With hate seemingly overwhelming the country right now #politics2017, I took a walk through the NoLita neighborhood in lower Manhattan, searching for a little love.
A Love Wall, specifically.
I stumbled across JGoldcrown’s #lovewall on Mott Street over the summer. Any rainbow explosion breaking up the brick and concrete of this city makes me smile, of course I loved it. Simplicity and old school charm. The Love Wall looks like a page from your childhood diary brought to life. The day your mom bought you a 24 pack of Gellyrolls and you tested every single color with a heart.
The Love Wall was the site of scores of selfies, a multitude of snaps, oodles of ‘grams. But I’d like to think more smiles than all those put together.
♥♥♥♥♥♥
When I went back last week to get some better photos and a boost of rainbow happiness, I was crushed to be greeted by white wash.
As colorless as the winter sky, as bleak as the future feels ten days after January 20th. Just like my other favorite colorful wall, the High Line’s iconic Kiss mural, this Love Wall has been painted over and is no more.
This woman’s coat is covered in lips like the wall used to be covered in hearts. Coincidence? At least this made me smile.
You can see sad, brief traces hiding just under one stupid coat of paint, of the joyful mural that is no more.
Fortunately, painting rainbow hearts isn’t the most epic undertaking of street art. A love door still stands down the block on Broome Street!
Love is Love
And according to jgoldcrown.com, there may be more Love Walls in other places in the area.
In my search for love I was saddened, but the NoLita area never lacks for street art. Which searching for love, I find something maybe even better. Maybe even more notoriously difficult to find than love!
Waldo!
A Waldo Wall at the corner of Mott and Kenmare. Proving you can’t get too sad when street art disappears, as is its nature. Something else pops up elsewhere. There’s a Love metaphor in there too, ripe for the taking.
You gotta gotta gotta do one of these posts about all the art off the Jefferson L stop in Bushwick. I was there the other evening and it was dark (hard to get good photographs!) but there was still SO MUCH ART. Also an amazing tortilla factory selling tacos out of a heated garage. Much recommended, both on the art front and the taco front!
Oh and PS whomever ordered the heart wall to be painted over should be doomed to the 3rd circle of Dante’s Revised Inferno where greedy corporate art-hating jerks have to paint an endless fence a la Mark Twain while unappreciated artists watch them and drink lemonade.
Meghan Sara recently posted…The Bachelor 21.4 aka “Corinntervention” aka WHAT IS ‘REAL’?!?
Yes! Bushwick Collective is amaaazing! I’m happy to say I’ve been and blogged about it (http://newyorkcliche.com/2016/07/15/11432/) but sad to say I didn’t get in on the tacos! SHAME! I should visit again – be interesting to see how much changes in 6 months! And I gotta say- I hate them for destroying art almost as much as I love you for referencing Mark Twain. 🙂
Ugh, this metaphor is too painful. ?
Lynn and Justin recently posted…Madison Street to Madison Avenue: A Chinese New Year Celebration
Aggh sorry to cause you pain 🙁 but ugh I know
That wall is soo cool !!!
I knooooow RIP NYC Love Wall!! At least there are still love walls in LA (I think! Looks like it according to the artists website!)