It Started Out to be Gorillas

Recently the Houston Zoo completed construction a new gorilla habitat. As a promotion several graffiti artists have done large murals of gorillas around Houston. Today, Alcy, Debi and I headed out to find and photographs some of the murals. We also planed on photographing a new mural that Mr. D, Sebastien Boileau, had recently done at he University of Houston Downtown of an alligator.

Alcy and Debi probably got good overall shots of the gator but with the lens I was using it would have required backing up to Kansas so I settled for details—and the tail. While we were there we ran into Sebastien working on another mural on the other side of the building. Had a very interesting discussion of the state of graffiti art in Houston and across the country. I think we are planning a trip to Miami.

Our second stop was to photographs the murals that Halo did almost a year ago off of Washington Avenue. Every time we go by there are cars or a dumpster blocking the murals. Today we got clear shots. The next stop was a gorilla Sebastien did a few blocks away.

 

 

Then we headed to what used to be The Mullett south of Almeda Mall on I45 to shoot a Madona that is a collaboration between Sebastian and Daniel Aguilar. 

On the side of the spray paint can is a list of some fourty graffiti artists that have died or been killed in the past few years. The last name, Jonathan Estes, the founder of The Mullett was murdered in one of the studios last year. The Sugarland Meet Up did a shoot there in December just as they were abandoning the last of the studios. Here is a link to photos posted from that shoot: The Kingspoint Mullett Shoot

Along the way we made a few stops to shoot things that were of interest. I found a treasure trove of discarded clothing near the UH but haven’t processed any yet. These are a few of what we did today.

Here is a link to a photograph that Alcy took of me with the Gator wall. It will give you an idea of how monumental Sebastien's work is. The Gator is well over a half block long.

Photograph of me with the Gator, taken by Alcy Neidlinger