one be gone, once begun.

Sunday was spent helping my friends Sage and Tim prepare for the overloads of questions and comments that were to be exchanged during their baby shower that afternoon. Since they are not yet married, extremely unconventional in the terms of upper class New England folk, this shower turned into a somewhat wedding-reunion for both of their families and close friends. Upon our late arrival, everyone exchanged hellos with fists full of crab wantons and mimosa enhanced smiles. I’m pretty sure the baby boy in Sage’s belly moved more than she did that afternoon.

I leaned against the bar and discussed the alcoholic tendencies of the Romanians with an old friend who volunteered there and offered to buy sage’s underage brother a drink mid-conversation.

It was a somewhat escape to think about a new life as opposed to an old one; someone entering the world in place of others who are leaving.

I’m just hoping the stuffed animal I bought proves to be the one he still holds onto into his late twenties.

dead on arrival

I arrived at the airport in Manchester, NH last Saturday after what felt like an eight hour plane ride, and rushed like cold air from a fire to the curbside pickup. Half an hour later my dad’s girlfriend pulled up to get me with a bag of granola and an Evian water bottle. The car smelt like potpourri and I forced myself towards polite conversation. It took about forty-five minutes before I could stop using my smile to form some sort of comfort in our interaction. I sat in the clam shack for an hour and thought about the war it had taken my dad to gain residency in this building.




Finally he is able to use a piece of history to continue his, and provide for us. While the only shower we can use is still 3 miles down the road inside the local gym, it’s a place to sleep and keep warm and even holds space to store a few different types of alcohol in the mini fridge.
Whenever I see my dad, which continues to amount to two to three times a year, it usually goes one of two ways.



The way I prefer to visit him is in a belly-full-of-wine state, happy and sarcastic, hungry and laughing; somewhat similar to Santa Clause with humor too vulgar for a nine year old. When he’s like this, it makes things a lot easier for me. The conversation creates bullets that are dodge-able and most of our car rides consist of the Beatles and a significant close in our father-daughter generation gap.



This trip went the other way.

aside from verbally, i did however, get my graffiti.

so, beans.

This saturday i'll be heading up to Boston for a few days. This is not only going to be a vacation, it's going to be a breather. Big gulp. I've been planning this trip for a while because my best friend is having a baby shower the sunday of my trip, but it couldn't have come at a better time.

While i'm up there rubbing bellies, and in complex conversation with my father, I will be checking out some of the local street work in and around the Boston area. As I have slowly moved forward in collecting pictures of work around Tampa, It won't be until I get back with the Boston pictures that I will be able to compare the styles, crews, and messeges.

So, I only get to go up there from saturday until tuesday afternoon because I had to pick up all these extra hours at work, but it's been a while since I've been able to sleep in and just relax.I'll be posting pictures soon!

H.idden I.n V.iolence

In differentiating the sub-cultures behind graffiti, I have learned to associate artists in either groups of gang-related territory markers, or corresponding artists with messages-positive/negative-of promotion, politics, life, etc.

Here is another group of graffiti artists, however, that are taking the streets as non-gang affiliated creators, who are lashing out against the negativity of gang-related work.
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/) provides an article on a group of individuals who mark over gang related graffiti in ways that deface their messages in hopes of embarrassing gang members and helping them in a direction of disassociation.

The article provides examples of their aims for change:

So a stealth group is secretly changing gang graffiti in an effort to make
gangsters look foolish and provoke debate among gangsters. For example, members of the group might change the
"XIV" gang tag into "HIV." SEM might be mocked as super ecological morons. VGS
might be edited to stand for violent gangsters suck.

Personally, I don’t believe any gang member would proudly be associated with HIV, or the idea that “violent gangsters suck”.
It is important to note that the article ends with an attempted disclaimer:

To be clear, police said vandalism on top of vandalism is still a crime. But his
group hopes that the ridicule will spur gang members to realize there is no
reason to be proud of their affiliation.

However, this may be the defining line between acceptable and unacceptable graffiti works.

"grime" and punishment

Issues revolving around graffiti as an art form are tackled on a daily basis and discussed by artists and non-artists alike as either a form of art, or a form of vandalism. Definitions of graffiti are not only redefined each day, with each visual seen, painted, painted over, etc. but also stem from the perspectives we hold as individuals. The wealthy business owner might not carry the same views on graffiti as the stay at home mom. One might even be surprised at some of the views stereotyped individuals carry outside of their defined roles. So, if we have difficulty defining it, how do we punish it?

I recently read an article on a man from Port Richmond, N.Y. who was sentenced with 6 months in jail, 5 years on probation, $2, 900 in fees and 100 hours of community service for etching graffiti marks into 10 different bus shelters along Capodanno blvd. The article did not provide information on how he was caught or how police knew of his past history with graffiti, but it did provide two interesting quotes taken from the mouth of District Attorney Daniel Donovan:

“Let there be no confusion: Graffiti vandalism is a
quality-of-life crime committed against our entire community and will be
prosecuted accordingly,” said District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

“For any aspiring graffiti vandals seeking fame by vandalizing property, let me
assure you there is no glory in a felony conviction and taking residence on
Rikers Island.”

It is obvious Donovan’s opinion on the issue at hand.

I was interested, following this article, in understanding the type of punishment received by Edward M. Chimera (the artist/defacer discussed above). Is it fair for him to have been sentenced to six months just because he scratched his name into a few bus stations that were probably run down anyways? Or is the punishment necessary in order to control violent outbursts of gang related graffiti signaled by other artists that it may be ok.

In trying to come to answer these questions, I looked up common causes for 6 month sentences, and according to google, other people in the 6 month sentence category, engage in battery and assault, have sex with picnic tables, lie about taking performance-enhancing drugs, and become involved in drag racing that ends in death.

How are we able to place all of these unique incidents into a time frame, and is graffiti equivalent to battery?

what do you mean?

Here are some stencil pieces we found around USF. As for possible meanings, im not sure, it's up to your interpretations:
When "i'm going to murder you and your children" and "the widdle baybee waybee" meet:

werd:

Jeb? I dunno, but he's in the butts:

Black and white cookie, even though she hardly eats:

I'm just glad we're not considered sheep:

M.issing B.ut A.ctive

About a week ago I decided to employ my friends advanced picture-taking abilities to capture some of the artwork around campus that has not yet been painted over, torn down, scraped away.
here are some of the pictures we took:
First some "Bombing":




Notice, by means of the S symbol, that the next two pictures are of the same name in two different places:





Multiple names in one spot:



and lastly:



Next time, i'll provide stencil work.

lets take this to the streets

I recently found information on a Seattle based artist who goes by the name of the "Chicken Kid" spreading his work around the U.S. by means of an oddly skewed version of a chicken as well as other awkwardly drawn visuals. The chicken kid exposes a street style unique to the outside street art world, and with it he spreads his name across states in the most peculiar places. He places his drawings anywhere from the backboard of a basketball hoop, to the high-rise of a city bridge, and also has the capability to compose large scale drawings on the street which is difficult mainly because you are not able to see the drawing as a whole while you are working on it, but in piece by piece phases instead. I believe the backbone of the chicken kid stems from his ability to produce in studio art as well, targeting different audiences with different techniques that involve similar subjects. He continuously stays true to what brought his name up between a group of teens at breakfast, or in an old couple’s conversation mid power walk. He produces what he is known for, but provides style changes to experiment and blanket his work over social diversity.
For the Chicken Kid’s inside work he provides a collection of stick figure comic drawings, digitally composed work, and a folder of various mediums he labels “analog” to provide an underlying meaning or cause in their presentation.

His organization has provided him with an entire website or his work where you can not only buy paintings, etc. but t-shirts as well.

I enjoy his humor in the places he chooses to expose his work.

Another anonymous

The afternoon had an odd tinge in its daylight. I walked in with a look of knowing something might be wrong, and pretending I didn't. You were sitting in a white wicker chair leaning your elbows on the glass porch table when every day before that you had always sat back into its dying blue cussion. I watched your panicked eyes drill the tops of your knees as if they provided some sort of answer, and i smiled. What could possibly be this bad that I had to drive an hour home to watch your mouth move when you told me?
You were holding my step-dad's hand, the one i had hated for years but who i had suddenly felt an ease with because of his upright position, structured with a sighing compassion.
I sat down and threw my feet up on the table. The chair felt unforgiving agaisnt my curved back, and still you wouldn't look at me, you didn't say a word.
So you are my mother, and our relationship was different in the year following your divorce. I walked you through your packs of cigarettes and the days you starved, laying back into the rocking chair creaking in the echos of the oversized chimney. I siffoned life through your fingertips when all you could mumble was death and sunken cries.
Four years later and all my stingy mind could focus on was you falling back into your 'no way out'.
Turns out it's cancer, turns out theres more to worry about than your husband cheating, then your kids failing. It turns out life is more important after all.

The good people

In the 22 years I have known this place, I’ve never seen the city come together more than the weekend after you were gone.
And I’m sorry I took a chance on Tampa and failed. I’m sorry I came back only 7 months before you weren’t here anymore, and that I missed out on so many hugs, and that our sarcastic encounters never got as far as I would’ve wanted them to.

I see your brother around at night sometimes and he has your smile in his eyes. He hugs the same way you used to, but it’s different.
Sometimes I wish it would’ve been me and that the people I love wouldn’t be hurting so much, drinking so hard, getting angry at everything.
I’ll always have your face burned in my memory and your name will never be the end of our conversations.

You brought this town together in the most tragic way.

5:30 A.M.

I'm sorry for almost always having my eyes closed when you come by. I know it's been a while since we have seen eachother, and yet everytime you tick my clock off I ignore you and stay in bed. It's hard for me to do much when youre around, and I know you get lonely, but breakfast is never made yet and the air is always cold even after the hottest day of summer. I do see you more often then, however. I hope you notice the way my speach slurs on those mornings. I try and make an effort in smiling.

sick on my busiest day of the week

I've settled into my bed for most of the day trying to get the urge to stop coughing and start typing. For some reason around 8 oclock I had the most powerful idea I had come up with in 24 hours. So let’s talk about good things going wrong, because for some reason I thought going heavy on the vicks vapor rub would stop my coughing completely, and because of this, it took me a whole two minutes to stop my eyes from watering and still another fifteen for my chest to stop burning. The cough won this one.

I was wandering around the internet today with several punches to the keys and I came across an amazing site that completely encompasses the whole relationship between positive messages and graffiti art. The vibe I had the other day glowing around task and gues, once again shocked my energy enough for a few extra coughs. ok, not really, but I am extremely excited about this site.

The site is dedicated to a program which uses graffiti art in therapeutic form, to help stem the issues going on with angry teens who deface public property out of pure emotion and/or gang related violence. The program is directed by Dr. Janice Hashino and it's intentions are outlined on the site ( http://www.graffitiverite.com/graffitiartTherapy.htm) by Dr. Hashino as such:

This study investigates the therapeutic effectiveness of using art therapy in conjunction with graffiti art and culture in the treatment of socially-defiant adolescents who have been detained and/or put on probation for defacing public property with graffiti. A group of seven boys will participate in a six week Graffiti Art Therapy group facilitated by an art therapy graduate student and a legitimate graffiti artist/youth worker. T tests will be run on the Adolescent Treatment Outcomes Module (ATOM) pre to post to determine level of significance (p<.05). In addition, journals kept by participants provide data for a qualitative analysis of Graffiti Art Therapy treatment effectiveness.

This outline provides a basis for the intentions of the program and its hopeful ability to provide answers through art. What is interesting to me, is the idea of taking adolescents who have already gotten in trouble for graffiti and giving them a space where they are aloud to create more of it. This is a good way to observe and understand the emotions behind their work the effectiveness it may or may not have on the children who continue to speak out in negative ways, such as involving themselves in gangs.

Hopefully we can continue to see more programs like this, because every walk of life deserves a chance to be understood.


Awww.

interview part one.

Unfortunately, I’ve been sick all weekend and sound like a nine year old, but at least when you read this it will be in your own voice.

In this post I will go over the interview I had with gues and task. The conversation I had with these artists answered a lot of questions I had, myself, created very different possibilities for.

After immediate hellos, I climbed up onto a stool and placed my green folder on the high top table in the back room of the Dunedin brewery. There were four of us and a basket of pita bread hummus being picked at in the center of the sticker pressed table. I thanked task and gues for taking time to talk to me about their work and smiled at my friend sitting across from me, who made the interview possible. Graffiti, to me seems such a life decision similar to the FBI with its identity protecting aliases and the scarcity of details being told to anyone for fear of being found out. I was lucky to even know they own cans of spray paint.
I fired questions at them and took quick notes which piled onto my page in surprising form. They were so unbelievably positive about their work all the while creating for themselves a culture completely separate from that of the gang related street tagging. The bombing they do, which I immediately questioned the point of, is to gain recognition for their work, the more people who see their names somewhere the more likely they are to associate their street work with their alias. This shows other artists their progress in the art, as well as opening the eyes to on lookers who might not normally take an interest in this type of art. Gues asks me for a pen and paper and begins to draw his alias in graffiti style as he helps answer the rest of my questions. Most graffiti artists, including the two I sat in between, are affiliated with different groups, the name gues and task are under is DVK. This helps the people within a group gain recognition wherever one of the group members may live or visit. Groups form camaraderie across cities states and seas that represent a certain message, style and/or association thus reinforcing the idea of strength in numbers.
The ideal placement for their artwork, task when on, is on run down, abandoned buildings, something I found fitting to my answer in previous blogs. The reasons however were different from mine. Run down buildings are ideal because they hold the artwork longer. If task or gues or any other artist were to tag a newer building, the possibility of their artwork being removed would be higher. In tagging old buildings, more people will see their work because it will most likely be ignored by owners, authorities, etc. longer.

They went on with understanding that some places are just inappropriate creating a stronger tie to the average person in agreement that they wouldn’t want spray paint all over their house either.

Happy Birthday dad.

I was a little late meeting up with the artists because my pants took forever to dry, and I’m not lying when I say I own only one pair of pants that fit me the right way.

I ended up in a dress and leggings.

Ok, so where to begin? I’m going to go over the questions I tackled them with and leave you in suspense for a day to reveal the answers. I’m kind of nice like that.

-How did you get started, incentives, influences, exposure, etc.?
-Type of medium preferred?
-Messages behind your work?
-Placement? Based on audience?
-Illegality, does it make work more significant?
-Would you consider tagging a canvas- museum exhibit?

No, I didn’t ask them these questions in incomplete sentences, but you get the point.

So from now on I will be referring to them as task and gues, and they are apart of a larger group known as DVK.

I’ll leave you now with an update to your vocabulary bank:
Bombing- getting your tag name up on a wall as quickly as possible

when your windshield wipers don't work

Just about fifteen minutes ago I was jogging painfully down the street with a friend and all I could feel was the mucus dripping down the back of my throat the way it did when I was eight and my mother would put a tissue to my nose and tell me to blow.

But that’s not what this entry is about.

I feel a bit derailed these days so stay with me, hopefully at some point I’ll make a stop you’ll enjoy.

I’m meeting with a couple of local artists tomorrow to ask them some questions about their works and basically whatever I am confused or interested by at this point. I’ll work tonight on getting a list of questions together so that I might seem to know a little bit about what I’ll be discussing. I want them to be interested in the conversation too, ya know? Things tend to get a bit more interesting that way.

Next week I’ll be posting pictures. One of my friends does a lot of photography so she’s going to help me take pictures of art that seems to fit the bill in the interesting or meaningful category around Tampa.
Sometimes I can’t wait to get out of this area. Well, usually I mean.

So on that note, I’m also working to get my way into the Peace Corps. It’s almost funny to me how many people have negative reactions to that, like they don’t think I’m capable. I know it’s secretly because they’ll really miss me and don’t want me to do something they’re too scared to make a part of their lives. Or maybe they just don’t think I can do it, well at least my mom believes in me. I have the e-mails of two significant people at this point. One is an older guy who has already done his time in the Philippians, and the other is a girl about my age who has already been accepted and is waiting now until departure.

So, it will be like a before and after, knowing of course that everyone’s experience is unique to the individual.

Well at least I’ll always have Vietnam.


Stay tuned for some ART!.

Somewhat beginnings

I haven't had internet all week, so i've been trying to get around that and start my research on street art. 

Last thursday I had a conversation over a few strong cocktails with a stencil artist(ill go into the process more next time) that lives in the area and he's willing to give me information about the art and hopefully ill get to know him a bit better through his works and what he wants people to understand. So, him and his friend will potentially provide me with stencil perspectives in small town voices. 

Going back to the strong cocktails, i had a hard time concentrating on our conversation but i did get a cocktail napkin scribbled on with ink out of it. i found this napkin in my pocket when i woke up the next morning in the same clothes, diagonally across my bed. Two out of four of the links he gave me worked out and they've actually proven to be pretty interesting. 

The first one is more of an informational site, providing artists with a place for posting their works, interacting with viewers/suppliers etc. The site has an online store for urban-art related clothing, which for the most part means graffiti stamped t's. This site, while interesting, definitely seems a lot more main stream than some of the other sites i've been looking at. It's interesting to see how artists interact when their work is exposed, it feels like a wholesome 1950s housewife smoking crack with a black sabbath record on....a little unnatural.  anyways, they do updates so heres the site if you're interested:

www.urbnfabrik.com

The second site (StencilRevolution.com) is a less organized discussion board site anyone can join where people discuss images and techniques. This site was a lot more informal and it provides a place for artists just starting out to interact with ones who have been in the game for years.

so i registered .. i'll get to see how friendly the neighborhood is.

stepping

one of the sites i've been going to for updated info on stenciling and other projects in jacksonville, fl had a link to this.

it's set up to make people believe that if graffiti is in sight, then you're probably gonna die.

erase 

erase 

erase.

wouldn't it be more helpful to try and understand it, than to just shove it into a category of young teens and backpacks full of illegal medium?

ok, so pretty much the root of the problem is the graffiti, and not the anger or bad situations that limit kids to gangs and violence. 

no, gangs are cool, just don't paint on my property.

my cement, the grass i turned into concrete. The land i took away... 

  

Question

As money is put into the development of cities, and buildings become old with the erection of new ones, the urban art scene is provided with additional concrete for placement of expression. Laws are binding however, and graffiti artists are continually being fined, amongst other repercussions, for the way they choose to express themselves on abandoned buildings, dirty bridges, etc. So when is it ok to get your message across on public property? It may be understandable for an artist to get fined when their expression leaks onto new material. When the city has put money into the erection of a new building, that building may be an expression of the architect who designed and/or constructed it, and when is it ever ok for one artist infringe upon another’s work?

At some point however, old work can become new, it can become more appreciated by a developing society and turn into a message of currency to be understood and not ignored.
I don’t believe that artists should be punished for turning something, such as an abandoned building, that is taken for granted (or in this case granite) into something that can be appreciated or at least raise some sort of question in the mind of a person that on a regular day might have walked right by it.

Then again maybe it is the potential of being caught doing something illegal that validates the point the artist is trying to make?

prospectus

My involvement in blogging is minimal; however, through this type of composition, I am hoping to venture my way towards becoming involved in the urban street art community. I have been closely involved with art of many mediums since I was in grade school and continue to keep track of my life by the led end of a 3B pencil.

I’m interested here in exposing myself, and potentially others, to a broad variety of new mediums that gain most of their exposure through the use and “abuse” of public property such as: wheat pasting, graffiti, reverse graffiti, installation, etc. My interaction with bloggers within this community will become crucial, and the kind which will hopefully create a strongly informative relationship, if not just a subject developing conversation.

The allure of urban street art is what developed my disposable camera throughout visits to France and Canada and has in turn stimulated my interest in the influence, opinions and controversial messages being expressed by the artist through his/her work. I am especially interested in the effect this type of art has on the public. Is the message they’re intending to send getting out to the correct audience? Or is it simply just pissing people off? Because street art has such a largely diverse audience, I want to work in comparing this type of urban art to the same style of art displayed in a gallery or a controlled environment.

What kinds of recognition does either of these art forms get?

Which has more of an impact on society?

I will be looking at blogs acquainted with both types of urban art and compare them to answer such questions.

Where I’ll begin is to analyze the major mediums used in this type of art. Why certain mediums are used to express individual issues, when one medium is used over another, which medium is more effective in its response from the public, etc.? This is going to involve a lot of research on particular current events, from the large scale to the small scale.

The interaction part of my blogging is mostly going to come from my interest in the public’s reaction and/or relationship with the artwork that is being produced. What is their interest in the works, what is their interpretation, and how much do they understand of the message the work is trying to get across. Does the attitude of the artist affect their response from the audience?

I found a few blogs which deal with specific areas/cities including one from Jacksonville, Florida graffiti artists, and one based in Berlin and the graffiti being produced over there. This will help me to understand how different cultures, societies, and politics may influence the artwork and/or reaction to it. This will also help me add a bit of my interest in travel into my blogging with a focus in art.

Some of the outside research for my blogging I want to get involved in begins with stencil graffiti of my own, in a legal way of coarse (?). I’ll take time talk to local street artists around Tampa and Boston, and explore the artwork within these two cities and how they may respond to issues going on around each area. I can also update pictures and compare them to ones updated on the blog sites I’m reading. The interaction I have with the other bloggers may help to open up the underground art scene and give a better understanding of how, when, where and why it exists, as well as what can perpetuate or stop it, etc.

I ultimately want to answer the question I, myself, am curious to answer: Is street art effective in provoking, stimulating and/or challenging for the human mind? And does it ultimately produce change? I want to see how these artists have developed their expression throughout history, and what they are doing now to break barriers and recreate standards.