Mother Fool's Coffee House
Willy Street, Madison WI

In times when few people knew how to read, business owners would hang a sign over their doors painted with a picture that depicted their trade, or a totem such as a horseshoe or barber pole, or both.

I don't know whether the good people at Mother Fool's hung this enameled coffee pot outside their door as a nod to that tradition, or because they left a pot on the hob and boiled it dry but were loathe to throw it in the trash. But I like it.

For as long as I've lived here -- only three years, not like I'm a life-long resident -- Mother Fool's has lent this exterior wall to people armed with cans of paint and an itch to express themselves. Regardless of whether you might characterize people who paint on the sides of buildings as graffiti artist or vandals, for the first year and a half I passed this building every morning on the way to work, I looked forward to seeing a smart social commentary rendered in an eye-catching style.

About six months ago, though, the style changed abruptly, and the graffiti wall at Mother Fool's has acquired all the visual charm of a bridge abutment in a railroad yard. I beg the management of Mother Fool's: Please find a new artist. Please. Pretty please.

Ironically, the opposite side of the building is chalked with graffiti from passers-by and is much more interesting.

Do You Know the Author?

I can read the quote, but not the attribution.

Found in the furniture section at St. Vincent de Paul's thrift shop.

Declaration chalked on the library at the University of Wisconsin

Not exactly sure what they're declaring, though. Their name is Butts and they're married? They're married and they have butts? Their butts are married?

YWCA Cafeteria

On Carroll Street between Mifflin and Dayton.

Epitaph on a post office drop box

... just outside the Walgreen's on cap square.

[Later] A story in the Chicago Trib explains that
"Solve" was the nom de plume of graffiti artist Brendan Scanlon, murdered in Chicago in June.

The Ants Go Marching One By One, Huzzah! Huzzah!

A little added interest along a conveniently blank building foundation on S Pinckney St. just off capital square.

The balloon's a nice touch of whimsy, I think.

A Langdon Street Bestiary

This carved owl over the door of an apartment block ...



















... and this walrus on the wall of another.

Coo-coo ka-choo.

Stenciled on the sidewalk
along Jenifer Street

Kill 'Em All & Let God Sort 'Em Out?

A not-so-thinly-veiled threat stenciled on the sidewalk near the intersection of Carroll Street with Langdon. There must be a better way to use the guarantee of free speech to address this problem.

Ashtray of the Beast

Shifty I?

I know I should not like grafitti - grafitti bad! Only vandals make grafitti!

But this was a rather artless concrete foundation before somebody added an eye-catching splash of color to it with a stencil and a spray can.

I've often found that grafitti can be at least as constructive as some public works of art can sometimes be destructive to the character of the neighborhood.