at the piece - before the pasting was even complete,  it had been tagged. A brick was tossed through it and a portion of it was kicked in before the artist's Mayday show opened on May 1st. With Fairey hoping to keep the mural relatively in tact until the show opening, the mural was repaired and cleaned soon after each incident, however, with the month almost over and the show's run coming to an end, the wall is now fair game to taggers and Shep haters alike.

I know why people don't like Shepard Fairey, but I don't really understand it, or the need to purposefully destroy his work. He's a commercial artist now, yes. Absolutely. He makes money, he sells work, and yes, his work is, more often than not, derivative of other people's or a reinterpreation of a photograph. I don't really see it as plagiarism, though. Plagiary, to me, would be him taking someone else's work outright, unaltered, pasting it up and calling it his own - that's really not what this guy does.

Fairey's work has a very definitive style to it. It's a combination of formats and looks and often speaks to an idea that the original work was not intended for. He's not tearing pages out of books and throwing them up on walls, he's creating something new from something existing. All art comes from somewhere or something else. How we see it is, of course, extremely subjective. For example: To me, all tags look generally the same. Bubble letters or graffiti scrawl. Thousands of tags and maybe.... 3-4 styles of actual tag. One could really make the argument that taggers are just copying each other over and over again and just swapping out names. It's not very artistic. It's nothing new or interesting. It doesn't take much thought.

The Mayday mural was a nice piece. Fairey himself said that he hoped it would remain there for some time and become a collaborative work, which could have been really cool. Throwing a huge, nasty looking tag over it, though... I just don't see the point, the artistry, or the statement in that. I could ramble about this for a long time, and I won't even get into what happened to the four NYC Banksy's, but my main point is mostly that it sucks to see something destroyed out of spite. Let it go, people.

If you're into it, you've probably already heard, but anonymous and notorious street artist, Banksy, has finally landed in New York City. At least four new pieces have gone up in the past day or two, (3 in Manhattan and at least one in DUMBO). The one seen above is on Cedar St. at Trinity Place down in the Financial District. By the time I reached it, someone had already stickered a piece of it. Apparently it's been further vandalized over night, with someone scribbling white all over the figure. (Bastards.)

I haven't heard anything about the piece in DUMBO being hit, which is nice to know as it's pretty awesome. (See below.)

Other sightings have been reported in Chinatown and Soho. Happy hunting, fans!

*Update*: Spoke too soon re: the DUMBO Banksy. They've all been bombed. More on that soon.

Obey that Giant. YAY!

You know, I always think (and say) that Times Square is my least favorite part of Manhattan - the constant, often disgusting, mash of tourists, rubbing up against you in overcrowded shops, stopping dead in front of you on the sidewalk so that they can take their 8 millionth photo of the smoking coffee sign (is that thing even there anymore)... even writing it, I'm recalling how much I absolutely dread any occasion which will bring me close to that area. In fact, I will often go around my ass to get to my elbow in an effort to avoid that area.

All of that said, I was reminded yesterday that no matter how awful Times Square is, it is absolutely NOTHING compared to the hideousness that is Canal Street.

I never really remember it until I get there - and, though I go to SoHo every so often, I usually never venture down that far... probably because my subconscious knows that it would be better to just through myself into a put of ghetto and get it over with. It's hard to explain it to someone who a) isn't a tourist or b) has never been to Manhattan or to that area, but if you have, then you must know what I mean. It's horrible. It's impossible. It's dirty. You can barely cross the street and it takes about 15 minutes to go 5 steps down a sidewalk. You get hit in the face with bubbles and smoke. You get offered every kind of designer bag under the sun. What should be a 10 minute stop into Pearl Paint turns into an ordeal of just making it to the entrance and getting back out again.

If you're smart (like me), you'll use the back exit out of Pearl and be rewarded with some awesome street art on Lispenard Street. The one I saw yesterday was arranged kind of like a tree, but if you click on it to view the larger picture, it looks like a blurred image of some street lights at night. I really loved the way they pasted it up, and the location works out nicely, too. The result is that of a tree on fire - at least that's how I see it. No idea who the artist is, but it's one to check out.

I spotted a few other gems on West Broadway - the first being the guys who set up their vending table to sell copies of "How to Roll a Blunt for Dummies." I'm sure it's a great read. They were really putting in a good effort in selling it, too - everyone's got their niche, I guess.

On my way back up from Canal, I spotted one of those wannabe hot clothing stores with this mannequin out in front that a bunch of old tourists kept stopping to gawk at... mostly because it was really obvious that this particular dummy was originally built for a sex shop. I can't even count how many men were telling their wives (all over 60, btw) how they'd buy that outfit for them if they'd promise to look like the mannequin when they put it on. Good luck, fellas.

Read a corresponding article about her here.

Every time I read the writings of or an interview with Gaia, I am totally taken aback by his level of awesome.

Check out this new post from him over at Vandalog, as well as this interview from Curbs and Stoops. Both are great reads with great photos and insight into his work ethic and how he creates his pieces.

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No confirmation yet, but this one is just fucking awesome. I am endlessly amazed with this guy and how the hell he manages to place pieces the way he does. Brilliant idea on this one. And hilarious, too.

As seen on Flickr, here.

Stay tuned to Word-Vomit for a full review - photos included.

Until then, we'd like to leave you with what was an incredible highlight for us - Allison, the gallery co-founder, was kind enough to give us a peek at this brilliant piece by Gaia before it went out the door to a collector. This guy's work is just amazing.

Look for our complete review next week!

It hasn't been confirmed quite yet, but the general consensus is that this right here is a brand new Banksy. Similar versions of this piece have been seen in past shows of his (including the the recent Banksy Vs. Bristol museum exhibition), so it's looking very likely that this is indeed a Banksy work.

How I wish he'd come back to New York and throw something up on a wall. Or that they'd bring the Bristol show here. Either way, I'd be thrilled - his Village Pet Store & Charcoal Grill was bizarre and brilliant at the same time.

For those of us not lucky enough to travel to the Bristol show, UK Street Art has posted a microsite dedicated to the exhibit, complete with tons of photos and video of the various works on display - all of them totally awesome. Visit - Visit - Visit!!! (The museum version of Zorro is #70 in their image collection, if you're interested.)

Photo: romanywg