Some art courtesy of Busan, South Korea

I’ve been trying to finish up several post about my summer spent in Asia.  Part of that process has been sorting through the pictures and formatting them prior to putting them up on the site.  It made me realize just how many more things I’d like to post about before I can really finish up writing about the trip.  I think there are a few funny stories left, lots of great pictures and maybe a few post containing useful information for the next soul wandering through the alleys.

I was only in Busan for 4 or 5 days if my memory serves me well.   It’s funny how timing and coincidence acting together can make things happen.  While in Busan I had stumbled upon a cozy little coffee shop by pure chance.  I went down an alley looking for more graffiti but I was soon pushed into this great coffee shop, Coffee Dasrim.  After talking to the owner for a bit she recommended another area where I could go look for some local graffiti.

I was too tired that day, I called it a night, grabbed supper on the way back to the hotel and told myself I’d go searching for it the next day.  Following the instructions I been had given: I ‘zig zagged’ my way through the random streets looking for some graffiti.  After an hour or so of doing this I spotted these guys from across the street:

There are a lot of pictures in this post, I’m talking a nice set of almost 120 pictures.  When I post pictures of graffiti I tend to pick the pieces that appeal to me.  I pick and choose and don’t necessarily post every picture I’ve taken.  In this case however I’m putting up each piece that was up and that I took a picture of.  It looked to me like this area was legally painted and the subject had something to do with books.  I get the impression it was books and learning but I have no way of confirming that.

For that reason I figured I’d put up all the pieces, the great ones and the ones that are not so great.  Every artist has to start somewhere.  If some of the pictures are crooked or at strange angles it’s because they were taken in very narrow alleys.

Here I’m separating a few of my favorites.  The pictures above have nothing wrong with them but these stood out a little more to me.  Whether it was the way the piece was placed, the colors chosen or the design of the piece; There was just something about them that just called out a little more than the others.

So I started off talking about how timing and coincidence can sometimes work hand in hand to make things happen.   I stopped into the coffee shop at the end of the day to let the owner know I had managed to find the graffiti spot and proceeded to show her some of the pictures.  She looked at me and said “that’s not the place I tried to explain to you” and laughed.

Using directions I had been given and I believed I understood, I got lost and none the less found a large cache of graffiti on shop doors.  Had It been a weekday the shops would of been open and I would of never noticed all the graffiti.  Their doors might have been open for business rather than closed and locked.

Considering I was only in Busan for 4-5 days, I can’t help but smile a little when I think how lucky it was to stumble onto this place.  What are the chances…

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