{"product_id":"downtown-drive-by-nyc-graffiti-street-art-81-84","title":"Downtown Drive-by: NYC Graffiti \u0026 Street Art '81-'84","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eDowntown Drive-by\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cu\u003e,\u003c\/u\u003e \u003cb\u003eJon Waldo\u003c\/b\u003e provides a visual, time capsule from a very different New York. The city was cheap and incredibly interesting at that time. New, challenging art and music seemed to appear every day.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGraffiti was evolving, too. Uptown and on the trains, incredible wild-style pieces were blowing up. Downtown was alive with a flux of messages and marks. Beautiful images were turning up one day and painted over the next—with images bleeding into each other and colliding in unexpected ways. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"The visual energy was incredible and life-changing for me.\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWaldo had graduated from art school a year earlier and the work he was interested in was very conceptual and minimal. It asked a lot of questions about the formal aspects of artwork. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"But Downtown quickly taught me what art could be. Graffiti was a public art for everyone to see. You didn't have to be enclosed in a gallery situation. You could just see it and do it.\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWaldo's\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e first job when he got back to the city was driving a truck and delivering art supplies for David Davis. His store sold to everybody and he got to go to a lot of cool studios but was captivated by the work he saw on the street while driving between deliveries.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Photography for me was an expensive proposition, but almost unconsciously, I got a used camera and just started taking pictures when I was driving for work. I had the need to possess what I saw.\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThese pictures are a portal. They are from a world of terrible tragedy and great creativity. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"I feel blessed to be a witness to that time.\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"None","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46800969269458,"sku":"9781963814347","price":64.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0655\/8980\/5233\/files\/1_173ed40c-79de-4ac6-97ac-27db1e0bdb05.jpg?v=1773290763","url":"https:\/\/www.indigo.ca\/products\/downtown-drive-by-nyc-graffiti-street-art-81-84","provider":"Indigo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}