Graffiti

I was just wondering if anyone else here was into graffiti or urban art.

Personally I can't really draw well, but I do some stencil work and other little things.

Some of my favorite artists at the moment are Totem2 (from here) KAWS, SPACE INVADER, MEARONE.

If you want to check out some cool sites and art check SPACE INVADER and Totem2's sites

Totem2 SPACE INVADER

Most of yall will probably dig SPACE INVADERS stuff cause he does blocky atari-16 bit art.

Anyone else got any favorite links or artists or do any stuff?

This stuff is cool when it's not vandalism, but I can't really say how much I agree with painting something on the side of a building without the owner's explicit permission, even if it is an awesome Pac-Man ghost.

...I wish someone would paint one of those on my garage door...

Anyway, that said, there's a lot of really talented artists out there, though the pics on that totem2 site don't like my browser. There's a lot of awesome artwork around, and I understand that a large part of it is NOT vandalism, so don't attack me about that. I just don't feel too good about the parts of it that is.

Damn, another person using the space invader as his symbol :) Ever since I chose it as the theme for my website I've seen it everywhere. Stupid me.

I dunno. I am absolutely against graffiti on private property. That's vandalism no matter how cool it looks. On public property I'm less against, but even still... Why do I get the feeling so many graffiti artists are just trying to be the next Haring? That Space Invader site just reeked of that.

Abandoned buildings are fair game in my eyes. Espically in suburban areas where large stores build up and then get left vacant. If Costco or Home Depot is going to tear up a bunch of land, build an enormous eyesore of a store, and then abandon it two years later when they relocate to an even larger space, then the building that gets left behind to decay (because no store can fill it) is open to anyone willing to display their artwork on it.

Alot of the more serious graffiti artists seem to respect the idea of where you should and where you should not use as your canvas. You might as well do something with an abandoned train car or aging concrete wall. That doesn't apply to every 13-year old with a spraycan who scrawls something in four seconds and runs away, since they usually don't care where write on.

I find urban art really interesting although I don't really know any graffiti artists in particular. I find the whole tagging thing really ridiculous but I do really like a lot of the artistic pieces that you can tell people put a lot of time and effort into and who are clearly very skilled. I think, like some people already mentioned, that it has its place. I think it's a shame when some really beautiful buildings are defaced but in more derelict areas I also think it's fair game. If it helps in beautifying some abandonned concrete monstrosity, then right on. I also like a lot of the "organized" graffiti murals that show up here and there throughout the city on the sides of buildings.

I love taking photographs of random graffiti. :)

WHo the hell calls it grafiti.... everyone knows its tagging...

There is a lot of amazing graffiti/urban art here in Montréal. I was very surprised when I first came here. I got used to it and forgot until my parents first visited and noticed, which reminded me.

What I really dig is all of the semi-commissioned (?) urban art. In my neighbourhood there are lots of murals on random buildings and businesses. A lot of anime-style art too. It's really neat. If/when I get a digicam I'll photo some of it. :)

Downtown you see a good amount of typical graffiti, which looks like it is straight out of Jet Set Radio at times. ;) There are some areas where it's eather allowed or organised or something, but whatever the reason it's pretty cool to look at and quite impressive.

What I don't care for is the random ugly tagging or defacing of things. I am impressed at some of the hard to reach places some people manage to tag however. :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maruchan

WHo the hell calls it grafiti.... everyone knows its tagging...

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Tagging is just writing your name or your crews name up some where. Most kids start out by doing that. Personally it bores me and doesn't do anything new.

Heres a link to KAWS interview and pics of his art.KAWS

You may or may not have seen his stuff before. He broke out into mainstream by his unique style. His trademark is skull and crossbones, that have morphed from different versions over the years. He would add his Skull and crossbones to billboard ads and advertisments around the city. He'd also add other things to the pictures and make it look like they were made there. He's even been hired to intentionally "mess" up some ad's due to his popularity with GAP, Calvin Klein and others. He's also worked for disney.

Totem2 has some anime style characters on his site, under the character section. He also has a alter ego he paints under called "kaiser sosae" which he does "lil geists". The lil geists are anime ghosts that get into mischief and appear randomly around the city. I had some neat pics of some....but lost em dangit.

Heres a link to MEARONE's site MEAR You might recognize his art because he has done cover art for music groups albums. People like Dj Hive, Limpbizkit among others. He also has a monthly section in the magazine URB. He does a lot of political murals too.

I love graffiti, personally

never got into *doing* it, but I shall one of these days...

Pretty cool stuff. All of my graffiti art usually never gets past pen & paper.