(Photos by Tomasz Rog)

Spotted these photos on Instagram over the weekend – thanks to Tomasz Rog – and it really made me stop for a second.

What you see above was the result of a community art project that was funded through Kickstarter to help draw attention to the 12,ooo+ Americans who are killed each and every year by guns.

The Kickstarter campaign raised over $8K to buy chalk (a LOT of chalk,) to get the proper city permits allowing them to block off a section of JFK boulevard, to build a website and to get photographers to document the whole thing… Kind of surprised I didn’t hear more about this, actually. Either way, really cool idea.

Filed under: Around Town, Politics, Street Art ]]> http://streetsdept.com/2013/05/23/kickstarter-lead-street-art-project-highlights-gun-deaths-on-jfk-boulevard/feed/ 0 conradbenner 8a98c9ccc01011e29e6e22000ae811b0_7 09455678c01111e2912b22000a1fa8d6_7 d8d42d3ec01511e298e622000aa819f6_7 http://streetsdept.com/2013/05/22/philly-dumpster-sculptures-by-drew-leshko-are-blowing-my-mind-a-little/ http://streetsdept.com/2013/05/22/philly-dumpster-sculptures-by-drew-leshko-are-blowing-my-mind-a-little/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 16:12:32 +0000 Conrad http://streetsdept.com/?p=3439 ]]>

(Photos by Pete Murray)

Love these little Philly dumpster sculptures by Drew Leshko! Seriously, I want all of them… I suppose I’m drawn to them because of their ridiculously on point likenesses to some of Philly’s more prevailing street art as of late. In fact, if you scroll through my blog here, I’m sure you will see most of the stickers/pastes above posted about within the last few pages. Nevertheless, I have a pretty specific aesthetic that I enjoy (obviously,) so I reached out to the artist himself to get his take on this series and his work in general:

“My work focuses mainly on documenting buildings in Philadelphia that are in transitional periods, but ultimately I’m interested in how historical importance is determined. The dumpsters originated as adornments to installations and functioned as a metaphor for our disposable culture. The dumpsters are certainly not focusing on street art, but the temporary nature of wheat pastes relate to the buildings I’m documenting. The dumpsters are are adorned with local street art and club promotions that I find interesting and worth documenting as I pass in throughout the city.”

If you like what you see and you happen to live in New Orleans (of all places,) then you’re in luck. Drew’s got some work in an exhibition opening on June 1st at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery titled, “Philadelphia,” including the work of other local artists Alex Lukas, Erin Murray, Brian Richmond and Kim Alsbrooks… Nice!

Because street art.

Love it!

That is all.

Joe Boruchow installed a couple huge new pieces over the weekend at 29th and Girard, in association with Mural Arts.

Love this!

New #JoeBoruchow @muralarts installation at 29th and Girard! vine.co/v/bEYqujaKD7Z

— Streets Dept (@StreetsDept) May 18, 2013