Graffiti is nothing really new to me. It’s been an interest of mine for a long time. Going to New York City as a kid, Chicago and Milwaukee in college and studying Art History, kept it in the forefront of my mind. I started this new project more for looking at street/graffiti/public art. It has been fun to go and hunt it down.
For whatever reason I have been watching many documentaries on the subject of graffiti, from “Bomb It!” to “Exit Through the Gift Shop” and many others. These have strengthened my interest and knowledge on the subject of graffiti.
Personally one thing I think is interesting about this art form is how blunt an instrument is used - paint pens to rollers to, of course, spray cans. Now the average person uses rollers and spray cans to cover a large space. They cover a wall in a room, floors and other flat surfaces with the rollers. Spray paints are used to cover more shapely objects and sometimes to get those hard to reach spots with a brush or roller.
But when you look or watch people work on graffiti or see that finished product, it’s amazing the control. Some use the roller to cover old work and spray on top. Some use the rollers to cover large space in a project then edge and detail it with the can. There is amazing control of edge, sharp or faded, drips or no drips. It might not look clean and controlled to many people, at first glance, but when you start seeing the same work in other places, by the same person, and it looks like the one or more you saw earlier. You will start to see the control.
Part of the control that people have is all in speed. In the minutes it takes to for someone to get an image or name up on a wall, the speed is remarkable. Sometimes one color sometime more, teams or a single person - the speed is part of the game. One time, I was in Portland ME for the First Friday Art Walk and as a friend and I drove past a building I saw two people - at about 5:30pm - in the middle of everyone walking around - they where fast at work. It took me only about 5 minutes to get back around the block and they where gone. They had just started but also finished the complete work. One sprayed out the white shape and the other came along right behind him with a can of black paint shaping out the letters. It was pretty well done and again the speed was a significant contributor to the game.
If you don’t like that, you should look a little bit at the way it’s made with speed and detail Now I’m not saying that everyone should like graffiti - like any art, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Some people may come around and like it. Others will always have problems with it. To this day there are people who don’t like Picasso’s work or think that Monet and Salvador Dali are nothing special. But before you knock it too much at least look at the instruments that are used and the precision with which it is done. You have to give a little credit to the artists for that. I know that there are movements that bore me to death but recognizing the skill in what they do, I will always tip my hat to them for it.
