Grrrr, managed to delete my own blog post!!!

I thought I had found all of the Love Me posters in the Westcott area, but the other day I found 2 more. I had to go to the community center and I was Ina a hurry, I parked my car and ran in. When I came back out I found that I had parked right in front of 2 poster and I almost missed them.

The next day I had to go to the Magnerelli community center on the north side. As I was driving past St. Joseph hospital I saw an abandoned building with 4 more posters. These ones were more recent as they were printed on the New York Times from dates in October. This surprised me as I assumed that whomever is doing this had hung posters back in the summer then quit. But apparently the person was still actively hanging in the fall. I can't imagine they will continue this over the winter, but I hope that they do!

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Westcott St.



I found that the poster on the highway tower at the intersection of Townsend and Erie has been painted over by the city.  Not really sure why they painted over it as it is paper, it would have probably been easier to scrape it off.  Now there is a splotch of paint and you can see the wrinkles of the paper underneath it.  Score one for whomever made that choice. 

As I have been driving around the city and finding these posters I have noticed a few things.  The first thing has nothing to do with the "Love Me" posters.  As a transplant to Syracuse from Philadelphia, I have been struck by the lack of graffiti.  That's right lack of graffiti, and what graffiti there is, there is surprisingly very little that is any good.  In other words, there is a lack of graffiti that is artistic or that expresses anything.  Most of what I have seen is random tagging.  But there is one block on the west side that is just spectacular!  As a person who struggles with finger paint, I was very excited to find this artwork and I hope that it is not destroyed over time.  I hope to go back and get some pics and do a separate post on this site. 

The other things that I have noticed do have to do with the Love Me posters.  When I first saw them, and as the city of Syracuse has proved by painting over them, at first glance they seem to be painted onto whatever surface the creator has placed them.  They are not, they are posters.  So far, I have not found 2 of the same.  Many are similar, but none have been duplicated.The person (or people) who have created them uses a variety of paper.  Some of them are shooting range targets, some of them are newspaper (Wall Street Journal) and some are on a stiff yellowish brown paper. (I am sure if I was an artist I would know what it is) I am guessing that the person who is hanging these makes them up ahead of time and then quickly applies them to the surface that they have chosen.  By no means are they weather proof as I have found a few that have taken a beating by both man and nature. 

If you want to find a lot of them in one place, go to Westcott St.  They are all over the place. 

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How do you find these things?

201 Fayette St

201 Fayette St.

A fellow Instagram member saw some of the Love Me pics and commented with JHSDGLJGDLHADUOADYTUBJBU!!!!!!!!! How do you find all of these? 

Well, I drive a lot at my job, all over the city of Syracuse.  The good parts, the bad parts and the obscure parts.  Oddly, I can go out looking for Love Me posters and not see a thing. I’ll give up and an hour later I find one.  I originally thought that they were only on the east side of the city, but then stumbled upon a few downtown.  I started to look around downtown and found them on the Westside. Another blogger had posted that they were around campus, but they range much much farther than that.  They are in the most obvious places and in the most unexpected places. 

Euclid & Ostrom

Euclid & Ostrom

Euclid & Sumner

Townsend & Erie

So it begins

I'm going to put this out there right up front.  I am not a writer, and artist, an academic or musician.  I don't claim to be nor will I ever.  I spell things wrong, probably have bad grammar and I am terrible with punctuation.  I am not looking for a platform for my views, my agenda or way of life.  I tend to say things without thinking, react with emotion more often than with logic and I am prone to anxiety attacks.  I love those around me fiercely, forgive quickly, give generously  and wound easily.  I am not a native of Syracuse or even of New York state.  I CHOOSE to make my life in Syracuse and I have never regretted it nor thought of leaving since the day that I arrived here and knew no one. 

So, what am I doing with a blog?  Not sure myself yet.  I know why I am starting it, but have no idea where it will go.  So to start...

I am curious.  I am curious about these odd graphics that have been showing up around Syracuse and so this blog is an attempt to catalog and chronicle them.   They all have one thing in common, they all say LOVE ME in some type of stencil.  I am not sure when I first noticed them, maybe during the summer? I've looked up what I can on them and there is surprisingly little out there.  I found one blog with a student assignment written about the "LOVE ME" signs, but nothing more.  http://brightleits.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/dont-shoot/  So in an effort to find out more, I have started to ask around and taking pictures of them and mapping where I have found them.
 
I will not claim to know what they mean.  My thought is that these are art and they are meant to say something to the person observing them.  Each person will take a different meaning from them.  I have noticed that they tend to appear on abandoned buildings and telephone poles and that they are spread all over the city. So far, I have found the greatest concentration of them on Westcott St.  followed by Fayette St.

Below are the first ones I took pictures of, on an abandoned church located at 716 Fayette St. If anyone has any thoughts, comments, knows the locations of ones I have not posted or ideas about these, please feel free to share them.

 Fayette St, west side of building

Fayette St, front of bldg