“… when we had nothing to worry about except finding more trains to paint.”

Painting trains seems older than horses, but of course that can’t be true. Outside of public transportation trains, which have been largely free of graffiti since the late 80s, the lust for hopping freights still runs deep for some. Like the current romantic fixation that many bars and rock bands and suspender-wearing, handlebar moustache-baring cads have for a hand hewn old-timey world they never lived in, some Street Artists still have a forlorn longing for the simpler freight bombing of yesteryear. Before streaming surveillance, cell-phones, Snooki.

Labrona and Other (photo © Labrona)

Like migrant workers and hobos during the American dustbowl, some artists opt for the screeching low-cost traveling option of hopping freights across the country for a little paintcation – intrepidly forgoing comfort and regular meals and risking occasional close-misses with fate and dodgy dudes with irregular agendas. It’s like a rite of passage, like starring in your own old Western movie. It’s like putting your work up on Flickr, except all the Internet wires are thick heavy steel rails and your page is a rusty rectangular 100 ton boxcar.  Also, images take longer to refresh.

Labrona and Other (photo © Labrona)

For Labrona and Other aka Troy Lovegates the whole weighty freight topic is an exercise in nostalgia; now that everyday life has been getting in the way and they’ve been developing professionally as artists. But there are occasional exceptions, including these recent images that give you a taste of how art on freights has been updated lately.

Labrona says, “Other and I have been painting trains together since the mid 90s. I can’t believe it’s been that long. Frigg, we are getting old. These days we are both busy and located in different cities and don’t get to paint together anymore all that much. Getting to spend a week together painting trains was an amazing blast from the past that brought me back to the days before art shows, traveling, studios, careers, bills and responsibility. – Back to days of painting for the fun of it when we had nothing to worry about except finding more trains to paint.”

Labrona and Other (photo © Labrona)

Labrona and Other (photo © Labrona)

Labrona and Other (photo © Labrona)

Labrona and Other (photo © Labrona)

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