"I'm
continually amazed at how much fun and how many smiles a simple little flower
can spread in such a big place." – Michael De Feo
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| De Feo's s silk-screened flower poster on a city's street |
Written by Lucy Coker
The city’s streets have served as Michael
De Feo's gallery for the past 20 years. De Feo is most recognized for his
spontaneous scattering of flowers across New York, and any other city he
visits. Since his street art days, he has dipped his foot into many gallery
spaces, been on the cover of the New York magazine and published a children’s book titled, “Alphabet City – Out On The
Streets.”
The Freedom of Graffiti Art
The graffiti artist gained a diploma from
the School of Visual Arts in Graphic Design, although, oddly enough, his final portfolio
didn’t included any graphic design. It was full of street art and paintings,
yet De Feo still received top marks. He first began using the streets for
his graffiti art as a way to avoid the high art gallery system. The gallery
space confined him but on the streets anything was allowed. Furthermore,
sporadically placed buildings and streets, anyone could witness his work even
if the didn’t want or mean to see it.
His art embraced and explored the free
world of urban and low brow art. Entering into the gallery space through the
back door, De Feo side stepped the restraints of conventional fine art allowing
more space for his spontaneity and resourceful inspirations.
Flower Power
Around 1992, Michael De Feo used silkscreen
drawings from his high school art and began placing them out on the streets of New York.
He initially used childlike imagery of moons, minnows, flowers and safety pins,
cutting these images out of FedEx cardboard to make spray paint stencils. These
images soon led to his single silk-screened flower image and eventually to his
later paintings on found blueprint paper.
After finding his flower image, he printed
hundreds before deciding to make them street art. He glued them on everything
from from newspaper dispensers to city buses. Since the birth of the flower
project, it has enjoyed exposure in countless news articles and media outlets including
The New York Times, Time Magazine, The London Sunday Times Magazine, and on the
cover of New York Magazine's "Reasons to Love New York" issue (three
times). His work has also appeared
in numerous music videos and film documentaries including Banksy's film, "Exit Through The
Gift Shop."
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| Michael De Feo's cover of the New York Magazine |
Alphabet City
Michael De Feo’s children's book “Alphabet City”: Out on the Streets", employs New York City as his canvas. He incorporates his
graffiti art into the book by assigning each one to illustrate each letter of
the alphabet. The book received rave reviews internationally, “De Feo's art
evokes beauty and optimism with a childlike simplicity while paying homage to
gritty Manhattan." (Newsweek International)
Michael De Feo’s experimental and free
artistic spirit reflects that of many Thumbprint Gallery artists. You can
browse and buy a variety of works at Thumbprint Gallery’s online store here.
Sources
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