Downtown Drive-by (NYC Graffiti & Street Art '81-'84)
| Expected release date is Sep 29th 2026 |
- Availability: Confirm prior to ordering
- Branding: minimum 50 pieces (add’l costs below)
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Branding Options (v), Availability & Lead Times
- 1-Color Imprint: $2.00 ea.
- Promo-Page Insert: $2.50 ea. (full-color printed, single-sided page)
- Belly-Band Wrap: $2.50 ea. (full-color printed)
- Set-Up Charge: $45 per decoration
- Availability: Product availability changes daily, so please confirm your quantity is available prior to placing an order.
- Branded Products: allow 10 business days from proof approval for production. Branding options may be limited or unavailable based on product design or cover artwork.
- Unbranded Products: allow 3-5 business days for shipping. All Unbranded items receive FREE ground shipping in the US. Inquire for international shipping.
- RETURNS/CANCELLATIONS: All orders, branded or unbranded, are NON-CANCELLABLE and NON-RETURNABLE once a purchase order has been received.
Product Details
Overview
In Downtown Drive-by, Jon Waldo provides a visual, time capsule from a very different New York. The city was cheap and incredibly interesting at that time. New, challenging art and music seemed to appear every day.
Graffiti was evolving, too. Uptown and on the trains, incredible wild-style pieces were blowing up. Downtown was alive with a flux of messages and marks. Beautiful images were turning up one day and painted over the next—with images bleeding into each other and colliding in unexpected ways. "The visual energy was incredible and life-changing for me."
Waldo had graduated from art school a year earlier and the work he was interested in was very conceptual and minimal. It asked a lot of questions about the formal aspects of artwork. "But Downtown quickly taught me what art could be. Graffiti was a public art for everyone to see. You didn't have to be enclosed in a gallery situation. You could just see it and do it."
Waldo's first job when he got back to the city was driving a truck and delivering art supplies for David Davis. His store sold to everybody and he got to go to a lot of cool studios but was captivated by the work he saw on the street while driving between deliveries.
"Photography for me was an expensive proposition, but almost unconsciously, I got a used camera and just started taking pictures when I was driving for work. I had the need to possess what I saw."
These pictures are a portal. They are from a world of terrible tragedy and great creativity. "I feel blessed to be a witness to that time."
