2. Wash. St. (throwies)

Bread, Brasr,and others, Washignton St. San Diego, CA. July 2013

 

The throwies that I came across on Washington street where intense with regard to visibility, size, and sheer boldness of the location! I was driving on Pacific Highway going south about to merge with the 5 south when this image stop me in my tracks! I actually pulled over on the side of the highway to photograph this because I wasn't sure I would even be able to access that area. I shot the following picture from the emergency lane on the side of the highway.

Bread, Brasr,and others, Washignton St.
San Diego, CA. July 2013

What is obviously striking about this image is the giant sized tag that just about covers the entire wall! Wow, talk about going big and about taking risk! I'm not sure how this tag was done or exactly what it says. To me it appears to say BREAD CHAX or BREAD CHA*. Of course doing a search of words graffiti and bread brings up information on the infamous father of tagging, CornBread (Waclawek page 12). I also found more graffiti by a writer named BREAD. Most of his work seems to be big and brazen. I can't find any pieces by that writer. There is a Mr.Bread who has some killer pieces on the web but I doubt that its the same cat who create all these throwies. Mr.Bread style is way to advanced to create throwies like these. Given that the meaning of writer's pseudonym is of utmost importance, I wonder if BREAD is an intentional reference to CornBread, thereby also disclosing this writers main objective, and/or giving props to the history of graffiti.

Washington St. Tags San Diego CA

Once I arrived at the location, which is a few buildings north of the Washington St. trolley station, the most prominent thing about became the sheer number of throwies and tags on the wall. The spot is definitely a valuable spot to hit in that it gets a ton of exposure, both from the trolley and from Pacific Coast Highway. Also the fact that its so close to the trolley station means that its probably policed more often than locations such as the Jungle under the trolley bridge near Friars Rd. Being that its a more risky spot to bomb means that it provides more status to the writers. The only thing that seems to contradict that, is that the wall underneath all the throwies seems to have layers upon layers of graffiti. This would indicate that the spot doesn't get painted over by city too often.

Bread, Brasr,and others, Washignton St.
San Diego, CA. July 2013

With so many tags and throwies to write about it was hard to limit my discussion to just one. I started writing about the BREAD tag but I also want to mention the BRASR and BINK throwies. Also since my first entry was about tags, it seems like a good idea to follow up with an entry on throwies, especially since in the history of graffiti throwies came after tags.

 Doing a search on the internet I found a flickr group (click to view) that posts San Diego graffiti pictures. They happened to have a picture of the same location with the names of each of throwies. Its funny how easy it is to distinguish what a tag or throwie says once somebody points it out. If it wasn't for that picture, I might not have been able to identify the BRASR throwie. The primary reason that I want to talk about this throwie is that I've seen BRASR's icon (the brass knuckles) in other areas of San Diego. Its clear from how much he gets up to the "soft" style of his work that his goal is also exposure. It looks like somebody dissed his work with a "go-over" that reads "Get Sum Style". Click on the following picture and look at the bottom of the knuckles.

 

Brasr,Washignton St. San Diego, CA. July 2013

I think its important to understand that not all writers are about style. Nonetheless, the message isn't a bad suggestion. Even if a writer is about being prolific, it never hurts to increase on style.  Here is a picture of his brass knuckles icon at a spot I found in Little Italy.  

Brasr, Little Itally, San Diego CA July 2013
 

Lastly, I wanted to discuss BINK's throwie because I found one his/her pieces at this spot that I am calling the Jungle under the Trolley at Friars (for lack of better term). It makes a good transition to my third entry on Pieces. BINK's throwies has a traditional look. I found the picture below in the flickr group that I posted above. In my picture's BINK's throwies had been covered over. The letters in this particular throwies are in bubble or "softie" style like those of from the early days of graffiti developed by Phase2 from New York (Waclawek page 19). They are somewhat fat and rounded but the font looks slightly Broadway style like as developed by TopCat126 from the early days in NY. BINK's style looks somewhat retro, aside from the lettering, the colors also add to this. Its more evident in his Pieces though. Click here to go to my third entry on pieces.

 

Fig 1. Photo Credits: El Toro @ San Diego Graffiti Flickr Group

 

Link to Fig 1 Photo Source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/modofodo/8496784652/in/pool-355220@N21