FISH THAT LOOKS LIKE SEAWEED

Leafy Sea Dragons, known as leafies, are the official State fish of South Australia. These colorful cousins of seahorses, are incredibly unique.  Their leafy appendages change color to match their seaweed and seagrass habitats.  They appear to move through the water like a piece of floating seaweed, and they can't fight off predators.  They rely on camouflage to survive.  

The Seadragon is a slowmover, having no actual tail fin like most other fish.  It has a strong sense of direction that helps it find its way back home.  They're shy little creatures and lack any way to cause harm to anything too big to fit into their snouts that function like a straw.  By quickly sucking in water, they create a suction force that draws their prey into their mouths.  Sea dragons don't have teeth. 

Leafy Sea dragons are in trouble because of habitat destruction due to humans development and pollution   

Leafies are a symbol of good luck among divers.  Some divers wait their whole lives to see one. 

JUST KEEP SWIMMING

Blue Tang

The Blue Tang lives in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.  Despite its outward beauty, its flesh is poisonous.  

Dory

Tang Fish were made famous worldwide thanks to the movies Finding Nemo and Finding Dory.  Dory is a Blue Tang.  She teaches us persistence, perseverance, the power of family and friends and purpose.  Her goal was to find her parents, and she was passionate about it.  Despite many setbacks, she was persistent, which made her stronger and more able to face her challenges.  When Nemo and his father are in a jam, they ask themselves, 'what would Dory do?'  They know she'd tell them to just keep swimming.

The Blue Tang was chosen to be Dory cuz the vibrant blue color makes her visually striking.  Blue Tang are a popular aquarium fish, which made Dory recognizable to her audiences.  Their juveniles are bright yellow and turn blue as they mature.  The adult fish average 12 inches in length.

These colorful fish play an important role in the coral reef food web.  The adults feed primarily on algae and also plankton.  They keep algae levels on coral down to a manageable level.  Each living thing, from the smallest bacteria to the largest whale, contributes to the overall balance and survival of life on Earth.  Guess it doesn't matter if we're a perch, a pig, a parrot, a plant or a person.....we're all part of the mess, the struggles and the phenomenal beauty of life.

MASTERS OF DISGUISE

What is one of the most venomous fish in the world? 

Reef Stone Fish

The Reef Stone Fish is typically found motionless on the seafloor, appearing to be a stone or piece of coral.  Their 13 dorsal fin spines can inject an extremely poisonous venom.  It is found throughout tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific.  In Australia, it has been recorded found from the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, to far Northern New South Wales.

The Reef Stone Fish is among the most venomous fish in the world.  The venom causes intense pain and has killed many Pacific and Indian Ocean Islanders.  An antivenom was developed in 1959 and has reduced the likelihood of death after a sting.  

Their name comes from their ability to blend in with rocky sea floors and among the coral.  This is what makes them so dangerous.  They're easily stepped on by people.  They're masters of disguise.

Stone Fish are ambush predators.  They sink themselves into the sand and patiently wait for their prey (little fish and shrimp) to swim by. 

The Australian Aboriginal people use dance and song to preserve their legends and stories.  Their dances involve rhythmic movements and chanting, lots of times around a fire.  One of their dances warns their children of the dangers of the Stone Fish stings and features a man replicating the pain after being stung by one. 

According to a newly published study analyzing humanity's modern day predatory interactions and the environmental consequences, Earth's fiercest predators are....us.  Yuppers, homo sapiens are the most profound and wide-ranging predators of our time.  I throw this out there to amplify and magnify the noticeable and scary shift in human interaction.  

A FISH THAT LOOKS LIKE A CANDY CANE

The Peppermint Angel Fish is one expensive little fish.  Why?  Cuz it takes a specially trained diver to go down some 400 feet into the ocean to collect them.  Once divers reach the required depth, time is limited and presents a challenge.  They live around many locations throughout the central South Pacific Ocean region.  The price of just one fish could easily be thousands of dollars.  That's a lot of cabbage for a fish that's less than 3" long.  

Peppermint Angel Fish

Its most prominent characteristic is the five alternating vertical bright reddish orange and white stripes along its entire body that resemble a peppermint candy, for which it was named.  The Peppermint likes to hide from its predators around caves, coral reefs and ledges on steep reef slopes.  They have a habit of nipping at each other's tails.  Their side fins and tail are completely translucent.  

Often known as The Holy Grail
of marine angel fish

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best.........Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.

PICASSO TRIGGER FISH

Today's feature fish is named after the famous painter, Pablo Picasso, cuz its unique markings resemble the brushstrokes on a canvas.  

Picasso Trigger Fish

Because of the shape of its fins, this species can swim forward, backward and hover in place.  The "trigger" in Trigger Fish comes from their dorsal spine, which raises when startled.  If the fish is hiding in a small space, the spine acts as a wedge to hold them in place.  The Picasso Trigger Fish can be found in the Indo-Pacific Ocean and the Red Sea.  Most commonly it is found around Hawaii, Polynesia and the Philippines.  They grow from 8 to 20 inches long and are fiercely territorial.

Who knew that a fish was named after Picasso?  It's totally coincidental that we not long ago spent time learning about Picasso's works.....and here we are learning about an ocean fish named after him.  Didn't have a clue 'til now. 

In Hawaii, this fish is called the Humuhumunukunukuapua........pronounced HOO-moo-HOO-moo-NOO-koo-NOO-koo-AH-poo-AH-ah.  To top it off, it's the official State Fish of Hawaii.

COLORS SPEAK ALL LANGUAGES ~Joseph Addison

The unique patterns and flamboyant colors of the Mandarin Fish resemble the brightly colored robes worn by the Imperial Chinese officials, or mandarins.   

Mandarin Fish

These little beauties are about 3 inches long.  They don't have scales, but rather a gel-like coating that keeps them clean from parasites.  Their bright colors blend in with the coral reefs that shelter them from predators.  They live in the Western Pacific from the Philippine Islands to the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia.  

The Mandarin Fish is one of the most breathtaking fish ever found in our oceans.  It looks more like an intricate painting than it does a fish.  Its entire body is made up of wavy alternating lines of orange blue and green.  Interestingly, they like to form small groups of 2 to 5....kinda like the human cliques of a few who stick together to feel safe and supported.

As I type today's post, thoughts of peacocks, pheasants, parrots and butterflies appeared.  It's been said that the world is a paradise.  All we have to do is open our eyes, and we can see and be part of it. 

There's a quote by Allen Klein that compares one's attitude to a box of colors.  If we constantly color our picture gray, our picture will always be bleak.  If we add some bright colors to the picture.....like adding humor and silliness.....our picture begins to lighten and brighten up.  I think that's pretty cool thinking.  

FOSSIL FISH - Coelacanth

Coelacanth

What is the oldest fish on planet Earth?  The Coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-UH-CANTH) was thought to be extinct until 1938, when one was discovered off the south Coast of Africa.  A second discovery was made in 1998 off the coast of Indonesia--considered the most notable zoological discoveries of the 20th century.  

This fossil fish swam the seas while T-rex roamed the earth some 60+ million years ago.  Researchers consider it to have been around for about 400 million years.  They can grow to the size of a human and are nocturnal predators that  prefer to rest in a dark cave during the day.  The Coelacanth can live to be over 100 years old.

Over the years, this Senior Citizen of Sea has been depicted on postage stamps, bank notes and coins in at least 22 countries.

The Smithsonian's Division of Fishes includes the world's largest research collection of preserved fish specimens, including one adult Coelacanth from the Comoros Islands between Madagascar and mainland Africa.

One thing for sure, a study like this, wakes up a fresh way of looking at our existence.  When we talk about millions of years, one can't help but feel as insignificant as a comma in all the books residing in the Library of Congress.

Insignificance has freeing power.  The idea of being insignificant helps us realize that our choices don't matter as much as we might think.  Each of us is one of billions of people on a planet that's been around for billions of years, in a universe with possibly trillions of other galaxies besides our Milky Way.  

It's to our advantage to appreciate the insignificant details in everyday life.  There is so much beauty in the ordinary, and most of it goes unnoticed.  The trick is to shift our thinking  from what is missing in our life to what is here and near.  It's a manageable way for us to create our own contentment, one insignificant thing at a time.  

AN OCEAN OF TEARS

Sending prayers

to all the families,

and pets

and wildlife

affected by California's fires.

You are not alone~

We pray for you.

Amen.

Bleeding Hearts

JOY TO THE FISHES IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA

Inspired by an aquarium of vibrantly colored fish, I'm leaving the art world behind to better understand those who inhabit the world of water.

Devils Hole Pupfish
Rarest Fish on the Planet

What is considered the rarest fish in the world?  The Devils Hole Pupfish lives in the smallest, most unique habitat of any known vertebrate species on Earth:  a water-filled cavern called Devils Hole in the Death Valley region of Nevada.  The Devils Hole Pupfish is about 3/4" long.  In 2022, marine biologists estimated there were only a few hundred left, making them critically endangered.  In 1952, Devils Hole was designated a National Monument, and in 2013, the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility was built to help maintain the fish's population.  

Who would've guessed that the rarest fish in the world lives in the Mohave Desert?

Bristlemouth
Most Common Fish
on the Planet

What is considered the most common fish in the world?  The Bristlemouth, also known as the Lightfish.  It's a small fish, about the size of a minnow, that lives in the deep ocean at depths over 1,000 feet..  It is considered the most abundant vertebrate on Earth, with an estimated population of thousands of trillions.   Bristlemouths glow in the dark and have a mouth full of bristle-like teeth. 

 Researchers estimate the number of worldwide fish species between 25,000 to 35,000.  Either way, this amounts to more than all of the species of birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles combined.

Fun Fact:  We purportedly share our world with around 130 billion other mammals, up to 428 billion birds, 3.5 trillion fish, and an estimated 10 quintillion insects.  What does 10 quintillion look like in actual numbers?  10, 000,000,000,000,000,000.  That's a lot of bugs!

THE SCREAM

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch painted The Scream, one of the most iconic images in art.  It symbolizes the anxiety of the human condition.   

The Scream - 1893

When we look at a painting, we wonder about the person who held the paintbrush, who pondered the colors in which to dip the paintbrush.  What was his mood?  Where was he when he painted it?  

The central figure, with his head held in his hands, wears an agonizing expression against a blood-red sky.  The sky mirrors the inner turmoil of the figure.  Notice the two smaller figures in the background who are seemingly unaffected, highlighting the isolation of the central figure's  intense anxiety and dread.  

The chaotic sky and flowing river provide a backdrop that mimics daily life.  As we cross the bridge of life we do so through chaos, without understanding why we are here and what happens to us when we get to the other end of the bridge.  Who among us hasn't experienced the emotional crises that make us want to scream.

Painted in 1893, The Scream captivates modern-day human anxiety and misery.   The original painting is located in the Edvard Munch Room at the National Museum in Oslo, Norway.   In 2012, a New York-based Dartmouth and Harvard graduate bought the original painting for $120 million.   

PRAYING HANDS MURAL

Praying Hands - 2011
~Pavlos Tsakonas

Greek artist Pavlos Tsakonas created the mural Praying Hands in 2011, near the Omonoia Square at the center of Athens, Greece.  The mural became popular not only because of its impressive nature, but also its symbolism.  During the Greek economic crisis, the mural reflected public sentiment.  Some thought it was a painting of praying hands, some of two clapping hands, and others felt it represented the hands of God praying for humanity. 

The interpretations of Praying Hands exemplifies the business of no two people seeing the world exactly the same way due to their unique life journey and mind filters.  We all have favorite colors.  Why is that?  Why do I love purple and lavender hues?  And, the person next to me can't stand purple.  We all live in the same world, yet we all see things through our two eyes and one mind only.  It's fascinating to think deeply about perspective, especially in this time of ridiculous division. 

Another interesting fact is every person in our life, every person we ever meet has a different version of us in their heads.  We aren't the same person to our parents, our brothers and sisters and our friends as we are to our co-workers, neighbors, etc.  That helps us understand why people treat us the way they do.  Hmmmmm........

Alexandre Orion - Reverse Graffiti

Scraped-off-soot
Max Feffer Tunnel
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Alexandre Orion is a Brazilian street artist and muralist.  

Quote from theartstory.org.....

"This work, which took seventeen nights to complete, serves as an example of 'reverse' graffiti, in that the artist did not actually apply the material to the surface of the wall where he was working, but rather, created images of over 3,500 humans skulls in a space measuring almost 1,000 feet long, by merely wiping away the heavy layer of soot that had accumulated on the wall of this transportation tunnel from vehicle exhaust pipes.  Here, the repeated skull image, combined with the method of image creation, conveys the idea that the pollution of urban centers is a deadly problem affecting countless people.  Orion says that, 'I wanted to bring a catacomb from the near future to the present, to show people that the tragedy of pollution is happening right now.'

"Reverse graffiti poses a unique problem for law enforcement officers, who are generally conditioned to understand Street Art as a form of vandalism.  However, in the case of reverse graffiti works such as this, the artist has done little more than clean a portion of a public surface.  Orion explains, 'There is no crime in cleaning.  The crime here is against the environment, it is a crime against life.'  Authorities in Sao Paulo ultimately decided that there was nothing they could charge Orion with, and the episode even prompted city officials to order the monthly cleaning of every transportation tunnel in the City."

Today's post is exactly why I am learning about graffiti.  Never would I have thought of the idea of reversing the art form by using a canvas of grime. It's my belief that every new thought or idea can and will stretch our minds and perspectives.  Learning could be a synonym for stretching.  

Graffiti terminology:

Scribe:   A graffiti artist who etches or engraves their tag onto a surface.  A scribe uses sharp objects or a special scribing tool to create their art, often referred to as scratchitti.  Common tools include keys, knives, stones, sandpaper, or even power tools like Dremel bits.

Heaven Spot

Extinguishers:  Fire extinguishers are filled with paint and used to paint very large tags on buildings.

Heaven spot:  A highly visible, difficult-to-reach location for tagging, like a high billboard or freeway overpass.  A heaven spot is essentially a high-risk, high-reward area for graffiti artists to paint on.

Blockbuster

Rope access:  Using ropes and climbing equipment.  Artists can repel down walls, paint and then go back up to finish the piece.

Blockbuster:  A large graffiti with simple, legible letters (left).  Bates is a highly regarded European graffiti artist who has been invited to paint in over 30 countries.   

Graffiti World is an updated edition of Street Art from Five Continents by Nicholas Ganz.  With this nugget of knowledge,  my fingers took me to eBay.  There were a lot to choose from at varying prices, but I wanted the updated version.  Yippee for me......ordered a pre-read edition in very good condition for $21, postage included.  The seller hails from Michigan.   I'm pretty sure it'll be unputdownable.

KEITH HARING - Pisa and Berlin

Keith Haring was inspired by the cartoons of Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney.   Inspired by graffiti, he made chalk drawings on floors and walls of subway stations.  He interacted with subway commuters who wanted to know more about him and his work.  Despite the interest, he was arrested for vandalism multiple times by the NYPD.

Tuttomondo (All World)

This is a mural (painted by Keith Haring with the help of students in 1989) on the outside wall of the Church of Sant'Antonio Abate, in Pisa, Italy.  It features 30 figures, each representing a different aspect of world peace.    Among the symbols are....

• A man holding a dolphin on his back: represents the relationship between man and nature.
• Woman cradling a child:  represents motherhood.
• Two human figures forming scissors and cutting a snake, symbolizing the defeat of evil.
• Television-shaped head:  could represent an eye on the world.
• Yellow figure: represents the viewer walking toward the Leaning Tower.

One of Keith Haring's most famous and significant works is the mural created on a section of the Berlin Wall.

Berlin Wall Mural

 The mural's message was one of brotherhood between the people of East and West Germany.  It depicted a chain of human figures linked hand-to-foot in the colors of the German flag.  The mural was a powerful symbol of unity and hope during the Cold War.

In 1982, Keith Haring created his first major outdoor mural on the Houston Bowery Wall in New York City.  

Houston Bowery Wall

 The mural's meaning can be seen in......

• Four large, upside-down green figures, representing hip-hop dancers who spin on their heads.
• Boxes with two 3-eyed smiley faces: represent greed and excess.

• 

  Haring's character
  style

  Nuclear atoms:  Haring was concerned about the effects of nuclear accidents and included two nuclear atoms and mushroom cloud imagery in the mural.

Haring's distinct artistic style included outlines of humans signifying the people within modern society.  He conveyed various incredibly important ideas through characters with a sense of rhythm and uninhibited freedom.

The world's largest jigsaw puzzles feature Haring's work.  A huge puzzle showcasing 32 of his paintings measures 16.4 feet by 6.6 feet and comprises more than 32,000 pieces.  It's the largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle.  Just imagine trying to find the four corners to get started!

 - 

WHO IS BANKSY?

 Who is the graffiti artist that no one knows?

Answer:  Banksy, the England-based street artist and political activist, is notoriously private.  Only a small circle knows his real identity.  He started working with spray paint on trains before moving to public places.  One of his most recognized murals, Girl With Balloon (2002) shows a little girl losing her red heart-shaped balloon.  It first appeared in London and has since been found in various other locations.  Girl With Balloon is a stencil of a young girl in black and white, with a bright red, heart-shaped balloon dangling from a string.  It is globally recognized and presents various interpretations.......

Girl With Balloon, UK, 2002

• The little girl may be losing the balloon, which might symbolize the loss of innocence.
• The girl may be about to catch the balloon, which could symbolize the arrival of new hope and love.
• The girl's attempt to grasp the balloon could represent the pursuit of  love, happiness or sense of purpose. 
• The red balloon might be a symbol of childhood dreams.
• Heart balloons are powerful symbols that communicate romantic love, friendship and celebration.  Their combination of the heart-shape and buoyancy of the balloons transcends language.

Banksy is known for using the symbol of the rat as a way of aligning himself with the underdogs that he speaks about, or on behalf of, in his works.  Rats are one of Banksy's greatest sources of inspiration.  An anagram of ART, the rat is a metaphorical tool he uses to reveal the vices and flaws of the human race, and to make a stand for those suffering, toiling in the dark, while being treated as 'lesser than.'

Banksy includes objects that already exist to turn his work into striking street art, like the rat sawing the circle outline on the sidewalk. 

Street art, or graffiti, screams of the human need to be noticed, to be heard, to be understood.          

THE VISUAL LANGUAGE

In the graffiti realm, a crew (or krew or cru) refers to a group of artists who identify with the same name and often paint together, like any other group of friends sharing a common interest and style. 

Crew Tag painted by
several crew members

Graffiti artists are known to develop and express their own unique style, with distinctive letter formations, color palettes and design elements within their tags and larger pieces, making them easily identified as individuals within the graffiti community.

Crew tags are used to sign larger pieces, especially if made by multiple members of a crew.  (see right)  Pieces are the more detailed compositions with characters and backgrounds.  

A oner is a graffiti artist who doesn't work with a crew, but rather works alone. 

From the minimal research I've done, it's obvious there is much graffiti information related to criminal gangs.  Numbers and letters have hidden meanings, but I'm not going there.  Anyone wanting to learn more about gang graffiti will have to do a solo search.  My endeavor here is to simply familiarize myself and my readers with the basics of the traditional and elusive form of expression.  For years, I've silently watched this art form pass by when we were stopped at a railroad crossing.  My silent thought always was, "wow, whoever did that is a real artist......I wonder what those drawings mean."  Despite whether we like, or dislike, graffiti, we gotta admit that the artists have to possess a strong sense of design, color theory and spatial awareness.  They also have to be proficient with a can of spray-paint. 

Over time, graffiti was constantly being taken to higher levels.  A burner is a piece of graffiti that's so over-the-top good that it burns the other pieces out.  It's the best of the best.   

On the outset of this adventure, we briefly touched on wild style graffiti.  Because of its complexity, the wild style can be difficult to read for those of us unfamiliar with the form and process.  It is considered the most difficult style to master.

Throw-up Style

The opposite of wild style is the throw-up.....simple and fast.  This style generally consists of a one-color outline and one layer of fill-color.  The name comes from the way they are designed to be 'thrown' onto a surface as quickly as possible so they don't get caught.   

Stencil graffiti uses paper or cardboard stencils to create an image or text.  The design is cut out of the paper or cardboard, then transferred to a surface through the use of spray paint or roll-on paint.  The Father of Stencil Graffiti was Blek Le Rat (born Xavier Prou in 1952 in Paris)  He was one of the very first graffiti artists in France.  

One of the most offensive words in graffiti is biter.  Biting is when a writer copies letters, parts of letters or whole-letter combinations from other writers and then uses them in their own works.   

Shoplifting of supplies used either directly or indirectly in the production of graffiti is called racking.  Graffiti artists gained more respect for using stolen paint.  Spray paint dries quickly, making it the choice for covering walls and subways. 

I've wondered, too, how these artists get so high up to paint on buildings and walls.  Come to find they often use portable ladders or build spur-of-the-moment scaffolds to reach the high places.   

A snitch is someone who reports a writer to the authorities, leading to arrest.  One of the unwritten rules of graffiti is:  Do not snitch.

Another unwritten rule is that throw-ups go over tags, pieces go over throw-ups and burners go over pieces.  If you can't do something better than the last person, leave it alone.  It's also etiquette to bury the piece if you're going over it.  That means leaving no sign that there was a piece under yours.

We've now stepped into the year 2025......who can be surprised that Digital Graffiti is replacing traditional spray paint cans with infrared spray nozzles that interact with large format screens.  Users are able to digitally spray paint their designs and display them on screen.

Sure wish over the years I'd have paid closer attention to the box cars that zipped by in front of us while we waited for trains to go by.  What were the personal motivations behind the movable feast of graffiti?  It's that business of not knowing and not taking the time to learn. 

A crazy idea just popped into my head......are tattoos a form of graffiti?.....instead of on a box car, it's done on a body.  Hmmmmmm......

GRAFFITI - Early Stages

A fundamental part of graffiti is tagging.....creating a tag, or signature or symbol that identifies the artist.  

Darryl McCray, better known by his tag name Cornbread, is considered the first modern graffiti artist.  How did he get his nickname?  The cooks at the Philadelphia Youth Development Center, where he was placed, nicknamed him Cornbread because he'd pester them to make him cornbread.  At the age of 17, he jumped a fence at the Philadelphia Zoo and spray-painted Cornbread Lives on the side of an elephant.

Just as Cornbread did in Philadelphia, TAKI 183 became the first to start the graffiti movement in New York City.  Both were poor, with limited choices of how and where to spend their free time. Writing their names around the cities not only gave them something to do, but gave them an opportunity to be known. TAKI 183 was a kid from north Manhattan.  His simple signature captured the attention of a reporter in the summer of 1971, and appeared in The New York Times.  TAKI 183 was the first New Yorker to become famous for writing graffiti.  Rumor has it that he even tagged a Secret Service car and the Statue of Liberty.

 TAKI 183 was a nickname for his Greek birth name Dimitraki.  The number 183 came from his address on 183rd Street in Washington Heights.  Taki wrote his name anywhere he could, like on lamp posts, subway cars and walls.  He used his job as a foot messenger to get around the city.  His work is featured in modern graffiti exhibits around the world and in The History of American Graffiti.  Rumor also has it that he may have been the inspiration for the book Turk 182, the story about a young street artist in New York.  (hmmmmm.....that sounds interesting)

These early writers used whatever they could find to write, from shoe polish to markers, to spread their tags across the cities.  Eventually painting subway trains at night was a way for them to get their work across New York's 5 boroughs.  The writers used subway system maps and shared intelligence to warn each other about which spots were safe and which ones were not.  The trains were white-washed to erase the graffiti, but that only provided clean canvases for the writers.

Bubble Style Graffiti

Lonny Wood, a native of the Bronx, (tagged Phase 2) created the now-iconic bubble style of aerosol writing.....thick, marshmallow-like letters that look like they've been blown up with air, and symbols like spikes, eyes, arrows, drips and splashes and stars.

These developments in the 1970s graffiti scene set the stage for new forms like the Wild Style, a unique style that helped transition graffiti from simple scribbled words to famous works of art. 

Wild Style Graffiti

As their works became more complex, the graffiti writers started using spray paint.  This evolution led to what was known as the Style Wars, which is how the graffiti we see today started.  

GRAFFITI -1

It's the 1st day of 2025, and we're about to embark on another adventure in art.  The idea came to me recently when we were stopped at a train crossing watching the train cars go by, many decorated with colorful graffiti.  I wondered who painted them.....where..... how.....and why.  

• The word graffiti was first used by archaeologists around the year 1850 to describe scratched inscriptions found at ancient archaeological sites.  Graffiti comes from the Italian word graffito, which translates to something scratched.
• Modern graffiti appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and by the late sixties it had reached New York.  Young people used spray paint to create images on buildings and on the sides of subway trains.  They soon realized that the subway system was a moving canvas for their art.
• If the artist has permission to do graffiti, it is art.  If a person does it without permission to someone else's property, it is vandalism.  Some graffiti artists are hired and paid to create community murals in public spaces or on buildings, and this is viewed as art and not as vandalism.
• Tagging refers explicitly to writing the artist's name, alias, or logo on a public surface. 
• The common perception is that the symbols and phrases spray-painted on walls and train cars are visual communications between street gangs, but some graffiti is not gang-related.
• Gang graffiti is used by gangs to mark their turf or convey threats of violence.  
• Graffiti can be viewed as antisocial in an effort to gain attention, but it can be understood as an expressive art form.
• While the art form is known as graffiti, these spray paint artists call themselves writers.  This originated with the Greek term graphein, or to write.
• Toy is used as an adjective to describe poor work, or as a noun meaning an inexperienced or unskilled writer. 
• Cannon(s) is the slang term for spray paint cans.
• Bomber is a type of graffiti writer who specializes in writing their name in as many places as possible.  The aim is to gain as much notoriety as possible for one's moniker or tag.  In the early 1970s, The New York Times wrote about a bomber named TAKI 183 who tagged the city's subways.  (more on TAKI 183 to come)
• Graffiti on trains has a long history in the U.S.  The first appearing in 1827 on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the oldest railroad in the U.S.
• The first markings were coded messages written in chalk and pencil by railroad workers to communicate with colleagues in other cities.
• During the 1930s, hobos and railroad workers left markings on freight cars.  As rail travel became a popular way to travel cheaply, hobos began leaving hidden markings on boxcars. 
• Graffiti continues to be a part of the railroad culture.  The practice of watching for graffiti on trains is called benching.  The practice originated in New York, where graffiti writers and non-graffiti writers would sit on benches at train stations to take pictures and admire the graffiti.
• Being well-respected is a goal for a graffiti writer.  Painting trains is the best way to achieve this status.  Graffiti writers who paint trains with an outstanding style in a high-risk environment, such as a train yard, achieve a large amount of respect from other writers.  It shows their willingness to risk everything for graffiti.  They become inspirations for other writers.  Graffiti on trains achieves more recognition than writing on walls.
• The level of exposure makes trains the perfect canvas for graffiti writers, to be noticed by as many people as possible.
• Train systems across the globe have increased and improved security of their train yards since the 1990s.  Graffiti artists must plan and find cunning ways to get into train yards.  Graffiti artists who paint trains run the risk of violating trespassing laws.

I'm hoping my followers will have fun along with me on this zany adventure.  Already I'm feeling the urge to go benching!