Alexandra Chang

Barnstormers Flying Solo

Graffiti, calligraphy and sumi inks influence work of mural painters.

Amid the less-traveled green expanses of North Carolina, at the crossing of Stanton Hill and Red Hill Roads, lies an outcropping of abandoned tobacco barns that have become a tourist stop in the rural community of Cameron, NC, population 300. Since 1999, the Barnstormers collective has road-tripped down to the area to paint and repaint some 75 murals on the facades of these barns. The New York-Tokyo-based collective, loosely orchestrated by Brooklyn artist David EINs, has developed its own following on both sides of the Pacific and is known for its collaborative, improvisational style.