From a series of photographs of “buffs” (graffiti coverup paintings), work in progress (2015-ongoing).

I live in a neighborhood with a lot of graffiti and, consequently, buffs. The quality of the graffiti “pieces” ranges from amazing to crap, and what draws me to the buffs is not the usual trope that they look like abstract paintings. It’s that building owners seem to believe that a beige or greige blob is preferable to a piece, regardless of the quality of that piece. This series of photos of buffs is looking at them not aesthetically, but as a method of stifling communication and expression, as a conflict between those who own property and those who presumably do not, of style vs. neutrality. I also continue to be fascinated by what you might call the aggressive neutrality of beige and greige as colors.