DIY Green Graffiti: Making Moss Murals

Posted on September 8, 2008 by Matt Embrey in Art, DIY

I came across a cool article on Environmental Graffiti about Anna Garforth and her Mossenger street art project that involves adorning public walls with green graffiti made from moss. Using the method that Garforth is using, disaffected youth can turn their tagging terra-friendly by making moss murals.

The Moss Green Graffiti is completely natural and organic, as opposed to traditional enamel based sprays that are ridden with CFCs, VOCs and a host of other scary acronyms that make mother nature cringe. The best part is it’s relatively easy to make…

So if you are a Highway Vandal with a conscience or an eco-friendly artist check out these tutorials and recipes to get you started…

Instructables

Stories From Space

Tags:

Art, Design, DIY, graffiti, green

38 Responses to “ DIY Green Graffiti: Making Moss Murals ”

cathy

08. Sep, 2008

This is so cool! If moss didn’t take so much water, i would try doing this in our drought southern california!

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- Loga
  
  16. Apr, 2009
  
  You know, there is a special type of desert moss that you might be able to try. Dont know if the recipe will work with this stuff though.
  
  Reply to this comment
eylos

08. Sep, 2008

Wery gorgeous a work.
Thanks

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tracy

08. Sep, 2008

I really love this idea! We shall see if it catches on in NYC.

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DragonOak

08. Sep, 2008

Great idea!!!!!

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Sudsy

08. Sep, 2008

Quote:”disaffected youth can take turn their tagging terra-friendly by making moss murals”
Great idea. I love its green creativeness but this will never catch on with taggers as they are all about defacing, not enhancing the environment…

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Brianne

08. Sep, 2008

That is beautiful graffiti. I agree with Sudsy, “taggers are all about defacing.” Maybe the police who catch them and make them clean it up, can also make them do this type of graffiti after they clean up the paint? It’d be nice if they had to put up inspirational quotes or poems or something we would want to look at.

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blargh

08. Sep, 2008

These commenters seem very ignorant about the art of graffitti. I think this moss idea is lovely, and definitely an eco friendly way to adorn walls, but more “traditional” street art is not all about defacing public property. Of course, sometimes it is intended to deface or even mock a pice of property as a form of protest, but in many cases a viewer would not have to stretch very far to call a piece of graffitti an art piece. While I’m not a fan of the environmental impact of paint sprayed from cans with damaging propellants, that’s no reason to disregard a long standing and beautiful art form as simply destruction of property. Do a google search for Banksy if you would like a vast array of recent examples.

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susie holdman

08. Sep, 2008

gross…how does it smell?

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web design company

08. Sep, 2008

Green Graffiti

…disaffected youth can take turn their tagging terra-friendly by making moss murals. The Moss Green Graffiti is completely natural and organic as opposed to traditional enamel based spray that are ridden with CFCs, VOCs and a host of other scary acronyms that make mother nature cringe…

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Microtransaction

10. Sep, 2008

Dang! That’s really cool! Sadly, I’m not sure how many taggers are going to stuff their pockets full of moss instead of spraycans, but I have to say, if my building was tagged with moss…i’d be far less irritated, and much more likely to leave it up. Perhaps even frame it?

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Abigail Lewisohn

11. Sep, 2008

This is an excellent idea, taggers would not use it though. But it looks great and saves the environment.

Reply to this comment
Paulie

11. Sep, 2008

This is a wonderful idea! So beautiful!

I don’t think that taggers are actually trying to deface property, they just see it as a blank page that they can fill with their artwork. And they have no empathy or respect for the owners so defacing someone’s property means nothing to them. Parents no longer teach their children bounderies and so they think the whole world is for their taking.

Reply to this comment
- Cheryl
  
  21. Mar, 2009
  
  Taggers ARE trying to deface property. Graffiti artists are not taggers. It is a completely different thing. Graffiti artists make murals which are artistic. Taggers just spray initials, names and swear words. Totally different concept. If you called a graffiti artist a tagger you would likely get slapped upside the head. They hate it as usually taggers not only deface property but other people’ s artwork. Taggers are scum.
  
  Reply to this comment
becky

15. Sep, 2008

wow. just stop leaving comments concerning things you have no idea about.

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Ross

30. Sep, 2008

obviously not to manny “taggers” here to defend themselves, i can’t speak as a tagger, but i think some would definitely use this.

type in “banksy” into google image search if you dont believe me.

Reply to this comment
Lu n' Am

09. Oct, 2008

I would love to see these in my town.
It’s hard to believe these are relatively easy to make…but “shrugs”
very nice
-Lu

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autumn

01. Nov, 2008

I love the idea
AND
not all graffiti artists are taggers
don’t be mean : (

Reply to this comment
Seraph

04. Nov, 2008

From what I understand, there is a difference between Graffiti and “Tagging.” Taggers often try to tag impressive targets, to prove they can as much as anything. Tagging is usually just a name or symbol done in spray paint. Graffiti is either the gang-related and marks a particular gang’s “territory” but can also be the works of art mentioned above.

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William Engel

18. Nov, 2008

Thats great I’ll post a link on my blog http://howtogogreen.wordpress.com, it’s a great place for people that don’t quite think the way we’re supposed to. Keep trying, don’t give up! We recently started a solar company in Honduras, only to find ourselves being squeezed out by one of the largest solar distributors in the world. Why? Because we were not going to charge enough for the panels! Check out the Blog or go to http://www.evergreenroatan.com and see more!

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metaphysicsbob

29. Jan, 2009

taggers will not use this? im sorry how many of you guys know any taggers, and i mean real taggers, ones that do it for a life style, ones that view it as art and not as just another way of getting there name or gang on walls?

one of the worlds best taggers in the world is a vegan who cares about the world greatly and ive met him in person, and trust me he would love this, sure not ever tagger will like this but then again i bet the same percentage can be said about the general populace as a whole, please dont stereotype a group of people

who knows maybe you will see a banksy doing it

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Beth

09. Feb, 2009

I love this idea, you really can make this into artwork.

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SpeshalD

21. Mar, 2009

Graffiti is ALL about recking shit. Fill-ins, outlines, burners tags. Art comes second- maybe.

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Light Graffiti

09. Apr, 2009

not bad …

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Mr. McGregor's Daughter

13. Apr, 2009

Now that’s graffiti art!

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Thomas

16. Apr, 2009

Too bad it only works in areas with humidity. Here in the West, some people think humidity is just a myth.

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Site's linking to this post:

doop doop doop! » » DIY green graffiti

11. Sep, 2008

[...] DIY Green Graffiti: Making Moss Murals Uncategorized [...]

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Green Graffiti | Design You Trust. World's Most Famous Social Inspiration.

05. Nov, 2008

[...] Graffiti via greenupgrader Not rated yet.Rate this! Posted under: Art Tagged with: graffiti, green, [...]

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mstock » Blog Archive » Green Graffiti

05. Nov, 2008

[...] Moss Graffiti via greenupgrader [...]

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Green Graffiti | Rough Diamond

06. Nov, 2008

[...] Via: greenupgrader [...]

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Non-toxic Taggers Strike | crispgreen.com

11. Nov, 2008

[...] One part crafting, one part guerilla art, this knit graffiti has been showing up in the strangest places. Spread by taggers known as Knittas, these yarn vandals go around spreading their knit graffiti all over anything they can get their needles on. On the one hand this is a much less toxic for of expression than tradition spray paint… on the other, this is conspicuous consumption of yarn… nevertheless, it’s some interesting stuff. (If you’re looking for some real Green graffiti check this moss graffiti out) [...]

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cleek » Moss Murals

14. Nov, 2008

[...] Moss Murals (via) Filed under: Uncategorized — cleek @ 1:00 pm [...]

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Graffiti Ecologico | Blog MnkStudio

03. Dec, 2008

[...] Graffiti via greenupgrader Etiquetas de Technorati: [...]

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Green Graffiti | Modest

23. Feb, 2009

[...] via green upgrader. [...]

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Non-toxic Taggers Strike | Test

25. Mar, 2009

[...] One part crafting, one part guerilla art, this knit graffiti has been showing up in the strangest places. Spread by taggers known as Knittas, these yarn vandals go around spreading their knit graffiti all over anything they can get their needles on. On the one hand this is a much less toxic for of expression than tradition spray paint… on the other, this is conspicuous consumption of yarn… nevertheless, it’s some interesting stuff. (If you’re looking for some real Green graffiti check this moss graffiti out) [...]

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D.I.Y. Moss Graffiti! at SuperForest

05. Apr, 2009

[...] Harry just sent me a link over to greenupgrader.com, where they’ve got a tasty piece up about D.I.Y. moss [...]

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Silver Path Blog » Blog Archive » Environmentally Friendly Graffiti?

05. Jun, 2009

[...] Yes! It is actually possible. I was reading a friend’s blog and I ran across a link to this article: DIY Green Graffiti: Making Moss Murals. [...]

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Eco-graffiti: Green trend takes over urban streets : Green Resouces

24. Jun, 2009

[...] Source: Green Upgrader/Mosstika/Environmental [...]

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