5 Pointz: Boy Sent to His Room by Meres One By Hannah Jenney

Meres One Real name: Jonathan Cohen Started graffiti when he was 13 Came up with “Meres One” when he was 16 because M, R, and E are his best calligraphic letters Leader of the graffiti crew “The Deadly4Mula” Studied art at the Fashion Institute of technology Has created hundreds of graffiti murals along the East Coast and in Holland Founder of 5 Pointz

About 5 Pointz 5 Pointz is an outdoor graffiti museum, created so that graffiti artists could have a place where they are able to express themselves freely, located in Long Island City, New York and is commonly referred to as the “graffiti Mecca” of the world. The name “5 Pointz” originally meant the graffiti artists of all 5 boroughs coming together as one, but since 2002, when Meres first started it, it has attracted aerosol artists from around the globe. Not only does 5 Pointz entice graffiti artists, but also there are regularly deejays, musicians, breakdancers, photographers, and filmakers.

The graffiti mural of “Boy Sent to His Room” by Meres One is unlike any other mural at all of 5 Pointz, not just because of it’s content, but because of the 3-Dimensional feel it gives off as a viewer move back and forth in front of it. It even reaches beyond the wall, onto another one, and down onto the concrete, allowing someone to stand in the boys hand as if to be apart of the artwork. Eyes are first drawn to the color contrasts within this piece. The background is all different shades of blue, in fact, blending in with the surrounding artwork, which also happens to be blue. The boy wears a shirt that is the complimentary color of blue, orange, very much standing out. Everything on the desk is a color other than blue as well, also getting viewers’ attentions. On the desk, the lamp shines over the smoke being given off by the boy’s soup that happens to say “Meres.” He commonly uses this technique of incorporating his name into his art This is Meres’ way of allowing spectators to know that he is the star or main person of 5 Pointz. Correspondingly, the boy’s eyes appear to be looking directly at the smoke almost like a second spotlight shining onto his name. Also, his name is one of the only objects that do not become deformed as an observer walks by it. The mural is located at the center of 5 Pointz, right below where the name of the building is written. This adds to the figurative spotlights on Meres. These “spotlights” are all very appropriate because Meres is the founder and operator of 5 Pointz, deciding what graffiti goes where and for how long, giving tours dealing with legal decisions, and of course, making graffiti himself.

Other artwork by Meres with his name incorporated