Best Vill Boogie

The big plywood wall surrounding the vanished Village Lukoil on 8th Avenue and Horatio has a bright, bold new look, thanks to Jay Shells, aka Jason Shelowitz, creator of guerrilla urban etiquette signage and other street art.


photo: JVNY

He spent the whole weekend working on it, first outlining it, then filling it in with blue, purple, and black. I asked him a few questions about it.


photo: Jay Shells

What made you pick this stretch of plywood?

i picked this because i live up the street and saw it as a giant blank canvas. who wants to look at plywood covered in stupid fly-poster ads for months anyway?

What's the work about--waves? giant squid tentacles?

just some abstractions from my bag of tricks. i've done a bunch of paintings like this before. the fluid motion of the lines help me think. since it's not really about anything in particular, it's just real therapy for me. get to just flow with the paint and not worry about it looking like anything in particular. it's more about the medium and fluidity.

Does it have a title?

if i must, i would name it "Best Vill Boogie"


photo: Jay Shells

How many cans of paint did it take?

i didn't keep a perfect tally, but let's say 32 cans.

How many hours did it take you to do?

i've spent 12 hour so far, and have some more shadow work to do that should take another hour or two. then, it's done. also, i walked my dogs by it before and realized i signed it 2001 instead of 2011. d'oh. i'll have to fix that.


photo: JVNY