City Center District bloom on historic Parrish Street facade, downtown Durham
A few weeks back on the way to dinner, my girlfriend and I discovered a large graffiti flower on the side of a worn-down facade in the City Center District of downtown Durham. The street-art looked so familiar that I stopped to take a photo, and after some research on social media we discovered that Michael De Feo, aka 'The Flower Guy', was in Durham planting his iconic blooms.
Red bloom greeting drivers entering the downtown Loop near the Carolina Theater
Deteriorating facades on Parrish and Main Street will be removed in upcoming year renovations
The bloom looked so familiar because I remember seeing The Flower Guy's work featured in Banksy's "Exit Through The Gift Shop" . Living on Wrightsville Beach for a number of years, the only graffiti I ever noticed was ignorant vandalism but living in downtown Durham I've become more aware of the buildings and historic structures- especially the ones tagged by a well-known street artist.
Warehouse District bloom outside the old Liggett & Myers Tobacco building
Living in a smaller city, it's not often I have the chance to see- or stumble upon in the process, works of art by such household names as Michael De Feo's The Flower Guy and Shepard Fairey's OBEY. Being a curious filmmaker, I reached out to Michael De Feo to see if I could film him at-work during his time here since I noticed he was hitting parts of Raleigh as well. Unfortunately, I just just missed him as he already left and was back in New York.
Bloom on Durham Bookcases building // Warehouse District
Bloom behind 9th street renovations // Old West Durham
Even though Michael De Feo was busy planting blooms back home, I grabbed my camera and took photos of what I could find around the neighborhood. I wanted to capture his work before the weather/construction/greedy art-horders started to deteriorate the pieces- as it was, someone has already tried to remove the flower on the Durham Bookcase building.
Sidewalk sprout near Monuts Donuts
As excited as I was on social media to post photos of The Flower Guy's blooms, I was equally pumped to know that he chose Durham as his canvas- a city I've grown to love and appreciate and in such a short period of time for its sense community, character and history.