ELVIS CHRIST, The Poetry and Hand Lettering of a San Francisco Mad Man, 40 pp. $20.00
In the history of San Francisco’s North Beach, filled with names of famed Beat generation poets and artists, Elvis Christ, if known at all, will most likely not be considered a worthy part of this tradition. However, for a decade at least, from 2006 to 2016, Elvis Christ was a unique part of the neighborhood fabric. Street poet, street artist, graffiti poet are all terms that describe who he was. His words, cynical quips and poetic phrases, were written with felt markers on masking tape that he stuck to the sidewalk.
San Francisco designer and calligrapher Thomas Ingmire followed Elvis Christ‘s sidewalk graffiti, taking over 500 photographs. In this booklet he recreates a number of the images, using his own hand to make accurate representations of Christ’s unique hand lettering and decoration style. |