The Valve - A Literary Organ | Graffiti Update: Colorful Writing (Raels, Sonet)

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Sunday, July 13, 2008

Graffiti Update: Colorful Writing (Raels, Sonet)

Posted by Bill Benzon on 07/13/08 at 12:57 PM

This is a detail from a piece that I shot yesterday:

I don’t know exactly when this went up, but it wasn’t there on 30 May 2008, the last time I was down in the Erie Cut.

I like it a lot. The style is distinctly different from any of the other graffiti styles in this part of Jersey City. There’s a flatness about it that I find very pleasing.

Below the fold I have full photos of this piece, the one next to it, the two of them, and some more detail photos. I also have a shot of another piece in the same area that’s a few months older. Judging from the style, it is by the same writer.

UPDATE 7.14.08: My advisors (Susan Farrell, FuZzy L0giKz) agree that the writer is Sonet. There’s a bit of mystery, however, about whether or not Sonet did that last piece, the one that reads “Raels.” On the one hand, the fill style is much like that in Sonet’s pieces. There is a writer named Raels, who has a number of pieces up at this site, such as the two pieces below. Those pieces are in a very different style from the ones above. Good writers, of course, have a number of styles at their command. So maybe the above piece was done by Raels. It does sometimes happen, however, that one writer will write the name of another. Do we have a case of Sonet putting up Raels?

UPDATE 7.15.08: Here’s a Raels tag to round things out:

Comments

Wow, that’s awesome. Interesting comparison to the last one, which looks more conventional to me, so it makes sense that it’s older.

By Dave Maier on 07/13/08 at 01:12 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Love more abstract graffiti! Nice tags above the last picture

By Colin @ NY Graffiti Creator on 07/13/08 at 09:07 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Nice pictures.

There’s only one piece by Sonet here - the third picture down from the top. The black pieces are Raels and Nise. And the rest are all by Raels.

The one to the left of Sonet, which you posted the first detail of, is the most recent Raels piece, and says “inside.”

The last piece posted is the oldest of the bunch, maybe 5 years old.

By on 07/27/08 at 03:01 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Thanks for the corrections.

By Bill Benzon on 07/27/08 at 03:12 PM | Permanent link to this comment

So we’ve got Sonet doing the 3rd from the top and the right-hand portion of the fourth from the top. Details in 1 & 5 are Raels; details in 6 & 7 are Raels.

By Bill Benzon on 07/27/08 at 03:26 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Nice graffiti - from Jersey City? Good colours!

Nice to see a non graffiti organisation not always being down on graffiti as an artform :)

By Graffiti on 10/25/08 at 09:53 AM | Permanent link to this comment

Nice info! See my blog also! http://lookatstreet.blogspot.com/

By graffiti men on 06/14/09 at 10:55 AM | Permanent link to this comment

nice graffiti battle

See my graffiti creator tool graffiti alphabet

By graffiti letters on 08/21/09 at 03:09 AM | Permanent link to this comment

waww .. its really good graffiti, I like the details
see my blog graffiti alphabet

By yolavivera on 12/03/09 at 12:58 AM | Permanent link to this comment

Love the second to last one! Does that say Raek?