Conclusion

    Although each of the art pieces that I decided to write about varied in style and technique the thing that wove them together is their element of confrontation.  Doing this project caught me off guard.  It surprised me in the best way possible.  Getting to see the work in person, really changes the way I would see or appreciate the work.  Looking at a piece online takes away the environment and city that often inspires the piece.  My favorite part of this whole experience was not necessarily even the art. (and I love art, so that's what surprised me)  What I loved the most was the experience that is included in finding and looking at the art.  Street art has a way of including everyone.  Since it isn't in a gallery that has limited access, everyone walking past no matter your age, gender, or social class can create a relationship with it.  It creates conversations that are unexpected and often times surprising. Just as graffiti writers call themselves writers instead of artists, I really view both graffiti and street art as a type of language.  It provides visual narratives, cultural narratives, and personal narratives all within one art form.  There is no way of getting around being told stories when looking and finding street art and graffiti.  I think that the most important thing I learned while looking at these pieces was to always consider the environment.  Space, and territory have almost a heavier influence on this style of art than technique.  Street Art and Graffiti in my mind now isn't only categorized as literature, but also as a site-specific art form.  Taking these pieces out of the context they were made for would completely transform and often times destroy the original intention.  After going out and exposing myself to this style of art, it really inspired me to make art that creates a conversation.  Also making art that is 100% relate able to every audience. A lot of the time I get so tied up in interpretation and content, when this style reminds me that sometimes the goal isn't to get people to look at something and change them, but simply think something.  If art can make someone think or talk about anything, then it's all worth it.

SEEVEE

SEEVEE Stencil
Graffiti Hall, UCSD
La Jolla
Stencil

This stencil is actually located at UCSD inside of Graffiti Hall within the art department.  This stencil is also repeated on the top level of Mandeville.  Graffiti hall is a staircase where all of the students are allowed to paint all they want.  It is full of tags and poetry.  For the most part, graffiti hall is more full of spray painted doodles overlaying each other than technical throwies and magnificent pieces. The environment can be overwhelming to walk through a small cement three level staircase surrounded by the smell of spray paint and opinions and emotions spewed out on the walls.  Regularly, I try and avoid this hallway because it has a way of really exposing you into a space of emotional heaviness.  Since so much of the hallway is text, it is nearly impossible not to read it or let it influence your thoughts.  For this project, I thought it would be the perfect environment to include myself in to try to embrace the things the artists were so desperately needing to express into the world instead of attempting to close myself off to them.  To me it feels like I'm literally walking through strangers intimate and personal thoughts and feelings.  Sometimes vulnerability can be exceedingly uncomfortable.  It didn't take me long to find the stencil that I wanted to use to write about and highlight because it really stood out among the chaos. This tag was repeated over and over throughout the staircase.  The geometric design supplies a bold and easy to look at tag. I think what drew me to it the most was it's ambiguity.  It wasn't a stream of consciousness or a emotional vomit.  This instead was a pre-planned and prior thought out piece.  This stencil is all in black so it makes you exceedingly aware of the negative space.  The negative space supplies little pathways for your eyes to follow.  The abstract shape is unclear, but ambiguous enough to let your mind wander to what the artist's design was intended to represent.  Was it inspired by a tennis shoe imprint?  Or, was it intended to be a little dog parachuting?  Us, as the viewers are left to translate the abstract into something more tangible.  Even the name emits the same ambiguity.  Every day when I passed this stencil, I always read it as "STEEVE".  It really made me think about how when you see something you haven't ever seen before, your brain automatically refers to something relate able to that unknown image.  It wasn't until careful observation that I realized it doesn't have a "T" in it at all and even contains and extra "E" at the end that I never read.  I tried to look up more information on the artist and the internet had no information or even recognized the name.  Instead of frustrating me, it actually felt satisfying.  I love the mystery that this stencil shows.  It is simple enough to relate to, and yet curious enough to keep looking.