Brilliant New York street art piece that references old painted signs

Check out this beautiful piece entitled 'love letter to Brooklyn'. It merges the literary, the affective and the ephemeral, and is witty too: painted onto a concrete car park, but referencing painted signs from a previous era:

The work is by Steve Powers, aka ESPO, who also painted the cover of the Kurt Vile album I referenced recently on this blog: http://findingtheradiobook.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/ghost-sign-style-cover-on-new-kurt-vile.html

Photo is by Robert Wright for The New York Times. It comes from this NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/arts/design/graffiti-art-of-the-city-from-the-bronx-to-brooklyn.html?_r=0

Some more signs from North Coburg

A brief ride around the industrial bits revealed these:

Actually this one's in Munro Street - the fourth local sign referring to Gilmour's Milk

Used to explore these old mills when they were old buildings, not hardware and whitegoods megastores

Vinyl doesn't age gracefully

Iconic

Not a ghostie, but nice DIY work

Once was a neon sign

Sign found, sign lost

A while ago I posted this brilliant sign for hats, uncovered during a CBD construction site:

But now, alas, it's gone. Sob.

And here's a remaining sign on the same street. Would have seen if it Marsha hadn't pointed it out (thanks Marsha):

A theme tune for ghost sign fans?

Came across this in a Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers LP - a song that even in 1972 sang about a fondness for the 1950s. Some nice footage of New York over the decades too:

Lyrics are:

Well the old world may be dead
Our parents can't understand
But I still love my parents
And I still love the old world
Oh, I had a New York girlfriend
And she couldn't understand how I could
Still love my parents and still love the old world
So I told her:
I want to keep my place in the old world
Keep my plave in the arcane
'Cause I still love my parents and I still love the old world
Alright
I say old world
I say old world
I say

Well I see a '50's apartment house
Bleak in the morning sun
But I still love the '50's
And I still love the old world
I wanna keep my place in the old world
Keep my place in the arcane
'Cause I still love my parents and I still love the old world
Alright

I see the '50's apartment house
It's bleak in the 1970's sun
But I still love the '50's
And I still love the old world
I wanna keep my place in this old world
Keep my place in the arcane knowledge
And I still love the '50's and I still love the old world

Alright now we say bye bye old world
Gotta help the new world
Oh bye bye
I say bye bye bye bye old world

Sunshine, Shepparton and Coburg

Here are a bunch of signs from around the traps.

First, Sunshine, in an industrial estate:

A formerly proud sign, now hidden behind another building

 

Shepparton (while on day trip):

..and one in Coburg. I pass it every evening and have been wanting to know what it was...and lo, they removed the billboard:

Couple of brilliant 1950s signwriting course photos from the Victoria University archives

A bunch more Coburg signs

Took some pics this morning while on errands in the industrial bits of North Coburg:

Must have been uncovered recently...have gone past this old shop so many times and never noticed this

The company is still going, but this sign by the train line is just too good.

Detail from the Supreme sign above

Latest batch of ghost signs from around Melbourne

But first...a reconstructed larder from the house in the pioneer village at Bundoora Park, featuring the everyday products you'd see advertised on walls:

And now for the signs.

City

City - not a ghost sign...but good advice

Brunswick

Coburg

Coburg

Carlton. Traces of Robur Tea sign...that won't be around for much longer.

North Carlton, in back lane.

North Carlton

North Carlton. Sorry about the finger.

Brunswick

Brunswick....under construction.

Brunswick - Union Street Coke sign

And next door - the famous Brunswick sign everyone snaps.

On the same building as the Tarax sign

On the same building...once was a sign.

The entire thing.

And across the road...pub.

And a little down the street.

And a little further along.

Brunswick - business is still going, but the sign rocks enough to include.

But what's that on the side of the plumbing yard above...looks like more traces of Robur Tea.

Brunswick - Gilmour's Milk (see earlier post about another Gilmour's sign..revealed on milk bar awning around the corner from this one).

Correctly.

Footscray - taken from car on railway underpass.

Footscray - the ghost sign equivalent of a striptease.

Footscray - first Vietnamese ghost sign I've seen.