Clever. The question is, did the owner do this, or is the box itself meant to be art as well. Oh who cares just check out this picture:

Photo by Greg Long of gama-go.com

The text reads:

All are welcome to express themselves in the box below.

and

Painting within the above box is hereby expressly permitted and shall not be considered “graffiti” in accordance with article #23 of the San Francisco Municipal Code

Via Public Ad Campaign via Boing Boing

ESPVisuals posted photos of a few doors in San Fransisco that have been abundantly tagged, and they are all pretty cool, but I thought I’d just share my favorite one.

Not only is this door completely covered in tags, but the portrait fits in perfectly with the tags. I’d love to know who painted it.

The photographer of that door, funkandjazz/Steve Rotman, just published Bay Area Graffiti, a book of his photos. I’ve just added it to my list of street art books to purchase, and though I haven’t yet read it, Steve’s photos are always impressive on flickr and I’m sure the book will but just as good.

I’ve been a bit light on posts this week. Schoolwork has been piling up a bit, and I submit my university applications next week, so I’ve been working on those. I have been following the news though, and it seems like everybody is talking about tags this week.

Photo by RJ

• Hooked has released a zine called Tags: East London, and you can probably tell what it’s about from the title. 30 pages full color photos of some of London’s best tags. Get a copy for just £3.50 including UK postage here.
• Beautiful Crime sums up “The Great Debate” about “the merits of paste-ups, graffiti, street art, tagging and photoshopping” based on this flickr comments exchange between Mike Marcus, nolionsinengland, HowAboutNo! and redalert51.
• Fecal Face has a Q&A with graffiti photographer Martha Cooper. Fans of ’80′s graffiti should definitely have a read. Cooper has a new book out called Tag Town: The Origins of Writing, available here.
• There’s also been some great news in the world of character tags:
  - UK Street Art reports that The Toaster has put out a couple of fairly cheap prints over at Nelly Duff. Just £50, but they aren’t very large.
  - Hooked announces the release of new Sickboy prints from his recent Stay Free show (I wasn’t able to go, but Graffoto’s got a review)