Art Segregation

One scene in the video "Style Wars" that we watched today especially moved me. Three gentleman sat quietly and diligently working in their black books after speaking to the interviewer. It reminded me so much of sitting with fellow art students to work on homework assignments. Each of these artists has some understanding of drawing technique, perspective, color, and other painting skills which should command admiration.

Young people were shown collaborating in the streets, sharing their artistic strengths and knowledge with one another. They frequently stood back from their work and responded to it, until they reached a visual solution which they were pleased with. These activities are taught and praised in art school. I feel terribly sorry for these individuals who put so much genuine effort into their creations, only to have them misunderstood and slandered by society. Clearly, there is a huge need for greater art programs in schools.

As many documentaries have mentioned, graffiti is quite the perfect outlet for creative young people  who wish to express themselves and interact with their surroundings. While the illegality of it is debatable, it is a nonviolent crime which also provides an outlet to young people who are attracted to the thrill of defying authority.

These people possess talent and passion which could translate into a new generation of artists and appreciators. Typography and Painting are huge areas of the art world. It is such a shame to see typographic graffiti paintings dismissed and segregated from other forms of artistic expression.

Where are the Animal Rights Artists?

Being an animal rights activist, I have been searching for animal rights street artists and it seems they are few and far between. In fact, the closest thing I could find to an animal rights street artist is the street artist "Roa". Roa, a Belgian street artist, does massive black and white depictions of wild animals, often rats and crows. Many of his animals are depicted as corpses, but this seems to symbolize the transcience of city life over animal rights themes.
Other info: ROA first exhibitted in 2010 in Paris, and has sincshown his work around the world. He also aquires permission to paint all of his works on others' buildings. His paintings take up to 8 hours, so doing a quick illegal painting is not an option.
Some of Roa's work
Lenticular Street Art by Roa

I was interested in ROA's painting process, which results in paintings which look alot like drawings or prints taken right out of a sketchbook. It seems he takes a pretty traditional approach by painting directly on walls.

Why is Quik up there?

Quik was named to the list of top 10 graffiti artists to know, and frankly I'm confused. He seems to lack most of the technical skill and color handling of others on the list and many included not on the list (I find Roid to be a great example of a very skilled and gifted graffiti artist).

Here we see one of Quik's most famous works. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I see quite a bit of poor or amateur paint handling. The Letters creating his name lack the crisp lines and smoothly curving shapes created by other artists. The fill colors are muddied and Quik has added some poorly drawn stars and swirls which do more harm to the composition than good. Quik has done a much better job of handling the outline of the baby's body, but I question why he included this thin outlining on only this small section of the piece. The eyes and hair lack the outline and appear very rough and fuzzy. In fact, the orange "shadows" in the hair appear rather randomly placed and do little to create dimenion within the hair.

Quik is credited (WHERE?) with beginning the fad(?) of including a face within the first (and other) letters of his name.    Maybe this is where his fame came from? Though in honesty, these faces did not impress me. They look like they could also use some further practice and development.

Here he is ranked #30 out of 50

Quik's site

Here are examples of Roid's work. He is named to several lists, including the top 10 and top 25 graffiti artists, on outside sites

Graffiti, Defacement, and Tourism

Over the weekend I read an article about the graffiti defacement of the Egyptian Temple of Luxor by a young Chinese tourist. The event sparked alot of internet rage, but it is nothing new to the world of art defacement.
Luxor Temple article on Hufington Post

Apparently, a similar event occured earlier in 2013 in Beijing's Palace Museum when a tourist carved a similar graffiti message into an iron jar on display. (unfortunately, a news article could not be found)

Just 2 days ago (on May 27th), 2 war memorials in London were defaced by Islamic graffiti in the wake of the Lee Rigby murder.
London War Memorials Defaced

 My search also led me to find a defacement story with a different tourism twist.
An artist in Barcelona has become a spearhead in the campaign against the constant influx of tourists to the area. At night the artist will spray lines down the streets to divide them into lanes for Barcelonians and the unwanted tourists. It happens so frequently, that the city halls sends workmen out to cover the paint daily.

Fighting tourists with street art 

My head is spinning after this film

THIS GUY.

I find the name Mr. Brainwash to be ironic as I observed the human behavior displayed in the film, "Exit Through the Gift Shop". Mr. Brainwash himself seems brainwashed into believing that he is still an artist by the time he names himself. The beauty of this film lies in the vast questions it poses in regards to what art is and what defines an artist. Originally, Thierry seemed to be creating something artistic and raw in his filming, but it was by accident. The accident that is Thierry's obsession with capturing life on video tape is a "happy accident" which lends itself to a mostly genuine film about street art. It is very interesting to analyze Thierry as an artist this early in the film. I cannot condone that Thierry is absolutely producing the film because he has a passion for street art. Most of his passion still lies in simply carrying a camera around with him. He somewhat unintentionally captures a masterful assortment of artistic footage. However, if the footage was captured instead by someone who had an absolute interest in street art and none in film, then the capturing process may have suffered. One must also consider most film makers, whose passion lies in actually producing videos. They are considered artists even when they have no interest in the subject they are shooting.
These considerations led me to create the beginnings of definitions of what art is and what an artist is in my own opinion. I believe the best artists have a passion for the images/messages they create as well as a love for and a mastery of the process of creating their images.
Near the end of the film, we see Thierry attempt to become an iconic street artist. However he seems to lack passion in any category of art-making. His passion at this point seems to be focused on becoming an icon using others' methods. He is able to take credit for other artists' work which is mass produced. He comes up with strange ideas for images which imply some deep concept, but truly are just strange mixtures of other artists' iconic images and topics of pop culture. His strategy disgusts me as a fine artist and yet he is praised by all of his brainwashed followers. His story is not unlike many famous artists, actors, filmmakers, and others.
Why is it that people so easily give their attention (and money) to icons rather than true artists? Perhaps having a piece of art made by a well known figure is validating to buyers. Many buyers know nothing about the piece of art, but rely on the fame of the artist as proof that there is something extraordinary about the piece. Modern art criticism and museums seem to go along with this ritual of iconography. But who is to blame? Scam artists or the  gullible population that pays outrageous amounts for bad artwork?
Street art in general is based on iconography, but as we see in the film, there are true artists who push to make political statements to promote change. In my Street Art class I  hope to learn to find the beauty in graffiti which I never truly appreciated before.