Political Graffiti

When you think of graffiti and street art, politics is probably one of the last things that comes to mind. There seems to be a complete disconnect between the two realms.

Because of the illicit nature of graffiti, a can of paint and a brush are impractical while spatial considerations may make a pen or pencil ineffective. To accomodate the need for size, visibility, speed, and convenience, the ideal vehicle is the sray-can, which combines medium and applicator into one relatively small parcel that is easily concealed, transportable, easy to use; spray-paint may be applied to most surfaces. Different sized nozzles are used to achieve various effects, for example, a thin line as opposed to a wide band of paint. Where spray paint is not used or available, almost anything may serve as substitute: the aforementioned pen, pencil, paint and brush, as well as chisels, knives, felt-tip markers, blood, or even a finger on a dirty wall or window. Most media used for etching, sketching, painting, marking or writing can be adapted to such a purpose.

Because it is impossible to limit or regulate the resources that are available, graffiti as an art form and expressive medium is expandable, flexible, and difficult to control. The graffiti medium constitutes an open channel for its users to manipulate and mould to suit their needs. It represents a type of discontinuous communicative strategy through which people can engage in a visual dialogue which does not rely on face-to-face interaction or necessary knowledge of the writers' identities.

Individualized or popular graffiti include bathroom wall marking (latrinalia), signatures, proclamations of love, witty comments in response to advertisements, and any number of individual, political, or social commentary (folk epigraphy). In general these graffiti have no affiliation beyond the scope of the individual. It is close to impossible to locate their source.

Communities that produce graffiti (as opposed to the individual "scribbler") may target cryptic messages toward their own closed community, producing a seemingly confusing and unreadable product. The writers may not sign their real names; they instead employ the use of nicknames, codes, and symbols within stylized aesthetic systems. This type of graffiti is geared toward people who already understand the messages and may act to enhance group solidarity. Such graffiti can easily be elevated to the category of "art form" because the symbolic codes, generalized content, and aesthetic features of community-based graffiti usually outlast the duration of an individual's membership within the community. If a community's ideological focus is geared toward the larger society or the politics of the larger state, graffiti messages usually lack cryptic symbolism, make use of the national language, and retain a more straightforward aesthetic style.

An example of this cross-culturally prevalent genre of graffiti, political graffiti may combine with other artistic and expressive forms, such as poster and comic book production, mural painting, newspaper and pamphlet production, and political art exhibitions. The marks may represent the work of unrecognized or underground political groups, radical student movements, or simply dissatisfied individuals. Political graffiti may also arise from sudden emergency situations (e.g. riots) or in response to concurrent political legislation and party politics. Although concerned with state politics, the groups that produce this type of graffiti generally comprise some"subcultural" elements and may make wide use of symbols to further internally relevant quests for power and solidarity.

Women Graffiti Artist

Graffiti has existed since people first drew images on cave walls. Some researchers view graffiti as “a form of communication that is both personal and free of everyday social restraints.” Others call it “part childish prank, part adult insult.” To many, it is simply vandalism. But whatever you call it, graffiti attracts the attention of linguists, art critics, anthropologists and gender experts.

Graffiti, which originated in Philadelphia, is a global phenomenon. In his book, Graffiti Women: Street Art from Five Continents, Nicholas Ganz shares the work of women artists from South America to Australia, South Africa to Sweden, Europe to Asia. The preface to over 1,000 images is telling. “Unlike a girl, a male writer’s reputation or identity rests upon his graffiti, not his sexual activities, his demonstrations of masculinity, not his passive physicality. At the end of the day, he occupies a sphere that grants him a presence, a competitive force and an opportunity to be recognized. That sphere would seem to be a much harder place for a woman to occupy,” writes Nancy Macdonald, author of The Graffiti Subculture.

Graffiti researchers have often found themselves in restrooms, where women feel free and safe to write. “It’s the ultimate place to purge,” notes one researcher. But most people interested in graffiti, like documentary filmmaker Jon Reiss, have focused on surfaces outside of public restrooms. His 2007 film “Bomb It” explored the explosion of graffiti culture throughout the world and raised critical questions about public space and “the war being waged for it.”

Lady Pink now works with schools teaching young artists. Her work appears in gallery and museum shows. “The purpose of graffiti,” she says, “is to maintain the spirit of rebellion in society. It’s important that young artists are questioning the status quo and thinking outside the box. Who says art belongs inside galleries and must be seen in silence? Why not on the street where everyone can do it?”

There is greater gender balance and increased tolerance for street art today. Women feel safer and there appear to be fewer legal implications, although some argue that sanctions are still tough. Still, says Lady Pink, writers seek the thrill and excitement that comes with writing on forbidden spaces. “To decriminalize it would take all the fun out of it!”

Graffiti

When riding the light rail to the Univeristy of Colorado's Auraria campus, you will pass at least thirty signs of graffiti. Grafitti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is any type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings.

This form of art has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. In modern times, spray paint, normal paint and markers have become the most commonly used materials. In most countries, defacing property with graffiti without the property owner's consent is considered vandalism, which is punishable by law. Sometimes graffiti is employed to communicate social and political messages. To some, it is an art form worthy of display in galleries and exhibitions; to others it is merely vandalism. Graffiti has since evolved into a pop culture existence often related to underground hip hop music and b-boying creating a lifestyle that remains hidden from the general public. Graffiti is used as a gang signal to mark territory or to serve as an indicator or 'tag' for gang-related activity.

The controversies that surround graffiti continue to create disagreement amongst city officials/ law enforcement and graffitists looking to display their work in public locations. There are many different types and styles of graffiti and it is a rapidly developing artform whose value is highly contested, being reviled by many authorities while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same jurisdiction." One of the most famous pictures of our new president was made from graffiti in his home town. The author was not shoned upon but praised for capturing the beauty of the president.

Graffiti is not always "bad" or always "pretty". Like an other art form, graffiti is coming from the heart, the core of the artist. Some graffiti expresses what the artist has went through, or what they are going through Like music, they want their art to relate to their art. On the light rail you see "End the War." It is their way of freedom of speech just on YOUR property.

One of the most unqiue forms of graffiti is the illusion. Illusions can be made anywhere but having a graffiti illusion in your face is unlike anything you have ever seen before. They can show you near a fall, an animal eating a baby, almost anything imaginable!

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

In art and in society, we commonly hear that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Ugly artwork may show that we do not want to see, or what is not common for us to see in everyday; ie a woman a mustache. It can be callde ugly if we do not understand it or it is not easily intepreted.

For a long time critics of modern and postmodern art have relied on the 'Isn't that disgusting' strategy. By that I mean the strategy of pointing out that given works of art are ugly, trivial, or in bad taste, that 'a five-year-old could have made them,' and so on. And they have mostly left it at that. The points have often been true, but they have also been tiresome and unconvincing—and the art world has been entirely unmoved. Of course, the major works of the twentieth-century art world are ugly. Of course, many are offensive. Of course, a five-year old could in many cases have made an indistinguishable product. Those points are not arguable—and they are entirely beside the main question. The important question is: Why has the art world of the twentieth-century adopted the ugly and the offensive? Why has it poured its creative energies and cleverness into the trivial and the self-proclaimedly meaningless?

It is easy to point out the psychologically disturbed or cynical players who learn to manipulate the system to get their fifteen minutes or a nice big check from a foundation, or the hangers-on who play the game in order to get invited to the right parties. But every human field of endeavor has its hangers-on, its disturbed and cynical members, and they are never the ones who drive the scene. The question is: Why did cynicism and ugliness come to be the game you had to play to make it in the world of art?"

Artist Quotes

"All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.
::: Eckhart Tolle :::
I'm painting an idea not an ideal. Basically I'm trying to paint a structured painting full of controlled, and therefore potent, emotion.
::: Euan Uglow :::
I've never believed in God, but I believe in Picasso.
::: Diego Rivera :::
I dream a lot. I do more painting when I'm not painting. It's in the subconscious.
::: Andrew Wyeth :::
At moments of great enthusiasm it seems to me that no one in the world has ever made something this beautiful and important.
::: M.C. Escher :::
I am essentially a painter of the kind of still life composition that communicates a sense of tranquillity and privacy, moods which I have always valued above all else.
::: Giorgio Morandi :::
A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing.
::: William Dobell :::
The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.
::: Banksy :::
To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.
::: Giorgio de Chirico :::
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
::: John Lennon :::"