I thought misspelling words and adding z's in place of s's would do the trick in giving me street credibility. Except, I grew up in suburbia. But that's neither here nor there...
All I know is when it comes to appreciating good art, where I grew up matters not.
That's why I was elated to be invited to a Hip Hop Festival, complete with graffiti art, in a "rough" neighborhood of San Diego (the roughness is questionable after seeing certain areas of Detroit and Los Angeles).
The festival was being put on by Writerz Blok, an organization that realized a need in the community and provided an outlet. In their words, "In 1999, illegal graffiti was a problem in San Diego...most of the defacement was done by youth looking for a place to express themselves. The decision was made to start a program aimed at steering the youth away from illegal vandalism and towards learning the art of graffiti."
So, Writerz Blok provided 10,000 sq. ft. of paintable space for the kidz (like that?) to go wild.
The result is masterful.
Sketches in this man's black book--a book where graffiti designs are tested out before putting them on walls.
Lainey and Shane dancing to some hip hop. hehe.
Graffiti is certainly not my favorite art, but I can't help but be fascinated by the craftsmanship and attention to detail in these pieces; moreover, I love watching art while it is in process.
These catz got skillzzzzz.
Alright, I'll stop now. But I never allow myself to misspell words, so this is kind of addictive!
I'm a huge fan of graffiti (and of adding "z" to the end of words to make me look gangsta). So, this post was right up my alley. :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a cool project. We have a building in Chatt that's been taken over by local artists as a canvas too. It's beautiful!! I say, viva la graffiti!
skillz, with a z, haha :) i'm glad you like the mumford album, yah...it's pretty epic.
ReplyDeleteI love graffiti!! That is such a great idea. They do something similar in Canberra, though on a much smaller scale, and it has worked really well.
ReplyDeleteInteresting... agree that it's a fascinating art. There's always been a small part of me that's wanted to be good at that (the seemingly sloppy look yet actually meticulous).
ReplyDeleteA group of us art types were discussing graffiti (or vandalism) the other night. Or, really, the fine line between tagging and street art. Actually, I'm a big fan if the writer's got the talent. If not, put the paint down because you're just destroying property. But if you're ever in the Art section of your favorite bookstore look for one of the Piecebooks. Very cool stuff.
ReplyDeleteoh wow! some fierce graffiti!
ReplyDeleteYo! Hehe, that's as far as I'm going down that road. Sounds great though! I saw a really interesting documentary on grafitti last year, which I've unfortunately forgotten the name of... it was about tagging trains and so on in brooklyn in the 70s/80s though.
ReplyDelete