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Steve Powers: A Love Letter for You
Brick Valentines on the Philly Skyline
Graffiti artist Steve Powers started painting his "ESPO" alias across the walls and rooftops of Philadelphia in 1984, just as the city's Anti-Graffiti Network was launched. Twenty-five years later, in the summer of 2009, he returned to Philly, armed with 1,200 cans of spray paint, 800 gallons of bucket paint and 20 of the finest spray-painters in America, to inscribe an epic love letter on the rooftops facing the Market-Frankfurt line, as a public art project. Powers consulted the community in West Philly and collaborated with The Mural Arts Program and the Pew Center, and with their help transformed this 20-block stretch of buildings into visual and architectural Valentine poems, with lines such as: "This love is real so dinner is on me" and "Knocked on your door/ legs tired back sore/ migraine for sure/ no more I swore you smile I'm cured." A Love Letter for You: Brick Valentines on the Philly Skyline documents in full color the art and the neighborhood that inspired Powers' work, and is designed as an open Valentine love letter for all to use. Steve Powers was born and raised in Philadelphia, and then moved to New York City in 1994. After stints as publisher of On the Go magazine, author of the book The Art Of Getting Over and full-time graffiti writer, Powers opened a studio in January 1998.
STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely.
FROM THE BOOK
"I started writing graffiti in December of 1984, right as the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (P.A.G.N.) started. The looming presence of a government agency dedicated to stopping the expression that had just given me a voice affected how I wrote graffiti. The irony is not lost on me that at this moment in Nueces County, Texas, 18 year old Sebastian Perez and 19 year old Ralph Mirabal are each doing eight years in state prison for writing on fewer walls than we did in West Philly. The marks they made will fade before they get out, but their lives are completely and irrevocably vandalized by an unrepentant tagger named Justice."
FORMAT: Pbk, 9.25 x 6.25 in. / 96 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $19.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $27.95 GBP £17.50 ISBN: 9780977652372 PUBLISHER: Free News Projects AVAILABLE: 4/30/2010 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
Steve Powers: A Love Letter for You Brick Valentines on the Philly Skyline
Published by Free News Projects.
Graffiti artist Steve Powers started painting his "ESPO" alias across the walls and rooftops of Philadelphia in 1984, just as the city's Anti-Graffiti Network was launched. Twenty-five years later, in the summer of 2009, he returned to Philly, armed with 1,200 cans of spray paint, 800 gallons of bucket paint and 20 of the finest spray-painters in America, to inscribe an epic love letter on the rooftops facing the Market-Frankfurt line, as a public art project. Powers consulted the community in West Philly and collaborated with The Mural Arts Program and the Pew Center, and with their help transformed this 20-block stretch of buildings into visual and architectural Valentine poems, with lines such as: "This love is real so dinner is on me" and "Knocked on your door/ legs tired back sore/ migraine for sure/ no more I swore you smile I'm cured." A Love Letter for You: Brick Valentines on the Philly Skyline documents in full color the art and the neighborhood that inspired Powers' work, and is designed as an open Valentine love letter for all to use.
Steve Powers was born and raised in Philadelphia, and then moved to New York City in 1994. After stints as publisher of On the Go magazine, author of the book The Art Of Getting Over and full-time graffiti writer, Powers opened a studio in January 1998.
