i collect these whenever i can find them, would love to see some from other parts of the country/world. im sure this is mostly a result of the horrible mental health/drug problem here in the states but i am endlessly interested in what is presented in these. its a very strange and frequent thing
this one i found today was the most organized and intentional one i’ve seen
some older ones
Say what now?
Just a thought, but be careful handling these things. If they originated with homeless people or drug users there’s a good chance they might have had sores, infections, open wounds… stuff can be transferred.
There is one on a trash can and bench and the sidewalk adjacent to it, in a park next to a liquor store ( plus a pot shop ) near where i live. Also hard to make out, but it is obviously a note to oneself as a reminder to get your life back together and to stop throwing yourself away. I always say hello to the men who are very often sitting there, when i bike by, and they’re all very friendly and polite.
Also a part of this, there is a creek that runs behind it and people live in the bushes by the creek, except for the coldest months. This is also the bench where seven or eight years ago a man sleeping was murdered with a bat.
A bit odd because it is right beside a mammoth set of metal sculptures that had to have cost 50 to 100 thousand dollars to install. The town i live in has many multimillionaires and a large amount of homelessness too.
I myself quit drinking near 30 years ago.
@shigginpit i need to dig deeper into my photo archives to find the longer essay ones i’ve found, full visions scrawled on walls
@JooseBoks while i also collect graffiti pics, theres a difference between the vision scrawls and a throw or a fill. im hoping for more visions in here
@Subverter yeah at this point in my life i sanitize my hands almost every time i get in my car
@Jukka i think one of the reasons why i find these interesting is because it gives a peek into the mind of someone who is trying very hard to communicate something important to them. theres plenty of typical schizophrenic tropes present in them but i would never have a chance to sit down with one of these people while they are in the midst of an episode to hear what they are thinking. its bleak but worth exploring i think.
found the essay i was talking about as well as a very rare typed example
if this one didnt include the religious stuff i probably wouldnt count it
These look exactly like my business emails I send daily!
I came in here expecting an album release called Vision Scrawls, but this is also interesting!
I’ve always liked keeping tabs on graffiti around, but this particular flavor hasn’t been on my radar as much in Japan. Or it’s because I can’t read Japanese great anyway.
But yeah, there’s something fascinating about these. And sad.
I sHall stert atHreat like these soMrday.
But DonT U steel my lyrics bastard.
when i was scrolling through my old photos i noticed i didnt find any in Taiwan. i wouldnt be surprised if this is almost entirely a USA phenomenon.
ive wondered what these things would look like in a social vacuum, like what kinds of things would they write if there was no concept of religion or god, no looming authority figures like government. i’ve heard some people claim shamanism could be the result of schizophrenic individuals, i dont know how much i buy that but it makes me wonder.
These are all people. Everyone has a life, and place and their own knowledge and experience and family, their own ambitions and dreams and sadnesses.
I made friends with an older fellow who i would visit under a bridge next to the railroad tracks. He was an incredible wit and story teller and trickster, who could quote whole poems from people like James Whitcomb Riley, or Walt Whitman, and others. He also did art under that bridge with feathers and other natural found objects. Our discussions would wander widely, and i always felt an exuberance talking to him.
I got to know a woman in maybe her forties, who seemed to remember everything. She knew everything by date, and could tell me what had happened on a particular day in recent history. I would always see her in a certain light rail station, she didn’t live there but definitely hung out there. She also had the ability to name the day of the week for any day month year within seconds. I observed this and she was perfect at it. She also could do complex arithmetic in her head with hardly any effort. Always happy, and fun to talk to, though she was obviously lonely and isolated because of this, and her way of expressing things.
I had another friend at the library who i’d have long conversations with often on things he’d get quite excited about, and certain people who upset him. We also might talk about the civil war, especially William Tecumseh Sherman. It was always an adventure, because i could never know what small thing i might say that would become an enormous topic that he would follow for weeks. He also drove his beat up pickup, like a maniac.
I have another friend, and among many other things, she will spontaneously dance, swirling and flowing in silence. She also finds paints and creates her own creative colorful art in small areas in public places. ( Like on a wound on a tree. ) She has very strong feelings about social justice. She also gets isolated or made fun of because of some of her behavior, and it makes her sad.
I have so many other friends, similar to this too.
there was a guy in my college town who was often riding the bus and always looking to strike up a chat with whoever was around who started each interaction with the same move. he was a nice guy to see around, only talked with him once but his presence always made the bus ride more enjoyable.
thanks for sharing those stories, its nice to hear about your connections.
i try to imagine people i meet on the street as the child they used to be and imagine the life they lived up to the moment where i met them. im sure i get it wrong every time but its an interesting thought experiment and helps push back against all the anti-homeless/anti-human rhetoric that is constantly thrown around in my city. im not in situations where i have the opportunity to make conversation with these people any more and i both miss it and dont at the same time. a good friend of mine ended up riding trains and moving with the dirty kid community. he ended up ending his own life, since then ive had big feelings about how the street effects people and has made it hard for me to really engage with people on the street but i try my best to be open and human when the interactions pop up.
The ones I can read are nice and crude!
Pussy, gold, garbage, chain, terror, right or light, delicious
Noisy, sex, Puerto Rico!
I used to walk 125th street in Harlem on my way to the gym and I saw a bunch of these - always fascinating.
I’ll dig up my old phone and see if I have any pictures
I had a similar feeling when visiting the Magic Gardens in Philly. It’s an art installation now, but it still really felt like I was inside the mind of someone that had something to say and no way to express it through traditional means. If that makes sense
thats funny you mention Magic Gardens, i scrolled through some of the photos i took there while looking for the old pics, totally agree.
