Saturday, August 09, 2014

The saint's apparition in Queens

So I'm walking home from work and I'm struck by a graffito that I had never seen before on the boarding around a construction site..

It was an unusually literary graffito so I felt compelled to take a photo. I was unfamiliar with the tag SEK and I wondered what that symbol was above the letters on the tag. I don't know if a life like Gatsby was meant as aspirational or what - although if you've read "The Great Gatsby" you probably don't want to aspire to Gatsby's life.

So I'm walking along and several blocks later I see this. Apparently somebody is not a prince - or is no longer a prince.

And they are also not a king.

Hey wait a minute... there's something familiar about this graphic style...

AHAH! So that's what that symbol means - SEK has a halo.

Naturally I assumed that SEK was some local kid who decided to decorate the neighborhood. 

But after some Googling discovered that SEK is actually prominent enough to have had an art gallery show - in Los Angeles. He was recently interviewed on KIISFM.

Apparently SEK is/was recently in NYC doing some work for Nylon Magazine according to SEK's Facebook profile.

So the artist currently known as SEK has made an apparition in Queens. And you know what that means - while most of SEK's street art is untransportable, that grafitto on the construction board is. And is probably worth more - and potentially worth much more - than your standard construction site board. 

If I had a car I would maybe try to get it. This could be similar to the Banksy situation.

I wonder if my friend the Penis Artist knows about the career potential in street art.