You Don't Know "JA"
I am constantly fascinated by sub-cultures; they surround us; intertwine with us; fly under the radar, yet are in our faces everyday.
Any real NYCitizen would recognize:
What does this have to do with politics...well, nothing directly. But I can't help thinking what Jesus would do: how he constantly associated with sinners. Politics would be much more honest if they reached out to those not involved, rather cater to the same slobs that pervert our system every day.
UPDATE: I think this post warrants an explanation; I know some of you are probably looking at this and saying to yourselves, WTF? I like graffiti, including street art. When I'm on the train and not reading I look out the window of the elevated L train and look at rooftops and their urban art - I even have saved blog sites in my RSS and saved YouTube videos on the subject, as well as dropping over $100 on some books recently.
We live in a Capitalist society, where money dictates who gets how much space and where. When I go to Times Square (or just about anywhere), with advertisements everywhere I wanna puke. Graffiti is about an individual taking space and expressing themselves; that's what I see, others see vandalism. With that said, go watch a new documentary about Graffiti named, Bomb It! (soon to be released).
Any real NYCitizen would recognize:
What does this have to do with politics...well, nothing directly. But I can't help thinking what Jesus would do: how he constantly associated with sinners. Politics would be much more honest if they reached out to those not involved, rather cater to the same slobs that pervert our system every day.
UPDATE: I think this post warrants an explanation; I know some of you are probably looking at this and saying to yourselves, WTF? I like graffiti, including street art. When I'm on the train and not reading I look out the window of the elevated L train and look at rooftops and their urban art - I even have saved blog sites in my RSS and saved YouTube videos on the subject, as well as dropping over $100 on some books recently.
We live in a Capitalist society, where money dictates who gets how much space and where. When I go to Times Square (or just about anywhere), with advertisements everywhere I wanna puke. Graffiti is about an individual taking space and expressing themselves; that's what I see, others see vandalism. With that said, go watch a new documentary about Graffiti named, Bomb It! (soon to be released).
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Guess I'm not "a real NY citizen".
...so, you don't look at the writing on the wall (pun intended)?
I grew up in NYC so the tags just make me sad. In the end it's people feeling so inconsequential they think vandalizing/beautifying the community (and too often other peoples' property) won't matter.
I'm in NYC everyday, but I've never noticed JA.
At first I thought it meant Junior Achievement...hey, I'm old, what can I say?
So much has been made of it since Keith Herring blew up, that I'm not sure if it's an art style, or a political movement, or both.
The young artsy people that I've talked to, seem to talk about being very anti corporate as they log into facebook and myspace with their Macbooks.
Everything in art today is so ornamental, yet it's all done "in the style of a message."
The post-millennium artists confuse me with contradictions like that.
And,I'm an art school grad.
Some of the memorial murals done on bodega walls with the owner's permission are nice because they say something, but somehow it all seems so 70's/80's retro.
That's interesting. There's a different message in each style, yet the medium used remains the same. But the similarities are the taking of space, the freedom of expression, the demand to make you look.
Not all street art is graffiti, and not all graffiti street art...but some say it is. Guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. However, I see a bigger picture; the one that makes you question your surroundings.
I get the whole taking the space from the establishment but it's more like the "have littles" stealing from the "have a little mores."
I've always kind of felt that way, but it really hit home when someone in my bucolic Central Jersey suburb used a fat magic marker to place an innocuous tag on the side of my end-unit townhouse.
No epithets, not racial threats, just a dopey tag. They kids out here aren't that bright so they hang out about a football field away is some woods adjacent to the property.
Once I sent the local constable (just like my inner Mrs.Kravits told me to do) into the woods -- viola, no more graffiti on my wall.
The odd part is, I wasn't even that mad, it's just that well, that crap brings down the property values.
And once you're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for any type of real estate, unwittingly donating it as a canvas for the arts, you really see the folly in that idea that "taking space for art,"is a victimless crime.
And once again, I'm an art school grad.
I agree; I don't believe a preference for something applies to every situation. You have many 'kids', many acts of vandalism - such as the one above - that has nothing to do with anything...just senseless vandalism.
In the beginning, "Writing" was later called graffiti when 'kids' started to pick up and tag everywhere, but before then it had a social/political purpose, as does many street art practitioners. Also, there is an unwritten code not to tag up personal property, such as cars, houses, etc. I guess that code is loosely applied today with some in popular graffiti culture.
SIPS got busted in NYC this week for desecrating a 9/11 memorial wall on a bodega in his neighborhood. SIPS was something like 8 or 9 when 9/11 happened. Yet he claims that he didn't know that the wall meant so much.
I was 16 like he is once too. He knew what he was doing. He just didn't care about "some dead guy." And he didn't think anyone else would care either. SIPS isn't just a foolish child. He's a mean spirited jerk.
It's sad, but true.