Very interesting thread, Amigo.
And I have never seen threads stretched so
wide!
I know. The first page is like that too. I was trying to get to the next page and then I posted a picture that streached it farther then the first page on the very first post of the next page.
Oh what the hell, Amigo! The images are terrific!
Though they bear little resemblance to the "graffiti" I see around me! Mama Mia! It's more of the
Foo was here! stuff. Boys & their tags.
Boring, boring, boring! Though there's a lot more stencil graffiti about. Though I wouldn't really describe it as wildly exciting. Me, I love a really, really clever political message if one
has to deface property!
Thats what makes this art movement so interesting. It is both good and bad. It is not born out of any institution or traditional art teachings or school. It is the biggest thing to happen in the art world in a long time. It's world wide and you can't really go to any museum or buy it and put it on your wall although some artist are starting to. Check out the wiki link if you want to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti
And it's all done with Spray paint!!!!!!!
Did I ever tell you that I once interviewed Keith Haring, Amigo? (blast from the past!) He painted a (now fast fading
) mural on the wall of my school.
Oh man thats cool. How was he?
Fading!?!? Repaint it!!!!!
Very gentle & soft spoken .... ermed & ah-ed quite a bit as he spoke. He was very concerned about how the students at the school found the experience. (It was great fun!) This was back in my community radio days. Little did I know that this man was going to become so famous ... & die so soon. <sigh>
... & unfortunately his mural was painted with the cheapest of cheapest paints! That's what he suggested the (hardly rich) school buy. Graffiti was considered a momentary, transitory thing by Haring, himself. I drive past there now & think: <sigh> What a shame! Fading, fading, fading ....
That would be a great project for the school. A little history class and then they go repaint it. But I know how things go. What haring said about graffitti is the same way alot of artist see it, in fact most of them.
I just did a Google search to see if I could find a photograph of Keith's mural, Amigo. And have just discovered that the (decrepid!) building is due for demolition & I guess, redevelopment. So what happens to this fading mural is anyone's guess. BTW I left that school years ago. And it's long been closed down as a secondary school. It said something about Keith Haring that he responded to a request from a member of the school community to paint that mural at that time. There was absolutely nothing in it for him, financially. He was a very gentle & sincere person. That's my opinion & I was there & saw him in the process of creating this work.
Well, I guess thats that then. But thats the nature of the art form. The only people that own a part of it are the people that were involved in that place and time soon it will only be a memory. Great story.
If I were there I would take a bunch of graffiti guys out to repaint it right before they demo'ed it. We do weird stuff like that.
My main recollections of the experience (I'm an art teacher & took all my classes out to watch) is this scissor lift going up & down, his ghetto blaster & the music & his complete involvement in what he was doing. And, of course, my later interview with him. And my students asking things like: "What is he doing, miss? What is it for?"
He seemed to be in a world of his own as he worked.
And when spoken to about what he was doing, he seemed very shy.
graffiti art
traveling from new orleans last year on a train i met a young man who was a 'graffiti artist" he told me, and was also being called back to Iraq for another deployment. he had a group of friends who did graffiti andhe was very proud of the work he did; telling me certain locations and, among those who do graffiti, it seems to get your work in very visible and varied locations around the country was akin to a major gallery show in the graffiti art culture. He was very talented and could have drawn in any manner he wanted to , probably, but it is sort of like political speech, which the most enduring art always is, ie; Guernica; the crucifixion, the 911 traveling quilt show. It gave me a new perception of graffiti art and just yesterday I saw a book at barnes and noble; "art of trains" . It is complicated and thoughful in it's best form. It reminds me of a pinball show I saw recently; with the machines and also the drawings for the machine back panels and the schematic play field drawings; a combination of design, engineering, and beautifully drawn graphics. That show pointed out to me that the pinball designers had been displaced by the video game animators,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and the how quickly in time an art form can develop and then die out...
So, back to the graffiti.........enjoy it for the expression and the spontaneity of it, as soon it will criminalized to such an extent it will die out. Have you never sat at a railroad crossing looking at a row of boring container cars, when a drawing comes by that makes you smile?
zincwhite, What a great little piece of writing! You just summed up the whole thing beautifully. I don't even know what to say after that except thanks.
Yeh, amigo, I love and hate graffiti. I don't love it on my back fence that I built myself. That is totally invasive, primitively invasive. Saying a v13 or whatever scrawl is art is very f/ked. No way.
I was happy with it on Venice Pavillion (which I once lived across the street from, in the old St. Charles Hotel on Windward.).
I have, as they say, issues, mostly re territorial claiming. Often like the art of it. Sometimes hate the non art of it.
Yea, I messed up. I should have called the thread "graffiti art" not just "graffiti". I Hate graffiti to.
ossobuco wrote:Yeh, amigo, I love and hate graffiti. I don't love it on my back fence that I built myself. That is totally invasive, primitively invasive. Saying a v13 or whatever scrawl is art is very f/ked. No way.
I was happy with it on Venice Pavillion (which I once lived across the street from, in the old St. Charles Hotel on Windward.).
I have, as they say, issues, mostly re territorial claiming. Often like the art of it. Sometimes hate the non art of it.
It's called "Graff" or "Graff art", short of course for Graffiti. This term now seperates the two, The graffiti (vandalism) from Graff (art). Of course there is always the issue of the "eye of the beholder", but I know were not going to get into that. An artitist by the name of Banksy just had a show in L.A. that was a very big success. I have a link to him (or her) in this thread.
These artist are the next in line in the history of art in my opinion.
Hi Msolga!!! Very nice to see you. Iv'e been very very busy. Travelling the country (working) And i'm helping this rich artist build a gallery in his own house on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It's very lonely and boring here and I can't sleep.
I still remember that great story you told me about Keith H#$ring (spelling ?).
