Improving Urban Aesthetics

     ABOVE: Aakash Nihalani    BELOW: Swoon

If you have ever been to Brooklyn, NY then you {hopefully} noticed all of the cool graffiti made by local artists on street corners everywhere. I especially love SWOON's work. She creates paper cut-outs of figures and then pastes them to dilapidated walls instantly making them more beautiful. The figures gently decay, as the paper is subjected to the elements and the process of the figure slowly fading away from the wall is part of the beauty of this temporary graffiti. It is incredible to actually see it in person, and after "swooning" over it in magazine and books for so many years I felt starstruck when I saw some in person.  Its the kind of artwork that makes me wanna kick myself in the pants for not thinking of myself:) I love art like that.

The YouTube video above was found by my husband. I had never heard of Aakash Nihalani, but watching the video I fell in love with his style. How do you take a utilitarian object such as a "Stop" sign and make it more delicate and beautiful?????? Oh, just simply cut out a few pieces of cardboard with some white tape and voila! You should definitely watch this short film showing his process. its only a couple minutes, and the video itself is an artpiece!