Wheatpaste

Over
15 years ago I did a stint of wheatpasting at my university.
Wheatpasting is an interesting thing. Messy and yet unlike spray paint,
removable, albeit with some work. All it takes is some hot water, soap,
scrub brush and some elbow grease to get the images off what they’ve
been glued to. In my youth I primarily pasted up feminist slogans.
Posting up “real art” wasn’t on my agenda.

Lately
I’ve been wanting to do some wheatpasting. Unlike what I did when I was
20, I want to paste up my art. I’ve been sitting on the idea of this,
where would I post it? Am I too old to wheatpaste stuff? What would
happen if I got caught?

I’m
taking it as a sign that a friend of mine from Bangor, ME posted about
this guy on facebook
. I really enjoy his message and that he makes these
cool little drawings and sticks them up for everyone to see. Of course
the alternative is that it is a total pain in the ass to get these
images off their walls and buildings. Some people see his images as
crass (one of his pigeons sits in front of a bottle of bud.) while
others find them cute and still others see the social commentary in
them. I was surprised to see that there were relatively benign and
intelligent philosophical discussions
going on in the comments section
of the local
Bangor paper, something I must say isn’t common.

Anyway, I find the idea fascinating, but don’t expect me to become a famous street artist anytime soon.