you have no idea.. as arrogant as this may sound coming from me, I know a SHIT LOAD about graffiti, overall history, styles, etc. from running my old website where i hosted over 5000+ photos i took by myself of local Vancouver work Graffiti is so much more then vandlism or art when done right, imo it's one of the purest "street" forms of expression. Wtf fallout..is this your post i'm quoting from PBnation? haha these are 2 posts i posted up on another forum [who i think fallout made the exact same post there lol] regarding graff: Graffiti is good if your legit, if your an artist, and if you take pride in your work, regardless of illegal or legal. "Tagging" on the other hand is straight up bullshit, and so is saying you have skills because you can draw with a pen and paper paint or die. And: "tagging" isnt graffiti unless you actually have skill and can put up a peice "tagging" is vandilsm, there's no grey line there, very good graffiti, even the most un-inclined art person can look at and appreciate no one can appreciate a hand style thats worse then a 2 year old with a crayon. btw, i think banksy is overated, although i dont know his work that well, since i've kind of gotten out of the loop since my website died. Out of all the pictures i ever took, this Yesca peice was by far my favorite, i'm very glad i got the oportunity to take it, as it was taged and lined over by toys shortly after:
yeah thats exactly it. like i said, some of the shit ive seen is fucking jaw-dropping, and my experience with graffitti is very limited, so im sure theres a lot more crazy shit out there. but i still think all this pointless "spray your (nick)name fancy" shit has got to go. like what is the point? okay, you can draw your name, or tagger name real pretty with colors.... why not use that creative energy to make something that DOESNT make the city look cheap, and dirty? like i said, at some abandon factories and closed down yards in buffalo that people have refused to touch for years and years, there are some really talented kids making murals of hendrix, marley or just a couple guys with headphones on playing hackey sack... and this stuff looks SICK, it is beyond me how they do that with spraypaint. thats what i am all for; take something that is an eyesore, and is NOT somebodys property, and spray a crazy detailed picture of something. because fuckin up someone elses shit isnt cool, and even if your work is good, that person has the right to their property being left alone. i dont know much bout tagging, but im sure like most "scenes" it is dragged down by a select group of people that just lack respect and dont follow the unwritten rules... it kinda sucks that the kids out there who are beyond unbelievable artists dont get taken seriously in their hobby because a ton of immature assholes gotta write K-LOC or FUCK on the side of a building.
I think graff is dope and I think there are a lot of good points in this thread. I am a big fan of free hand stuff more than stenciling but living in the bay area a bit this summer I came to the conclusion that you seriously need to step your game up if your going to stick with graff... peoples styles and art has taken a quantum jump in the past ten years. I personally am a big fan of vandalism though. I like costing corporations money with my witty messages. I like throwing up "STOP" racism, war, apartheid, etc. on stop signs too. Some days I want to express my artistic side, sometimes I wanna throw my tag up (esp. on cop cars) to let you know I've been there and other days I'm going to war with corporations... it depends on my intention.
