Street Reflect

I have always been curious and delighted by the various forms of creative expression in the streets. Since I was little I have been enchanted by flash of colors on freight trains as they swiftly pass. As I walk down the streets I look forward to finding cleaver wheatpastes or stickers, it’s like finding a treasure or secret that you only know about.  In a society where advertising is the majority of what you see every day, street art is like a breath of fresh air, a break from the muddled discourse of advertising.

The concern of this course was to define what is street art and how to effectively communicate to the greater community. Street art is becoming more prevalent in the world. Creative self-expression communicated through the streets, once depicted as bad mojo, is now being recognized as a successful way to communicate important issues or just used by the corporate greed to sell junk. Whether the message be a comment on capitalism (Adam & Itso) or a voice for the unheard (Emory Douglas or Swoon), the message has caught always caught the attention of community. But now, similar artist are being awarded for their work. The question, does the street artist work become more art rather than street art? Is their street cred revoked at some point if they profit from their work? These types of questions annoy me, I believe whatever you want to express as art and call it street art that is wonderful. I think my annoyance comes from post-modernist/Dada ideals, where everything doesn’t matter but at the same time it does, post-modernist kind of threw the rulebook of modernism out the window. It kind of bothers me that we that we live in a world where everything has to have a meaning, everything has to have a reason, everything has to be defined.  For example, the commodity of a pair of Levi jeans is placed on the idea that if you wear these jeans, they’ll make your derriere into a national treasure. Levi jeans can never be just a pair of jeans.

Street art can never be just street art. I feel like we putting too much focus on what street art is it is turning the art form into a commodity. I also feel that I do not have the right to define what their street art means; it is up to the artist to create that for their own purpose. I can describe the function of creative self-expression produced on the streets, but I am not the decider on which art doesn’t make the cut. I have gotten really irate by this same idea of that we always must define and classify people or things, in another class. I feel like I need to learn how to communicate how I feel about this subject without making people feel uncomfortable. I just haven’t learned how to do that yet. So I feel that these questions are important to discuss, I feel that this class has helped me learn about new artist and I have also learned about various view points on the subject. Which I have collect and process what street art means to me. Over all I feel that this class was successful in creating awareness of the many dimensions of street art.

Emory Douglas

Mary Calcagno

Book Review

May 16, 2011

Emory Douglas is one of the most influential people in American history. Douglas, providing his art work to The Black Panthers helped project their message even further to people who need help. Graphic art was a key aspect in projecting their message for those who were illiterate. His political art work addressed the corruption in the government.  Emory’s first official project for The Black Panthers was to recreate the symbol for The Black Panthers, “They wanted to make it smaller to reflect that the party was about… serving the people who were underserved and undernourished…” (44). The Panthers wanted to expose the bad cops in the system to warn the people, The Black Panthers coined the term Pig to represent policemen; Emory developed a character for them with the badge numbers of the cops that were doing the most harm to the community.

Douglas’s images captured the emotions of the people.  The  Black Panthers were fighting for the rights of the people, Emory Douglas’s choice of weapon ? His pen.

Interactive Street Art and Public Health

The city of Portland streets are arranged by a grid system. Gird systems are great, they help you get from point A to point B in various ways. What a grid system does not support and actually diminishes is spontaneous social interaction. Grid systems support the ease of transportation rather than community health. In this study, the City Repair Project(2006) was implemented to promote communities to creatively transform the environment in which they live. “… three communities independently developed plans to improve regular street intersections through ecological construction.” (27). The project materials consisted of recycled /ecofriendly materials, such as cob (a mixture of sand, straw, clay, and water). The project promoted sustainability and community bonding.

Informational meetings were held for the people of the community to come learn more how to develop their ideas and also to connect the community to architects or other specialists that can help carry out the design aspect of the project. “The art features included colorful street paintings, information kiosks, stained glass mosaics, trellises for hanging gardens, benches, planters in the street, publicly accessible chessboards, and a sauna.” (28). The majority of the community embraced the project, saying that it improved their community aesthetically and emotionally, “… I highly agree with [the] neighborhood getting together. It creates a nice environment, and I helped paint the sunflower. I walk across [it] everyday [sic]…In the wintertime, it is so bright, it just lightens up the street…” (32-33). The newly revised intersections decreased isolation, improved spontaneous interaction, and promotes physical activity. Other cities around North America are now implementing the same ideas as the City Repair project such as, Seattle, Washington; Ottawa, Ontario; Asheville, North Carolina; and Ithaca, New York.

I really enjoyed reading this article and I am glad I stumbled upon the article while researching for this article. I was entertained that I could recollect where some of these street murals are. I am also really interested in where that public sauna is, that is a unique solution for strengthening community bonds.

Source: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic793411.files/Wk%2013_Dec%203rd/Semenza%20March_2009_Community%20Intervention.pdf

City Repair Project: Portland, OR

SW  Broadway

 SE Burnside

 Bike Tunnel (Downtown)

SW Corbett Street

South Park Blocks

Killing the Genius Child

Everybody likes an undiscovered genius, so that they can tell everyone that it is they who knew the full potential of this unknown genius, it is they that will share to the world the art work of this invisible genius. In the past we have lost the opportunity to experience one artist’s raw power while he was in living flesh, Van Gough. “No one wants to be part of a generation that ignores another van Gough” (Ricard, 8). This is why so many swarmed to a young thriving artist named Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat only, in his late adolescence was producing the most sophisticated art work of his generation. It didn’t take long before his genius was illuminated for the entire world to see.

The shift, between a poor drifter hustling his work on the corners to an established artists making adjustments to his canvases in an Armani suit, was quick. The pressure on Basquiat to produce masterpiece after masterpiece was heavy. This was nothing Basquiat couldn’t achieve; he had the drive and the work ethic to stay one move ahead of everyone else. He would often go out to the clubs, but then would often shut himself in his studio for two or three days and produce multitudes of work to keep up with the demand from the galleries.

His talent of producing a consistent flow of work was taken advantage of the art world very quickly. The suddenness of this high demand began to take a toll on his body. He was a young in his early 20’s, quickly becoming a millionaire, influential people coming in and out of his life.  Basquiat was extremely sensitive to any criticism; he quickly became untrustworthy of any one in fear that they will take advantage of him. “We are no longer collecting art we are buying individuals” (Ricard, 7). I believe this life was not ready for him. Jean-Michel didn’t have a solid support group. The pressure of being the most famous artist of his generation hit him all at once, he slowly was deteriorating.   Basquiat produced late period art work at the age of 27. Jean-Michel Basquiat left 1,000 painting and 1,000 drawings. Jean-Michel Basquiat was too much for this world to handle.

Source:  http://www.smartwentcrazy.com/basquiat/text/jmb_radiantchild.htm