Hiding behind my hair

Graffiti & Street Art is something I love to see when traveling to a big city and it has come a long way from what it use to be. It has helped beautify buildings & neighborhoods that once were ignored, if done in a positive way. The caption “Creative Vandalism” says alot, but should it be Vandalism? I think that’s where we need to put things in perspective. This art intrigues me especially because it was never intended to appeal to everyone, which in my opinion makes it – “Out of the Box!”

When I first started this post I was just going to show different works of Graffiti that I liked, then mentioning a bit about the artist, etc. yet when I started researching I ended up finding out so much more about the differences between Graffiti & Street Art and what the Artists feelings were behind them.

In one Bloggers statement about the difference:
“…….Most graffiti artists are self taught, street artists come straight out of art school. Graffiti is a lifestyle,  Street Art is a trend…..” https://tag-line.blogspot.com/2007/04/evaluations-debates-and-comparisons.html

What do Graffiti Artists feel about Street Art?  Most aren’t crazy about Street Art.  They wonder why Street Artists get “Preferential Treatment” when for years they have been slandered & arrested.  Many are angered because Street Artists are often hired to place their art over Graffiti and they feel it is a form of “disrespect” from one artist to another.

Street Artists don’t seem to have the same feelings.  Because most are commissioned, they feel it’s a job they were hired to do and they need to do their job. They have great respect for Graffiti and the Artists that create them, Graffiti started it all.  Street Artists feel Street Art is considered a “Cross over Medium.”

There has been a big debate on bringing Graffi indoors and into Museums and I’m not sure about that.  I think…………everyday people in everyday life should have daily exposure to art in all forms.    To see and feel someone’s creativity.  I read this quote that I really liked in a Time Magazine article on Graffiti.  This is what it said:  https://time.com/4743207/martha-cooper-subway-graffiti

In the brief annals of street-art history, graffiti ranks as something like cave painting–a first gesture, recognized for its primal intuition that public space is up for grabs–and has, in the past four or so years, been overtaken by a host of new practices: wheat-pasted posters, adhesive stickers with oddball images on them, elaborately stenciled images and even three-dimensional objects. And like many things that start below the Establishment’s radar, it has caught the eye of the mainstream and is edging into the galleries. Quote
From Takin’ It To The Streets
By Richard Lacayo

I have always wondered what Graffiti artists see in their heads before they pick up that first can of spray paint, stick of chalk, ink etc.  Do they like other types of art too?   Host 18 of DYM said:

“………people  feel that we are Art Haters.  This is completely not the case.  We all go to Art Shows and Museums often.  We are Artists ourselves so of course we respect and have great appreciation for art.   But we are from the streets and the streets have unwritten rules…..”

Writing this post has made me appreciate Graffiti, Street Art and the People and Voices that go with them  in a whole new light.  I hope you do too………

Here are my favorites: