A photo of ironwork, taken in Athens, Greece, as well as a photo of a mural taken in Buenos Aires, Argentina, served as inspiration for creating a stencil and graffiti-layering in this chapter. I later used these techniques to create a mixed-media canvas.
I love all the different shapes in this ironwork: the large diamonds and ovals connected by the small circles—together, they create an intriguing pattern. It immediately inspired me to make a stencil. I could also see how color applied in the openings of the diamonds would look, and I love the teal blue glass as an inspiration in and of itself.
Though I love the giraffes on the bicycle, which were done by a group of graffiti artists called Stencil Land, I’m most drawn to the background of this mural, created by a single graffiti artist whose name is unknown to me. The black and red color scheme with numbers and geometric shapes made me look for hidden messages while also providing a beautiful, cohesive pattern. It reminds me of the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s way of incorporating signs and symbols into his artwork, and I was immediately inspired by how this would work in a background applied with markers or pens.