I think I've mentioned in the past that a good friend of mine is pretty involved in the underground graffiti scene (his name among the community is Joker). Anyhow, he sent me this article, which is pretty interesting, and he said: This is kind of a long article that goes a wee-bit deep into the construction / deconstruction and the evolution of styles in regards to writing (Graffiti). I'm only sending it out to all of you because it mentions my name and shows a photo of a painting I did in Hamburg, Germany... on one of the only dry days while I was there.

Anyways, cool stuff, for those of you who are interested....

http://www.core77.com/development/react ... ausner.asp

(sidebar fyi: core77 is a pretty cool design industry website in general)

graffiti research lab is mentioned in this article. they are experimenting with electronic graffiti in that they've developed or found a source for small lights with a self contained abttery (or something) and setting up electronic graffit pieces.

i don't remember all of the technical aspects of it but the ny times ran an article on them sometime last year. interesting stuff.

all of this begs the question: when is graffiti not graffiti? museums and galleries are showing work by graffiti artists and calling it graffiti. out of context, most of it looks like bad paintings. defining graffiti should take the environment into consideration. or should it?

is it still graffiti if it's reproduced on a canvas? if a portion of the berlin wall is displayed in a museum, is that graffiti?

too much thinking today.
i'm blaming jewels.

I'd love to have you meet my friend, Laura. He grapples with the same argument from time to time... and not just in terms of "is my graffiti art?" but also "if it's art, why do we charge people for it, and isn't art more of an expression of the self that should be shared with everyone?" He does do canvases, and he's shown his canvases in various galleries around the world, but I think he misses the whole adrenaline rush and clandestine nature of graffiti outdoors, and being forced to produce his "art" in a specified timeframe without getting caught. On the other hand, he feels restrained and controlled when he has to come up with new canvases for gallery showings, or doing commission work.

He's got some great canvases, that I've expressed interest in the past. Whenever I ask him how much he'd charge for it, he kinda shrugs and tells me he'd give me a "friend discount" and just charge me for the paint and materials he used-- never for his time. He'll never be a "successful" artist in that respect, because he just feels wrong about charging people tons of money for something that he comes up with very easily and inspirationally.

hmmm...i'm guessing that the wooster on spring 'show' held a few months ago mustve sparked a pretty lively debate on this whole topic...
the crowd waiting to get in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVvJUGT4b6M