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.