Mystery Artist Uses Uniball Pen to Draw Pigeons All Over Bangor, Maine

For the last several months, an unidentified street artist has been pasting up drawings of pigeons – and hummingbirds and shopping carts and other objects, too – around downtown Bangor.

From the Bangor Daily News:

The pigeons first appeared in mid-July…four months later, there have been more than 60 examples of pigeon art in downtown Bangor. A pigeon drinking a Budweiser pasted to Leadbetter’s Mini Stop on Ohio Street. A pigeon crying a river of tears pasted to a wall inside the Kenduskeag Stream canals. Picasso-themed pigeons on the side of Domino’s Pizza on Clinton Street and on the doorway of the Main Tavern on Main Street. A connect-the-dots pigeon at the corner of Hammond and Columbia streets.

He draws his artwork on paper and sticks it to walls with wheat paste that makes it easy to remove.

According to the Pigeon’s Facebook page:

Pigeon wants you to think of your downtown as your living room. Pigeon is about living in Bangor and giving a shit!

Shop owners seem to like the Pigeon’s artwork, which varies from simple drawings to cartoons to surrealism, and one enterprising business has even started selling t-shirts with one of his pigeon drawings.

The Daily News caught up to the Pigeon and got him to agree to an interview – as long as the paper agreed to protect his secret identity.

So here’s what we can tell you about the Pigeon. The Pigeon is a he. He lives in Bangor. He was born in Europe and has lived in America for 20 years. He has had other, non-Pigeon artwork displayed in galleries across the state. And he doesn’t consider his work graffiti — rather, as temporary, nondestructive street art.

“The important thing to me is that it is temporary,” said Pigeon…“Spray paint is about aggressively taking a space for yourself. This being temporary is part of the appeal for me. I’m not interested in property damage.”

Pigeon had the idea to try a wheat-pasting street art project in the spring after being inspired by street artist Swoon, who also works with wheat paste, and by the film “Favela Rising” about a community organization in Brazil that uses music and art to combat drugs and violence.

He uses Uniball pens – the paper doesn’t say what kind – for his drawings. A Sharpie can also be seen in one photo of a completed drawing.

He mostly uses his drawings to attract attention to mundane surfaces or objects that would normally go unnoticed, but lately has been venturing into political expression, with some of his art appearing in support of the Occupy movement.

That seems to have irked a few people, but since he isn’t being destructive, is generally appreciated by people in the downtown area and hasn’t run afoul of the police, he’ll likely continue spreading his art in Bangor.