Greenpoint Photos Du Jour: McGuinness Boulevard

August 21, 2009 by missheather
Filed under: 11222, Area 51, Crazy People, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Street Art

For those of you who are not in the know, McGuinness Boulevard (by the Pulaski) is a veritable paradise of street art.

It seems to rotate, but these big-eyed birds keep showing up. I’m not complaining: I adore them.

What’s more they have a few friends…

and this formidable (but friendly looking) fella. Across the street you can find this.

A little Pulaski poetry…

and indecipherable German-esque gibberish.*

Scrawled in dirt (?).*

With hearts.*

And this.*

If anyone knows “Ted”, has expertise in Chicago zombies or can decipher the above missives please email me at:

missheather(at)thatgreenpointblog(dot)com

or leave your findings via comments. Thanks!

Miss Heather

UPDATE, 8:30 p.m.: Here are some ideas I received in my inbox!

Sean writes:

The German on the wall, I believe, basically says that love, to who ever wrote it, is that he cant be without a woman.

Jason writes:

I believe the last glyph that you posted was the Japanese character for Enter or Entryâ€¦Â That would explain the arrow as wellâ€¦

Griff notes:

That last pic looks suspiciously like a logo for Aphex Twin?

UPDATE, August 22, 1:30 p.m.: Here’s a few more!

Robert writes:

I saw that graffiti the other day while walking my dog.Â I thought to myself that someone was copying the style of A.R. Penck.Â A German artist whose work in the early 70’s was a mix of made up symbols and language.Â I work at MoMA and we have a few examples on our website of his early 70’s work.

http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=86742

wiki say
Despite the anti-art aesthetic the rough and ready quality of their construction, they have the same symbolic, archetypal anthropomorphic forms as his flat symbolic paintings. The paintings are influenced by Paul Klee’s work and mix the flatness of Egyptian or Mayan writing with the crudity of the late black paintings by Jackson Pollock.

But who knows?

Not writes:

http://www.newyorkshitty.com/?p=24135

that’s the lowercase greek glyph, lambda..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda

context: it’s a usage popularized by the video game, half life..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(video_game)

Erik writes:

The “lambda” looking symbol with an arrow that you photographed is actually taken from the video game Half Life 2.Â It is the symbol for the rebel/resistance organization fighting a conquering extraterrestrial species.Â The lambda symbol appears throughout the game painted on walls, with arrow directing the player to a safe room stocked with weapons, health, etc.

See http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/halflife2/routekanal1/31.jpg for an example.

*I had to do some Photoshopping to make these images easier to read.