Overall, there's clearly an array here of art forms here - in this blog we see black lettered tags, wheat pasted commodities, stickers, contemporary-like painting, tile installments... yet the same central idea prevails through all of these works - getting the artist and their work out there, and getting seen. Even if the artist has an agenda they are trying to promote, they too are trying to promote themselves at the same time.
Some of these works were small, hidden, almost to the point of having to scout them out to actually see them. Some stood alone, huge, obviously waiting to be seen. Regardless, each of them had a purpose, and the artist put them there for a reason. I think that the one thing I took away most from this blog was to get out there and really LOOK at the surrounding world. Street art is everywhere, graffiti is everywhere. Especially in cities near to us like San Diego, or DTLA, it is an ever-present aspect of urban landscape. These types of works are important because they open up a new level of art that is unseen in (most) galleries and museums, they shed insight into the culture and the scenery of the area they are presented in.
Each of these artists undoubtedly had a different thematic element for their work, but overall, just SEEING the work and knowing it is there is what was most important from the cultivation of this blog. We do not need to know the answers to everything we come across, yet sometimes it is just nice to take some time to admire the scenery around us. As Norman Mailer recants in his 1974 Esquire article, "We are trying to digest the aesthetic experience... for a new civilization may be stirring in its roots". By examining street art and graffiti, we are opening up a new passage way into the future teachings of art "history" and identification.
Some of these works were small, hidden, almost to the point of having to scout them out to actually see them. Some stood alone, huge, obviously waiting to be seen. Regardless, each of them had a purpose, and the artist put them there for a reason. I think that the one thing I took away most from this blog was to get out there and really LOOK at the surrounding world. Street art is everywhere, graffiti is everywhere. Especially in cities near to us like San Diego, or DTLA, it is an ever-present aspect of urban landscape. These types of works are important because they open up a new level of art that is unseen in (most) galleries and museums, they shed insight into the culture and the scenery of the area they are presented in.
Each of these artists undoubtedly had a different thematic element for their work, but overall, just SEEING the work and knowing it is there is what was most important from the cultivation of this blog. We do not need to know the answers to everything we come across, yet sometimes it is just nice to take some time to admire the scenery around us. As Norman Mailer recants in his 1974 Esquire article, "We are trying to digest the aesthetic experience... for a new civilization may be stirring in its roots". By examining street art and graffiti, we are opening up a new passage way into the future teachings of art "history" and identification.
Sources: Norman Mailer, "The Faith of Graffiti", Esquire Magazine 1974.
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