Pixel Art

As we walked through Paris I noticed images made out of pixels on some of the corners of the buildings we were passing. The first handful I saw were of the aliens from Space Invaders and the ghosts from Pacman. They were fairly simple and took me on a nice nostalgia trip. Each day brought more pixel art and it would sometimes be more complex and other times it would interact with its environment. There are a least a handful of different artists putting these pieces up. One artist liked to work with the little grey aliens from sci-fi. Sometimes there would be full body images of little greys while many other times it was just their head. Other artist took their inspiration from video games. Obviously, the Pacman and Space Invaders were their work but there was also Donkey Kong Jr and Nintendo based images. Another artist did more modern work like a girl smoking and a boy and girl eating ice cream. They kept the pixel count down and did a great job of making it look very retro.

Another artist really kicked it up a notch by quadrupling the pixel count and giving us their version of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer. A unique piece that stood out for me was an excellent rendition of the two men shaking hands on the cover of the Pink Floyd album Wish You Were Here. I am not sure which of the artists might have created it but this piece was fantastic. It really made me want to walk all the streets of the city to see if I find more like it. It also made me wonder what other album covers would look good as pixel art. Nevermind by Nirvana, Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, Book of Souls by Iron Maiden, and Abbey Road by the Beatles all come to mind. The whole experience is like a free museum one could walk for weeks or even months finding new pieces to enjoy each time they explore the city!