Street Art In Salem

Update, 1/26/2014
Adorable bits of art are everywhere in Salem, I just didn't know where to look. I have photo photo on film, but I need to get a good scan before I can post it. So more on that later. :) I found this scary wall monster yesterday while checking out the old apartment window mural.

Original Article, 12/2/2013
There isn't a lot of impromptu street art in Salem. I'm not condoning vandalism* , but unexpected beauty is still beauty and its fun to capture it when it happens.This post will be dedicated to photos of art that is a part of the city. Statues and sculptures are beautiful works of art, I'm not dismissing them. I just want to highlight the more creative ways art is integrated into the city. These are more fleeting moments of art, because many are taken down or made of materials that can't stand up to the elements. As fleeting as they might be, they are still marks of humanity and imagination; maybe even a peek into another world, and deserve to be admired as art.

*Vandalism is the act of deliberately destroying or damaging property as per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. In some cases it is up to each individual person to decide what "damage" means to them and also what "beauty" or "art" means to them. Just some food for thought.

Update, 12/6/2013: Looks like I need to get downtown again! Someone is yarn bombing downtown light posts*. :) If anyone knows more of these projects please let me know so I can get out there and photograph them.

*See below for the photos I took of the yarn bombing on the block of Liberty downtown.

Collage Art From Scraps, Discards & Leftovers

I first got the idea when my boyfriend showed me a picture of a Painted Bunting. They aren't local birds, they prefer warmer climates, but that didn't stop me from making a collage so I can enjoy the Painted Bunting's beautiful colors.

 I ripped a few pieces of music from a discarded music book, pictures from an out of date craft magazine, words from a discarded childrens' library book, and hand-me-down card stock from a friend.

After arranging and gluing the background down, I drew the bird and branch. I cut out each pice I needed for each color and glued them together and onto the background. This first photo is of the whole piece so far.

 Next I painted the bird to add the color variation that makes the Pained Bunting such a distinct bird. You could choose to cut out more piece, but I preferred to have the painted look.

The whole piece ended up looking pretty nice. All it needs now is a nice coating of modge-podge or some sort of sealant.

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