David Walker’s graffiti portraits add a new dimension to the street art debate.  Though I’m sure his work is not totally unprecedented, I, at least, have never seen a classical subject like portraiture (or landscape, etc) approached through the medium of spraypaint, in a public place, and executed in a traditional style (the faces are three-dimensional representations with shadows and lights and darks, not just abstract lines or cartoon-style flattened figures).  How wonderful to be walking down the street and see a huge, vibrant portrait?

It’s like Jackson Pollock’s removal of the brushstroke meets Warhol’s use of pop colors for representations of people meets de Kooning’s figurative expressionism meets public art!  Such an interesting intersection of art historical influences and the place of art in society it makes my little heart pound.  I love it.  Oh, and Walker’s only been painting for three years.