Totem

Totem is not an easy guy to find out about. Almost all the information about him online is on his own website. If you know his work then you probably already know, but chances are you drive by it every day without even knowing it’s him. He has public pieces all over Atlanta. Totem has been doing graffiti and murals since 1990. His well-known style is recognized worldwide for his robotic signature armored letters that he calls the Mechanical Battle serif. Since starting in Atlanta, he has painted all over the world from Japan and New Zealand to Germany and France. He has graffiti pieces that he does in both 2D and in 3D styles.

One of his most popular characters, Mr. Fangs, also known as The Geist used to be painted all over Atlanta. Unfortunately over time most of them have faded or been buffed. He began doing Mr. Fangs after getting tired of doing letters and has actually copyrighted the design. They can be seen in many different colors and sometimes holding signs or smelling foods. These colors aren’t just because that’s the color paint he had that day, but they mean different things. For instance, white is supposed to be a memory color. White ghosts were done in abandoned buildings or places that were forgotten. Yellow means the ghost is playful, while red is a color used for beefs. Pink ghosts stand for his wife who often filled the outlines with him. A ghost smelling a chicken leg is a symbol of the south.

I don’t think he’s done Mr. Fangs since about 2007 so most of these are in areas that haven’t been revitalized in the last 10 years and as mentioned before areas that people have kind of forgotten to the point that in almost 10 years they haven’t been covered up. It’s always fun to find Mr. Fangs around town that I haven’t noticed before.

Recently I rode up to Chamblee to look at the 2 giant murals he did under the Marta tracks on Chamblee Dunwoody Rd.

This mural is across from the Edgewood shopping center on Moreland Ave.

This is a piece that has been ongoing on Arizona Ave near the corner of Dekalb Ave for a while. I’m not sure if it’s finished or not. Some of the pictures are while it was still in progress.