Pit Stop

Some streaks and tags showed up last year in town from Raems AMFM, a writer from the West Coast. He must have been passing through. Thanks for stopping by.

Kwiz Tag, College Town

In 2009, I was visiting Oxford, Ohio to buy art supplies at the now closed, Bill’s Art Store. On the side of a building I spotted an old faded and buffed Kwiz tag in red, that I had never noticed before. I changed the levels of the photo insanely in Photoshop to make it show up better.

Kwiz was an active writer in the early-mid 90s. Just about every spot we would find, he would have already had a piece there.

Before & After

These Mono & Geo throw-ups were done in 2004, and are still riding relatively untouched in 2020.

Benching Freights, Part 2

Here are 3 photos scanned from negatives from some of my early rolls of film. That was also one of the first of many Onorok freights I caught during those early years. Circa, 2000.

Richmond’s railroad history goes way back! Today we still see a fair amount of rail traffic. Norfolk Southern’s single track runs through Richmond from Cincinnati, Ohio to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in what they call the New Castle District. Watching trains is called “benching” by graffiti writers. Benching freights was my first exposure to graffiti from outside the area, and even still today you can see graffiti from all over the country, Canada, and even Mexico roll by. From time-to-time I will be posting classic photos of freight train graffiti passing through Richmond, IN.

Subsurface 2002

I got invited to a writer’s jam in Indianapolis in 2002. The event became the annual graffiti mural festival, Subsurface. Here are some of the photos I took that day. I apologize, but I don’t have flicks of every piece that was done.

Streaks & Monikers

Railroad monikers or streaks are signatures or drawings done with oil-bars or solid paint markers on the side of freight cars. Traditionally they were done by rail riders and train workers, but they started to take-off in the 90s with graffiti writers, also. When my friend and I first started to really pay attention to trains we noticed lots of signatures on the sides of cars, mostly on the ends were the ladders were, and they looked like they were done in some kind of wax marker, or oil pastel. Some of it looked like “graffiti” as we knew it, but some of it didn’t. The first streaks I remember seeing were; The Solo Artist, The Phonograff, The Rambler, and of course Colossus of Roads. We would see multiple streaks by The Solo Artist on the same line all with different year dates. It made me think these guys must be writing on trains all the time. I still love seeing fresh monikers and also the really old faded ones. Here are some streaks I’ve photographed, plus some from Richmond writers.

Other, Retouch

One nice thing about scanning old photos and negatives, is that some of the ones that didn’t come out very well can be adjusted in Photoshop, like this dope Other character I caught in December of 2000. One of the very early trains I photographed in Richmond. Other is a writer originally from Canada, who has gained international recognition for his artwork. I’m excited to see what this one actually looked like.

Still Hanging On

A couple recent photos of older pieces by ESOES and SUFR. The Sufr is from 2007, and I think the Eso is from the same year, as well. 13 years seems like a long time, but they are painted under a railroad bridge that was built in 1909.

Before & After

These classic pieces from the mid-90s ran for years at this trackside spot. There was another piece to the left of the “Suct” piece, which I’ll have to dig for it, again. Mize had several pieces around town. The first photos were taken March of 2001, and the second set was in October 2013, post buff. They are still there, if you look hard enough.