Vicki DaSilva is a light graffiti legend. Influenced by the birth and boom of graffiti in New York City, she decided to develop her own more ephemeral but no less inspiring take on the art form, making thin air instead of subway cars her canvas, swapping spray cans for light sources, and capturing the play of light in long exposure photography. She has been creating light graffiti and light painting photographs since 1980
McCarren Pool (1985)
Vicki DaSilva’s work is broad in scope, from technical conceptual pieces involving track systems like those from her ‘Light Tartans’ series, to the more direct socio-political throw-ups of her ‘Financial Meltdown’ series. After concentrating on installation-based work for a long time, she became inspired to make some new light graffiti work during the Obama campaign. Here the artist herself talks exclusively to Environmental Graffiti.
Bailout Bull (2008)
EG: How would you explain the way light graffiti works to the novice?
Vicki DaSilva: Light graffiti is a very basic technique of using any light source as a method of drawing for a time exposure photograph in the dark, or at night. Using a camera that allows a ‘bulb’ setting for an extended time, while on a tripod, the light source is directed at the camera and the camera documents the movement of the light. Trial and error are needed to perfect any number of variables.
AIG = IOU (2009)
EG: What is your modus operandi in a nutshell?
Vicki DaSilva: My modus operandi is to create single frame time exposure photographs at site-specific locations at night that combine principles of drawing, painting, sculpture, performance and installation art with light. And to make lightgraffiti.com the most popular site for light graffiti.
Light Tartans: Fountain Park #4 (2007)
EG: What is the thinking behind your two – very different it seems – current projects?
Vicki DaSilva: My light painting photographic installation based works are made with the pursuit of contributing to contemporary fine art photography
with a body of work that is historically significant in terms of originality and execution of process.
Light Tartans: Fountain Park #6 (2008)
Plant or Animal???Giant Basket StarA tangled wonder of the reef seascape.
The giant basket star (astrophyton muricatum) is a marine invertebrate found in the shallow waters of the Caribbean seas, often around British Virgin Islands. It is believed to be early Mesosoic in origin.
Furry Sea Cucumber
The furry sea cucumber (astichopus multifidus) can be seen crawling or rolling over the sea floor of the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Florida. Like other echinoderms (radially symmetrical animals that are only found in the sea), the furry sea cucumber can re-grow, or regenerate its body tissues, that have been damaged, injured, or lost.
Flamingo Tongue Snail
The flamingo tongue snail (cyphoma gibbosumn) is a small, colorful sea snail which lives on various species of soft corals in the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean, including the Caribbean Sea.
Leafy Sea Dragon
Umbrella Mouth Gulper Eel
The umbrella mouth gulper eel (eurypharynx pelecanoides) can be found mostly in eastern and central Pacific Ocean at depths ranging from 900 to 8,000m (3,000 to 27,000ft).
Its enormous mouth can be opened to pelican-like proportion to enable it to feed on preys that are much larger than its size. The tip of its tail emits light, attracting prey about to be spectacularly swallowed up.
Hatchetfish
They know what you did last summer.
A hatchetfish has extremely thin body, resembling the blade of a hatchet, and tubular large eyes that are permanently fixed looking upwards - to enable them to search for food falling from above. Hatchetfish are found in most temperate waters at depths of 200 to 6,000m.
Christmas-Tree Worm
The christmas-tree worm (spirobranchus giganteus) is a small polychaete worm most often found in the Black Forest Reef and other reefs near Grand Turk.
Firefly Squid
This squid sees the world in color. And it makes deep-blue pretty light itself.
It’s equipped with special deep-blue light producing organs called photophores - by flashing the lights on and off, it can attract its prey before pouncing on them with its powerful tentacles. It’s also only cephalopod species which have color vision!
Viperfish
Now we come to the section featuring deep sea beauties. Hold on to your breakfast, these guys are uglier than the current American stock market situation.
The viperfish (chauliodus sloani) is one of the most ferocious and unusual-looking deep-sea creatures found in tropical and temperate waters world-wide at depths of up to 2,800m (9,000ft).
Luckily for everybody involved, it can go without food for days. Beware of the sharp fangs, when holding it -
Are you ready for another nauseating shot? We warned you… Here is an angler fish - with its stomach in its mouth (decompression caused the stomach to invert).
Fangtooth, or Ogre Fish
Winner of the Deep Abyss Beauty Contest last year.
A Fangtooth (anoplogaster cornuta), or ogrefish, dwells in tropical and cold-temperate marine water worldwide, particularly the waters off the coast of Australia… the waters off Australia seem to teem with all kinds of monsters. It may be ferocious-looking, but it’s actually quite small - a maximum length of 17cm.
Vicki DaSilva is a light graffiti legend. 
Vicki DaSilva’s work is broad in scope, from technical conceptual pieces involving track systems like those from her ‘Light Tartans’ series, to the more direct socio-political throw-ups of her ‘Financial Meltdown’ series. After concentrating on installation-based work for a long time, she became inspired to make some new light graffiti work during the Obama campaign. Here the artist herself talks exclusively to Environmental Graffiti.
EG: How would you explain the way light graffiti works to the novice?
EG: What is your modus operandi in a nutshell?
EG: What is the thinking behind your two – very different it seems – current projects?
