Please accept my apologies if this might be a bit too much to look at on a monday morning.  The idea of this art is just too cool though. I’ve mentioned a few times that I think that Grafitti is a bit of a trend for gardens – certainly is to the natural backdrop for many urban growers. (This post and this one are about the trend of grafitti).  Artist INSA has taken grafitti to a whole new level.  It is called Gif-itti.

Gif-itti involves the artist painting the mural upwards of four different times, photographing it, and creating a .gif with the images — before he leaves the site with a final painting. (see above and the final below).   

This got me in the mood for spring as much as the melting snow.  You may recall that I have been wanting to hire an artist to paint the garden side of my barn (something like this).  Well last night as I was pulling this post together…all this coolness prompted me to also contact an artist who might be able to help me….the ball is officially in motion.  I am so pleased!

This piece (above and below – which covers the entire exterior of XL Recordings) is a collaboration with artist Stanley Donwood called Hollywood Dooom to celebrate the release of a new album for Atoms for Peace.   From INSA:

My challenge was to take two very static items, a beautiful lino-cut and a less beautiful box of a building, and bring them to life. After a week of sweating in the Los Angeles late summer sun re-painting the whole building several times I got there. Animated as a continuous GIF it may only live online but some would argue that is where most now live there lives…

You can see more of INSA’s gif work and other pieces on his blog.

images from INSA