Tuesday, October 4, 2011

How to Graffiti Gallery


Graffiti is often associated with gangs, guns and crime. But it’s important to understand why. Graffiti is used by gangs in Mexico, L.A. and other large cities the world over. It’s used to mark gang territory in specific areas. Often gangs will spray their tags over an enemies tag to provoke violence and retaliation. As such, graffiti has built up a bad reputation and has come to be associated with the more negative aspects of culture and society.

It doesn’t have to be so. In my town, for example, one primary school started a small, low-budget project and allowed all the children ‘Graffiti’ over the walls of the school and neighbouring park. Not only did this create an amazing piece of art at virtually no cost, but the children felt proud of their work. Instead of vandalizing the school they now wished to protect and preserve their creation and as such a small sense of community was built up. This is the inverse of what most people generally conceive graffiti to be about. Instead of being destructive vandalism and degradative to the community, in this case it did the complete opposite.

That said, I hope I have opened your mind up enough to warrant your interest of how to graffiti. This article isn’t about the arguements concerning vandalism, nor to highlight its many comical, religious and often political uses, nor the controversies. No, this article is to urge you to learn how to graffiti. In doing so you open your mind up to the world of graffiti and its many branches and history (Yes, graffiti has a history!) Here are some simple steps to get you to begin learning just how to graffiti.

How to graffiti step 1 – Observation

In learning how to graffiti as in learning any new concept is all about observation. Find existing graffiti and copy it somehow. The best and most fun way to do this is take a walk around your city. If you live in a small town or village, take a trip into a city and spend the day hunting for street art. You’re guaranteed to find some in most larger towns. Take photos and draw sketches while you’re there. This will give you some basic hands on, up-close experience.
You can also obtain some great resources while learning how to graffiti online. Google images and other sites have large lists of some of the larger and cooler looking works as well as the basic stuff.

How to graffiti step 2 – Experimentation and Creativity

The next step is experimentation. 9 out of 10 graffiti artists started out with their tag. A tag is just a way of identifying yourself amongst the vast array of other artists out there. Usually it’ll be your nickname or a variation of it. Using the photos/sketches and downloaded images you’ve collected, experiment with applying those styles to your tag. Use marker or pencil on paper at first until you’ve got the hang of it. Once you have some basic sketches you feel comfortable repeating, you can think about taking it further.

Types Of Graffiti Art


Modern day Graffiti art is closely associated with the Hip Hop Culture. It started out with names like TAKI 183 and JULIO 204 who wrote their tag names all over New York to more accomplished artists that have shown their work in respected art galleries. But, for those loyal to the art of graffiti, it is the pieces found on the streets and public walls that remain as the purest form of the art. Street Graffiti have various well known styles. The styles may be a result of time constraints or as a way of marking territory. The style of the artwork itself greatly affects the look and feel of the piece, these include styles like: Wildstyle, Blockbuster, Throw-ups and Fill-Ins and Pieces.

A “Piece” is a form of Graffiti art that has a very elaborate design. These pieces tend to take time, therefore there are fewer pieces created illegally in public places because the artist runs the risk of being caught in the act of making it. Most graffiti art “pieces” can now be found in dedicated galleries. Of course, there are always the brave few that still plaster their work on public and private walls. Graffiti tributes are also known as “pieces”. Tributes pay homage to ‘greats’ who have passed away. In the past we have seen tributes to the Big L, Tupac, Mother Teresa and others all over New York when they died.

Throw-Ups and Fill- In are graffiti that are done quickly, sacrificing detailed style for time. This is the most common form of graffiti that can be found. It is often made in only one or three contrasting colors and the letterings are in bubble or block form. The letters are often outlined with the boldest color available to the artists. Compared to Wildstyle, throw-ups and fill-ins are often easier to read because the designs are less complex.

Wildstyle is a form of graffiti art that sports all sorts of arrows, interlocking letters and points. For the untrained graffiti eye, Wildstyle pieces are often hard to read because the letters tend to blend in into one another and result in what looks like a jumble and wordless mix. Wildstyle Graffiti art is often found in various places around bustling cities like New York, New Jersey and San Francisco.

“Blockbusters” are large graffiti pieces that have been created to cover entire walls with the intention of blocking other artists from using the same wall. The design is often simple and done quickly. Another form of Graffiti that is similar to Blockbuster is “Rollers”. Rollers are Graffiti styles that involve blocking out an entire wall with a single color. This is considered to be lazy graffiti writing. “Stickers” are also used in creating graffiti and is one of the quickest ways to post graffiti on the wall. Like “rollers”, “stickers” are also considered to be a form of laziness on the part of the artist. But, more and more artists are coming up with elaborately designed stickers that combat even the most detailed pieces designed. Stencils are also commonly used in graffiti art. They provide the artist with a way to create presentable pieces without compromising time.

How Can You Prevent Vandalism and Graffiti


In many urban areas, and increasingly in suburban neighborhoods, graffiti and vandalism are a growing nuisance, damaging property and creating an eyesore for community members. Although vandalism, like many crimes, cannot be completely prevented, there are some steps that individuals and communities can take to limit the amount of vandalism that takes place in a particular area.

Keeping an area well lit and free of garbage can help decrease the possibility of graffiti. Most graffiti is done away from areas where vandals might be seen or caught, such as the dark sides of retail buildings as night. Making sure that such areas are readily visible helps decrease the likelihood that potential vandals might target a specific area. Use security lighting in areas that are particularly vulnerable to the threat of vandalism.

Likewise, keeping an area well maintained indicates that someone cares for the property. Keep areas free of graffiti by painting over or eliminating graffiti as soon as possible. Once an area has been targeted by one vandal it increases the likelihood that others may see the area as a “safe place” to add their own graffiti. Criminologists often refer to this as the “Broken Window Theory.” If a building or location has broken windows vandals and graffiti, artists may see this as a place where they can continue what someone else has started. Other graffiti artists may target the area to paint over competing graffiti signs. Repairing any damage as soon as it’s discovered reduces this possibility.

Many areas benefit from “neighborhood watch” organizations – which may be as simple as creating awareness among local businesses and homeowners. Organized neighborhood watch groups may take the time to organize “patrols” that walk or drive through areas as a way to deter individuals from destroying or harming private property. At its most basic level, such a group indicates a commitment to watch out for each others’ property, and to report suspicious behaviors to the police. Many communities with neighborhood watch groups put up signs advertising the existence of such a program. The ultimate effect of community watch groups is similar to increasing lighting and visibility, to show that community members will take notice if someone commits vandalism.

Other preventative measures can include installing security cameras or other security devices. Most graffiti artists use what they call a “tag” which is similar to a signature and is intended to identify the artist responsible. You can combine the information from the tag and security cameras to help authorities locate responsible individuals. If you’ve tried a variety of these techniques and vandals and graffiti artists are still damaging your property you may want to seek help from the local authorities. Taking pictures of the damage and keeping a record of when and where the damage occurred may help you narrow down a potential list of suspects.

There are other ways to limit unwanted painting. Keep in mind that some graffiti artists simply want a place to make their “mark” – and a community sponsored graffiti wall may provide an opportunity to turn potential property damage into a community-building activity.

Graffiti Removal – Is Graffiti Art or a Crime


Why Graffiti is Art?
Not everyone likes every painting of Van Gogh, in the same way it is inevitable people will disagree about the quality of a piece of graffiti. It’s easy to see the artistic skill required to produce an impressive piece of graffiti. Many of the people who are critical of graffiti as an art form also have problems with other forms of modern art. For something to be considered art it doesn’t have to popular.

Some people complain about graffiti believe that it doesn’t have the history and stylistic conversions of conventional art however graffiti is almost as old as mankind itself. Early forms of graffiti have been found throughout history including the illustrious societies of ancient Greece and during the time of the pharaohs in Egypt. Not only does graffiti have a historical precedent it also shares stylistic conventions and forms like any form of more widely accepted art.

The most impressive graffiti requires meticulous planning and preparation. Many people think of graffiti as an opportunist crime when many pieces take hours even weeks to plan and prepare. The graffiti artist pays the same attention to detail as more highly regarded professionals and on may occasions may even put in more effort and thought.

It’s also true that many people are totally unconnected to the ‘real’ art world. The vast majority of the general public don’t visit art galleries and have relatively little contact with artists. This majority of people often have a greater connection to graffiti. It is within their world, they may even know the artists it is far approachable.

Many artists see the purpose of their art to inspire debate. If you see this as a way of judging art then there is no arguing that graffiti is art. It is one of the most debated topics in the world of art and is hugely controversial.

Why Graffiti is Vandalism?
There is no arguing that graffiti often does serious damage to property, while often the vandalism in public spaces might seem like a victimless crime that’s very often not the case. Also when graffiti happens on private property it can cause real distress for the owners. Even if there is no connection between graffiti and more serious crime the distinction becomes more blurred when it’s your property that has been damaged.

Besides the actual damage to the property, graffiti often goes hand in hand with trespassing. While many people may debate the ethics of graffiti the law is crystal clear when it comes to trespassing. It’s not just the issue of criminal behaviour, often the trespassing can put the life of the graffiti artists and others in danger when they trespass on railways and motorways.

People also shouldn’t forget the cost that graffiti removal requires. Though many graffiti products are affordable but it is an expense that property owners would never have to incur were it not for the graffiti. Sometimes they would also have to hire professional graffiti removal firms who inevitably cost a significant amount of money.

While many people argue that graffiti is art most of the graffiti that graces walls and surfaces around the world isn’t the highly stylised pieces described by advocates, they are scrappy scrawled names or tags. These can not be described as art and are nothing but vandalism.

Graffiti History


The art of graffiti has already been a very popular hobby of young people quite for a long period of time and not only for them. This is not art, on a framework of standards, graffiti is a different kind of art. People that paint graffiti want to stand out among the crowd. In graffiti, graffiti artists are divided into two types – writers, artists who are legal, and bombers, who paint illegally.

History of bombing began in the sixties, when the New Yorker began to paint subway wagons. Another guess is that this culture is the beginning of the free distribution as part of the subculture of hip-hop. At the moment, one of the standouts of the world of street artists can be considered writer, Robert Banks, who rose very high, because of his creativity. He has a very high quality works and his style is different from ordinary graffiti artists. Banksy’s hiding from the police and the media can not shoot him with the camera. Meanwhile, new characters appear on the walls, and that make this art more and more qualitative. Perhaps you know such writers in the graffiti, as Can2, Seen, Super Kool 123.

Bombers enjoy create their with a paint named Montana Black. This is a special paint designed specifically for the bombers. There are some widespread styles in the art of graffiti which every graffiti artist knows well, among them are: wild, buble, daim, 3d.

There are a lot of nuances concerning graffiti. But after all, remember, it is not a form of vandalism, it is a kind of art.

Graffiti Creators and Graffiti Style


Graffiti is a form of art that is used to express the artists feeling and emotions. Just like pouring out your feelings in a diary, only using a different medium. Although many people see graffiti as a nuisance and also see it as vandalism, it is hard to not be interested in its unique style and free expression. Graffiti is a social expression, often a voice of the discontented youth, and is part of the urban world around us.

It is generally harmless, vibrant and creative and often brightens up walls and buildings. Graffiti has many different styles but the two most common types are tagging and hip hop graffiti. Different styles of graffiti fall into different categories.

Hip hop graffiti pieces are usually very large and are created using aerosol spray paints. They usually are a complex mix of letters or a cartoon sketch. Hip hop graffiti usually takes longer to achieve as it takes a lot of planning and designing first.

Tagging graffiti is used as a means to ‘mark territory’. This type of graffiti is used as a way to mark one’s presence, to say ‘so and so was here’. Often the letter styles in one territory will be different to another and signatures are very territorial indeed. Some graffiti is racially motivated or sometimes even politically motivated and bears some relation to urban street fighting.

Commercial graffiti is seen as a big problem. This involves private organisations paying graffiti artists to spray paint advertising logos on walkways and buildings so that they can promote their product. This is an illegal form of advertising.

Graffiti is amazing and its a great way to express yourself through colours, pictures and words. Graffiti can mean everything to an artist so they use it as means of expressing their feelings if they have a lot kept in. It is a stress relief and it is fun painting a wall.

Some people like to express their feelings by writing them down or speaking to someone else. Others may choose to paint words in fierce, vibrant colours, that come across as a message in a piece of art. This could be a message in itself, indicating that they are being driven to the wall because no-one is really listening. So many young people, especially in the inner cities, find that their families are usually too busy trying to survive to have quality time to spend with them. So they form sub-cultures and their own styles of communication to express what they need to say.

Ron Howard’s Preproduction Movies happy new year graffiti 2011


Ron Howard was certainly entertaining as a child actor in the role of Opie Taylor. Later in “Happy Days” he was fun to watch as Richie Cunningham. He had a few other roles, most notable being in “American Graffiti”, but let’s face it, we he was just an average actor in my opinion. However, Ron Howard the director and producer, now that is a whole different story.

Ron Howard’s success as a director and producer certainly took me by surprise in the start of that part of his career but he has amassed a remarkable portfolio of films that is quite remarkable. He distanced himself from the problems many child actors have had difficulty with and has remained focused on his new career with a large number of awards for his works including 2 Oscars in his possession for “A Beautiful Mind” as Best Director and Best Picture.

When doing a search for Ron Howard’s preproduction movies I came across as director the movie “Your Cheating Heart” due to be released in 2011 and as a producer “Cowboys and Aliens” also to be released in 2011. He is currently producing an untitled Gus Van Sant Project that is in production and it has been announced he will be producing the movie version of “Arrested Development”. Both of these also list a 2011 release date. It could certainly be a big year for Howard.

As great a string of movies he has had in recent years as director I must admit I am somewhat concerned that Howard may be in over his head with the movie “Your Cheating Heart”. When I first saw the title I thought he was going to be making a movie about Hank Williams Sr. but unfortunately it is a comedy starring 3 actors that I have seen little to be excited about. The three actors I am speaking of are Kevin James, Vince Vaughn, and Dustin Rowles.

The movie is about a man who finds out that his best friend’s wife is unfaithful in their marriage. He does not know how to handle the situation. I still wish this was a biographical about Hank Williams Sr. and with a better cast. I sure hope Ron Howard can pull this off.

As a producer he is taking on another strange film (“Cowboys and Aliens”) with co-producers Damon Lindelof, Steven Spielberg and Brian Grazer. Steven Spielberg is a director I have a tremendous respect for and I consider one of the greatest directors of all time. Although it appears to be a strange movie in concept, with this group of producers on board, I have higher expectations.

“Cowboys and Aliens” is based on a graphic novel / web-comic by the same name. The plot is obvious from the title. It stars Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde with Jon Favreau as director. I am cautiously optimistic this will be an entertaining film of mixed genre but I certainly do not expect to see it on the list of Oscar nominees. The film is due to be released in 2011.

I must admit I was disappointed when I researched Ron Howard’s preproduction movies. I was hoping to see movies that would match the brilliance of films like “a Beautiful Mind”, “Cinderella Man” and “Frost/Nixon”. I guess we will have to wait and see.

I am a huge fan of movies and television. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this article. I will be publishing more articles in the near future on post production, preproduction, and prerelease movies as well as reviewing some of my all time favorite movie and television productions.

Free Christmas Graffiti Activities to Do With Your Kids


It seems that Christmas is often all about they money. With the hubbub of Christmas shopping and lists of things to get done, we sometimes forget that Christmas is a chance to spend time with those we love the most. This is a list of ideas to help make the season a magical, not financial, celebration.

Spend an evening touring the classic Christmas lights: Go for a drive with the family and go see Christmas light. You can take a simple drive around town, cruising neighborhoods of friends and family. Many towns have areas that are more decorated, like a closed neighborhood or a downtown area. Park and bundle everyone up. Take a walk around; letting the kids pause at the places they love the most. Don’t forget to bring some thermoses of hot chocolate!

If you live in a snowy winter wonderland, get outside and enjoy it! Spend an afternoon sledding. If you don’t have sleds, cardboard works surprisingly well. Build snowmen in your front yard, dig snow caves in the hills, and roll around to make snow angels. If you rolling in the snow is too much for you, fill up spray bottles with water and food coloring. Take the kids outside to “paint” the snow. Snow graffiti is fun and cleans up by itself.

Another great activity is to play dress up with your girls by pulling out those Cinderella costumes, and dressing their dolls up to look like them. There are a lot of 18″ doll clothes out there, and there are a lot of them that will match children’s Christmas dresses. And of course there are 18″ doll clothes that will match a Cinderella costume! Take pictures of your little girl with her doll, and let her bring her matching doll with her when you go out for holiday celebrations. She will enjoy her matching companion, especially if she’s spending the evening with a lot of adults!

Baking sugar cookies with your kids is one of the most traditional ways to celebrate the holidays. Turn on some holiday music and help your kids cut out the cookies. Let them decorate. Even little ones can put sprinkles and treats on the frosting. Baking together gives a lot of time for conversation, and it gives your kids a sense of accomplishment to be able to make something they love to eat. To continue with the spirit of giving, put plates together with a few cookies on each plate. Put the children’s Christmas dresses on and go caroling with cookies to neighbors.

Help your children remember the meaning of Christmas by reading the story to them. Recently a Charles Dickens story, The Life of our Lord, was published and provides a simplified story version for younger kids. Often people act out the nativity story with their children. Try recording the nativity story; you children will love watching their acting, especially in the future years.

For a simple family evening, pop some popcorn and watch a Christmas movie together at home. The Charlie Brown Christmas movie is a classic for younger kids, and The Christmas Story is a hit with older generations. Each year, there are new Christmas movies released and it would be impossible to mention them all. Whatever the movie your family likes (maybe it’s a Bob the Builder Christmas!) take the time to have movie night together.

Whatever you do, take the time to give the best present to your children-the time with them that it takes to make a magical holiday.

Where Did Graffiti Begin


This modern history of graffiti began in the 60s in the West Coast of America, primarily Philadelphia. Some call this era the ground work era and it was artists such as Top Cat who began the evolution. Soon the movement spread to New York with writers inspired by their brothers across the country, resulting in ‘attacks’ of graffiti on trains as a method of political protest instead of directly violent acts. The style during this formative period in the history of graffiti is hard to discern with bubble lettering and wildstyle both being utilized heavily by different artists. However, as the movement moved forward into the 70s – the so called pioneering era, the wildstyle of Tracy 168 began to symbolize the arts movement.

At the same time in the history of graffiti, we can see a major rise in the sheer number of tags being created by artists, with mass bombing and tagging becoming more active. The size of the wo


rks began to increase with artists preferring to move into safer areas such as train depots so that they could create more intricate works. This included groups such as TF5 painting entire cars with the ever more popular spray paint.

This was to be the high water mark though in the history of graffiti as an underground art movement for the late 70s saw little innovation in the movement, probably strongly effected by the increased countermeasures employed by the city of New York. What resulted was a change in direction, away from a purely artistic and political focus into a musical collaboration with hip-hop which is still seen today.

That isn’t to say that was the end of graffiti, what followed in the history of graffiti was a period of acceptance by the art world at large for their style, most recently with the prominence of artists such as Banksy. However, graffiti has never strayed too far from it’s roots, with the Berlin Wall showing it’s continued power in the 1980s as a symbol of revolution. The same is true in Palestine today, and hence the basic goals which were present at the start of the history of graffiti still exist today.

Graffiti Style Writing Art


Today, graffiti is considered a form of art which is primarily used to express social or political views. The word originates from Italian and literally means scratched. Even in ancient times, graffiti was used as we can see in cave drawings, ruins, sepulchers and even pictographs. Some languages have originated for graffiti. One example is the Safaitic language, which is an ancient Arabic dialect.

The first modern graffiti style of writing was found in ancient Greece, in the city of Ephesus. This city is today located in Turkey. Similar sites have been found in Guatemala and Ireland.

Many people think that this art of writing is a complete waste of time and is not an art at all. However, this style helps us to understand the modern lifestyle and language. Writings invariably showcase the social condition in any era, and this style actually helps to showcase the mood of a particular period in history throw its graphical depictions.

In today’s world, this style of writing is seen as street art and has huge potential. However, defacing public property with this art or writing offensive messages is a crime and you should never indulge in it.

You can write in this style using chalk, spray paint, pastels or sparkles, but one of the most beautiful work of art can be created in the following manner.

First write the text in a fluid motion not sticking to any convention, uniformity or spacing between letters. Then thicken the letters by using double lines or making them into blocks. You can add a bit of artistry here by allowing the letters to overlap. Each letter should be legible but should not be a separate entity.

If you want, you can patterns to the letters while writing. Some common patterns used are serif or simple tail lines. However, if you use shadow lines, you can really bring out the written text to the forefront. You can use shadowing only on one side of the letter or add a shadow on every alternate letter on both sides. The choice is yours. Some graffiti artists use geometric shapes in such a way that they end up reading as text.

Once you have finished writing your text and adding all the special effects, it is time to color it. Use the same color to highlight similar patterns in the text. This will add life to your art.

After that, you can add special effects by using sparkle pens. And then, you are all set to stand back and admire your art.

They Say That Graffiti Can’t Be Considered As Art


I recently came across a newspaper article in which narrow minded people with a snobbish mentality seemed to deny graffiti the quality of being considered as art. As a defender of artistic expression and having quite a good knowledge of urban culture, I would like to raise my voice today in order to defend graffiti as a full part of urban culture that goes along with rap music, Djing and break dancing.

If we consider art to be the products of human creativity, then we should be aware that graffiti totally fit into that category.

Not only are graffiti an original way of artistic expression, those drawings are also the voice of the youth in the ghetto.

Narrow minded people who often live in a comfortable bubble gum world would preferably like to deny ghetto youths their own way of expressing.

Let me tell you something: if you consider Picasso’s Guernica as a modern artistic expression and you praise it by any means, then you should also consider graffiti as pieces of art.

Very often, the fear of the unknown prevents many people from discovering masterpieces. If you are afraid of Chinese people, for instance, how are you supposed to discover the colorful buildings of China Town in their whole beauty?

It is not because artistic expression is different from what you are used to that it should necessarily be considered as crap. Be open minded towards the unknown, explore different cultures, learn how to appreciate the difference and the originality of a genuine style that represents a culture.

Hip hop culture might be a subculture. It is nevertheless the voice of numerous people from the underground. Try to understand instead of shutting the voice of several generations down.

People using their spray bombs won’t ask you for permission while creating their picture. Their art is present de facto and there is probably nothing you can do about it if you don’t like it. Those people don’t have the means to pay for gallery exposure, but they want to be the representatives of a voice our governments would prompt to shut down.

Don’t censor a beauty that is still unveiled in front of your eyes: open your mind and try to understand the voice of the oppressed and underprivileged. If you really make the effort to go into detail, you will be able to see the hidden beauty of a human heart’s cry.

Off the Walls – Graffiti in the Gallery


The only way I know that the illustrator, designer and street artist Toofly’s real name is Maria Castillo is because that’s the name displayed with her e-mail address. I suppose I should be more cautious and say that I assume that it’s her real name. Frankly, I didn’t think it was important enough to ask her about.

The lady is getting a lot of ink these days. Maybe we need a new term for that; let’s say she’s propagating billions of editorial pixels. That would be in addition to the untold gazillions of pixels that her art generates on computer screens around the world, those well-lit but low-resolution 2D images that, try as they might, just can’t quite do justice to the lady’s work as seen in Real Life.

Started with comics Let’s back up a bit as long as we’re talking Real Life, and hip you to Toofly growing up in Corona, Queens (New York) “around some Italians and a lot of South American and Dominican families, in a small little one-family house” with her grandparents, mom, uncle, aunts and younger cousin. Toofly liked drawing as far back as she could remember, and confesses that she would “sneak into my uncle’s room and grab his X-Men comics and try to draw some of the female characters, especially Jean Grey”.

Those were the early days, the artist recalls, of “discovering what a strong female looked like.” Soon enough, when Toofly started at New York’s High School of Fashion Industries in 1991, she would discover what a strong female acted like, too. “I was taking fashion design classes but realized that I would much rather draw and paint than sew clothes. When I walked into a classroom with walls full of graffiti tags and character illustrations, that did it for me. I had discovered what I was meant to do.”

Street walls to Wall Street Toofly has since taken her street-wall sensibility into areas that Wall Street can relate to, like commerce. “I do a lot of everything these days,” she says, “and there’s always something new I’m doing. My freelance pretty much supports me, and everything else is extra fun stuff.” Even with her illustrations licensed for all manner of t-shirts, bags, totes and prints, she doesn”t claim to have “made it big,” and admits, “I just recently arrived to the gallery scene, and little by little I’m starting to send my press kit and proposals around to various corporations for those big commission deals. It’s got to be right though,” Toofly asserts, “because I’m not just going to do anything for money”.

Still, the fact she can make money today — with an art style born of equal parts bravado, talent and, quite often, misdemeanor trespass — testifies to her persistence as well as savvy marketing skills. It is also good timing for artists of her ilk to go legit, as the march of progress has made itself known in many urban areas by the presence of video surveillance cameras and other anti-graffiti measures. Whether it’s on canvas, a brick wall or a greeting card, Toofly says, art is still art. “I still have a purpose, and the freedom to dream up my own reality, and no one can take that away from me.”

Toofly has plenty of tools — spray cans, brushes, pens, crayons, chalk, mop heads, whatever works — and plenty of influences too, “from all over the place,” she says, “like fashion photography, graphic design and various contemporary and historic artists.” Comic (excuse me, graphic novel) illustrators like Jim Lee and Scott Campbell are faves, as she “grew up drawing their female characters.” Boris Vallejo’s fantasy painting was a strong influence, but perhaps the greatest influence was graffiti writer Sabe “because,” Toofly admits, “if it weren’t for his drawings and tags in those classrooms I may have ended up somewhere else.”

The Muses knock on a lot of doors at Toofly’s house. “I’m moved by emotional music,” Toofly says, “whether it’s Led Zeppelin, Muse or Mary J. Blige love songs. I also listen to freestyle and 90s hip-hop classics to get me back to my roots.” The lady is a virtual melting pot herself, and the rhythms of her life and times are easily discerned in the characters she draws, taut as coiled springs, energy ready to blow up into something new and unexpected.

Enjoying “every good moment” Besides all her work that people can find on the web (just the term “artist Toofly” will get you well over a thousand hits), she has some group gallery shows coming up, graffiti productions throughout New York’s five boroughs and various events where the artist will paint live or speak. Toofly is also starting to sell her line of products and art prints on her own site as well as different boutiques and lifestyle shops in the U.S., Europe and, soon, Japan.

Toofly has her priorities in order. She is involved in organizing and promoting youth workshops of various kinds, helping kids find places to create their art without ending up on video security tapes, trying to give back to the community that nurtured her. “I was given a chance to experience life, good and bad, to learn and have fun in it,” she reflects. “You have to accept that things do not last forever, so try to enjoy every good moment you can create. It helps to know that at the end of the day, I can fall and get up again, and if it’s not meant for me anymore, then that’s okay too.”

An Exploration Into New York Style Graffiti


Societies tempestuous history with modern graffiti can be traced along the LIRR tracks into the city. This unsolicited artistic expression surfaced in New York City in the late 1960s. Tags appeared in subway cars asserted by teens with permanent markers, to broadcast their name and street number. Eventually spray paint broadened the colors and scale of New York Style graffiti, earning it the name spray can art.

Subway art emerges from graffiti tags
Taggers were then overshadowed by artists exploring nonconventional canvas’ for their multicolored spray can productions. They quickly realized that the New York City transit system presented the optimal opportunity to broadcast their names on these traveling billboards called subway cars.

In the 1970s, the subway car exterior became the ideal vehicle to promote this growing phenomenon.Subway art emerged and suddenly these pieces were mobile, gaining momentous exposure with every stop. The days of spontaneous wall scribbling had progressed into sketched out compositions of line, form and style requiring technique and skill to execute.

Graffiti as a cultural icon
Although its reckless placement infringed on and damaged others personal property, graffiti had earned its status as a cultural icon. In fact, an impressive collaboration of notorious graffiti artists from Brazil, Canada, Japan and all over the United States have been immortalized and honored 5 Pointz in Long Island City. It is a living collage of graffiti art covering the entire 200,000 square foot exterior. A 5 story, block long complex of a converted warehouse that propels the art of graffiti into monumental proportions.

Graffiti Art History


Graffiti’s first roots began to appear in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the late 60s when a couple of young boys started tagging corn bread and cool earl all over the city until almost every where you looked you would see corn bread and cool earl written in trains walls windows etc. Soon this radical way of expression know as graffiti art caught the community and local press attention.

A few year later after the movement of cornbread and cool earl took notice many graffiti artist where slowly appearing in to the streets of Manhattan, but it wasn’t until the year 1971 when the new York times published an article about a young graffiti artist by the name of TAKI 183 a boy who had tagged all over the city capturing every ones attention do to the fact that you would literally see his name tagged across the entire city.

Taki 183 was employed as a foot messenger and was often moving threw out the hole city something he took advantage of by tagging his name every where he would be at walls, trains, windows, cars etc. But even thou he was the first graffiti artist to be recognized for his art he wasn’t the first to start writing in New York there where plenty of others before him. But his fame opened the doors to many other young artist that would start emerging from the streets of New York.

Very soon graffiti art became a way for young kids to express them self’s by tagging there names on walls or trains using anything from paint markers, spray paints, etc slowly graffiti art started moving from the streets on to sub ways and until it became very competitive that graffiti artist would write their names as man times as possible.

After a wile graffiti artist discovered that they where able to paint on the trains by sneaking in to the train yards. something that decreased the chance of getting caught so they started working more in to detailed pieces called bombs or bombing a popular way of graffiti that even today it still exists.

Once the trains started appearing with many types of colors and tagged the community started protesting and the trains where cleaned every time some one would paint on them after graffiti artists realized that there was no point in painting them they stopped and moved there art back on to the streets where it has remained up to this date.

But graffiti didn’t stay just in new York or Philadelphia it rapidly caught the attention of many young boys and girls around the world from one continent to an other. Today graffiti is well established in many of the most popular cities and each and every city containing there own unique style of graffiti art.

if you want to know more about graffiti art culture then go ahead and visit my website where you will be able to read news,view images, upload images, play games and much more, hurry up and click the link below.

Is Graffiti Art


You can travel almost anywhere in the world, and you will probably see graffiti. Although graffiti art is usually more common in big cities, the reality is that it can occur in almost any community, big or small.

The problem with graffiti art is the question of whether it’s really art, or just plain vandalism. This isn’t always an easy question to answer, simply because there are so many different types of graffiti. Some is simply a monochrome collection of letters, known as a tag, with little artistic merit. Because it’s quick to produce and small, it is one of the most widespread and prevalent forms of graffiti.

Although tagging is the most common type of graffiti, there are bigger, more accomplished examples that appear on larger spaces, such as walls. These are often multicolored and complex in design, and so start to push the boundary of whether they should really be defined as graffiti art.

If it wasn’t for the fact that most graffiti is placed on private property without the owner’s permission, then it might be more recognized as a legitimate form of art. Most graffiti art, however, is only an annoyance to the property owner, who is more likely to paint over it or remove it than applaud its artistic merit.

Many solutions have been put into practice around the world, with varying degrees of success. Paints have been developed that basically cause graffiti paint to dissolve when applied, or else make it quick and easy to remove. Community groups and government departments coordinate graffiti removal teams.

In some places you can’t buy spray paint unless you’re over 18. Cans of spray paint are locked away in display cases. In a nearby area the local council employs someone to go around and repaint any fences defaced by graffiti. A friend of mine has had his fence repainted 7 times at least, and it took him a while to find out why it was happening! Certainly the amount of graffiti in my local area has dropped substantially in the last year or two, so it appears these methods are working to a great extent.

But is removing the graffiti doing a disservice to the artistic community? Maybe if some of the people behind the graffiti art were taken in hand and trained, they could use their artistic skills in more productive ways. It hardly makes sense to encourage these artists to deface public property, and so commit a crime. But perhaps there are other ways to cooperate with the graffiti artists rather than just opposing them. Graffiti artists can create sanctioned murals for private property owners and get paid for it.

Maybe we need to start at a very basic level, and find a way to encourage the creation of graffiti art on paper or canvas, rather than walls. After all, who would remember Monet or Picasso if they’d created their masterpieces on walls, only to have them painted over the next day? Finding a solution to such a complex situation is never going to be easy, but as more graffiti art is being recognized in galleries around the world, we do need to try.

Call Out the Anti Graffiti Forces


Graffiti has been a problem in urban areas for decades, but it’s spread far beyond the city limits. ‘Taggers’ use anything from permanent felt markers to aerosol spray cans to leave their marks on anything that doesn’t move – or at least stays still long enough for them to leave their artwork on it. In the process, they rack up an impressive £200 million cleaning bill – footed by you, in the form of county taxes.

The manufacturers of markers and paints haven’t helped the matter much, either, though it’s only a side effect of them giving us what we want. When you apply a coat of paint to that porch chair, for example, you want a reasonable assurance that you won’t need to repaint it next month. Paint manufacturers put billions into researching ways to make their paints adhere to surfaces better and last longer. The end result – paints that will stay on your patio deck for decades. Unfortunately, those same paints are near to impossible to remove when they’re used to brand an innocuous business front with some tagger’s logo.

The solution being used by more and more municipal councils and private businesses is the application of anti graffiti finishes on any surface that is likely to collect signatures and the other expected drivel. Anti graffiti finishes come in several different types and offer differing levels of protection. While they don’t prevent graffitists from making their marks, they do ease the difficulty of cleanup – and if you’ve every been faced with a scrawled epithet on a white-washed wall, you know how important that can be.

Sacrificial anti graffiti coatings

One method of easing the removal of graffiti is the application of a coating of wax or acrylic that protects the surface beneath it. Anti graffiti wax is the least expensive short term solution, and may be suitable for a surface that isn’t likely to be targeted. Once the wax has been graffitied, the wax and graffiti are removed together by melting the wax, often with a stream of hot water. The drawback, of course, is that the sacrificial anti graffiti coatings are one use only. Once you’ve removed the graffiti, you need to reapply the wax to restore the protection.

Semi permanent anti graffiti coatings

A step up from the sacrificial coatings are semi permanent anti graffiti coatings. These are often based on polymers, polyesters, acrylics or epoxy and can be applied in multiple layers. While the graffiti agent – marker, paint or whatever – adheres to the coating, it doesn’t adhere to the wall or surface beneath it, and can be removed. Most often, removal will require the use of some chemical cleaner, and eventually, sometimes after only one or two cleanings, the anti graffiti barrier will have worn away, exposing the underneath surface.

Permanent anti graffiti coatings

Generally the most expensive up front of the anti graffiti measures, permanent anti graffiti coatings are likely to save money over the long run. The coatings are similar to those used in non-stick pans. They offer nothing for the paint or markers to adhere to, making it easy to simply whisk graffiti away with nothing more than soap and water.

Does Graffiti Qualify as Art


Since its birth, graffiti, or graffito in singular form, has always met two very conflicting views from people. For the conservatives, it is nothing more than a form of vandalism. For the modernists, it is an art form. Consisting from simple scratches to elaborate paintings on the wall, this art form is ancient and, like time, has evolved a hundred fold. In earliest times, the cavemen used it on the cave walls to depict their day to day activities, and the ancient Greeks used it in “modern style” to advertise prostitution. In this manner, the Greeks carved a handprint that looks like a heart beside a footprint and a number, indicating that a brothel is near.

The Romans used it to carve love poems, love letters, alphabets, slogans or any other messages that they want to convey to the public in general in a fast way, on their walls and monuments. For them, it was a way of advertising and easy information dissemination. Not only did they do the art form in letters, they also had it in pictures. An example of this would be a second century carving of a crucified donkey that many believe to be a depiction of Jesus Christ.

Despite the many reproofs, famous artists and painters had made use of it for plain amusement or for their profession. At one time, Renaissance artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Filippino Lippi, Pinturrichio, and Ghirlandaio went to visit Nero’s Domus Aurea ruins and carved, or painted, their names resulting to a new style of decoration of that era. A lot of evidences provide information that the Americans, the French, the Egyptians, the Malays, the Japanese and the Chinese of early times had also made use of it.

This just goes to show that no matter how hard some people refute and regard it as junk, this certain art form is part of their culture and history.

In this day and time, graffiti has evolved greatly and has become part and parcel of the hip hop society and culture. With the technology available at hand, instead of carving the messages or images on the walls, the ones who make use of this art form now make use of the most handy aerosol spray cans, making it the most used tool for the modern art form. Because of this, graffiti has become a street art form and along with it emerged new styles. The first one is the basic form called the tag style. Because of its ease in execution being just a representation of an artist’s name, it is most often used to gain recognition and as a signature of a larger piece. Next is where one makes a layer of color then outlines it with another color. This is called the throw-up style. Next style is the blockbuster style, which is made up of block letters making it very easy to read. The last style is called wild style and is made up of blended letters which are highly decorated.

Of Your Home Property Value Is Lost If Graffiti Is On


I am a Nevada State Licensed Contractor, I have been a contractor going on 29 years. We are all alarmed at the recent statistic shared by the California Realtors Board. Graffiti can negate your homes property value by up to 20%. If we try to get involved and confront the taggers we run the very high probability of getting shot. Two workers have been killed while removing graffiti and two women in different cities were killed when they just confronted the taggers. (I have attached the News clipping below!) I specialize in deciphering graffiti and identifying the gangs related to the markings. Graffiti is being used to sell products. If you look closely you might see My space names, Websites and even phone numbers. All are being tagged with the intent of selling everything from drugs to AK47′s.

I have been working with DOTs, DOE, Chambers of Commerce, and Gang Task Forces trying to help educate our many cities about graffiti and its vast effects. Here in the USA are spending over 40 Billion on graffiti and related issues.

1 The city of Chicago has set the standard of a 1.3 million fine for not removing graffiti in a reasonable amount of time.

2 This has caused all Public Works to feel financial pressure to paint over as much graffiti as possible a day. Matching colors is close to impossible with the factors of weather, oxidation, and UV degradation to compete with. The result of painting over the graffiti is now homes, buildings, and sound walls have a new problem. The graffiti is now hidden by a quilt of colors, all varying in sizes and shapes.

Everyone knows the new paint is hiding gang related symbols; the public still show signs of concern and fear in these areas. The vandalism is hidden but the new “Ghetto Quilt Effect” influences the price of properties and strain on businesses. The current paint over solution is in sharing failing. Gangs are using our walls to advertise sales of their products. I am not alone sharing this information; Timothy Kephart analyzed 450 tags and wrote his Master’s Thesis on this very subject.

3 Graffiti has been around a while, originally used to rebuke those in power. Gangs are in essence still rebuking the government, they freely use our highways, buildings and city walls to advertise the goods they are selling. Profits are gathered and in some gang structures those serving time distribute the profit. The “Ghetto Quilt Effect” is affecting all of us in one form or another. There is up to an 80% your customers will not return if graffiti is on your building. Preventative measures need to be taken as soon as you see the first patch. The only proven tactic is the application of anti graffiti coatings. When will our cities acknowledge the need for a long term strategy of protecting our cities walls and buildings from looking like the South Side of Chicago in the 70′s. Anti Graffiti coatings are the only proven deterrent to graffiti. Yes, they cost more than just painting over the graffiti a couple of times. I am against losing 20% of my homes value because the city is ignoring the cost of damages graffiti will be costing in the 10 years.

I have attached the news articles below

California | Local News Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times Judy Baca’s “Hitting the Wall,” under the 4th street bridge downtown, is a victim of graffiti vandals. Cal Trans has been painting over other murals in the area.

Baca: ‘shame’ on taggers’ parents Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Judy Baca’s “Hitting the Wall,” under the 4th street bridge downtown, is a victim of graffiti vandals. Cal Trans has been painting over other murals in the area.

By Andrew Blankstein and Ari B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
4:30 PM PDT, September 28, 2007

Frustrated by the rising toll of graffiti around Southern California, L.A. officials are vowing a new campaign to make the parents of teenage taggers more accountable for the vandalism.
Sheriff Lee Baca said today he wants to implement two new programs to address the rising level of tagging. Baca wants to force the parents of teenagers arrested for tagging to spend time talking to deputies at the jail about the consequences of graffiti. Baca said such meetings would result in a “higher level of shame” for parents who either allow their children to tag or can’t control them. For parents who need help, Baca wants to establish a hotline for them to call if they suspect their children are tagging. At the same time, County Supervisor Gloria Molina has proposed a special “graffiti court” to more efficiently death with juvenile graffiti case.

The court would deal exclusively with juvenile vandalism, establishing fines for parents whose kids repeatedly tag and billing them for cleanup costs.

“I’ve never met a gang banger or tagger that’s homeless. They all live somewhere and with someone,” Baca said. “The parents are not being held accountable.”

The moves come as the toll of graffiti mounts, with Caltrans and county officials reporting major spikes in tagging this year.

In fact, Caltrans has painted over several iconic murals on freeway walls because they were repeatedly defaced.

Recently, two women — one in Pico Rivera and one in Victorville — were fatally shot after confronting taggers. Reported graffiti incidents in areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department more than doubled between 2002 and 2006, from 2,083 to 4,274 — a record likely to be broken this year.

1. The California Association of Realtors gave us information on the decrease in property value in an area that has graffiti; they estimated that the decrease in sales price was approximately 20%. With the California Real Estate as it is, that is a huge loss, given that the current median home in California is $522,590, and last year there were 601,800 detached home sales, just as bare bones figure if graffiti went unchecked, You’re looking at 315 Billion is sales and if you use the 20%, you have a possible loss of 63 Billion a year!.. This is California alone…. of course the graffiti problem does not affect all homes sales, but in the higher priced areas, San Fran, Sacramento, LA, Orange County, homes cost upwards of $800,000 or more, so it is all relative. Just an interesting figure…..

2. Chicago, IL. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) announced today that Judge David H. Coar of the United States District Court in Chicago has entered a $1.3 million Consent Decree resolving an EEOC racial and sexual harassment lawsuit against Foster Wheeler Constructors, Inc. (“Foster Wheeler”). The lawsuit, which EEOC filed in 1998, arose from complaints EEOC received regarding racial and sexual harassment at a Foster Wheeler construction project in Robbins, Illinois. The harassment included racist and sexist graffiti in portable toilets at the Robbins site

3. Timothy Kephart, a Carson crime analyst, graduate student at California State University-Long Beach, and president of Crime Prevention and Graffiti Consulting, analyzed more than 450 gang graffiti photographs in the Carson area for his master’s thesis. “It became clear that gangs were using graffiti to actually communicate,” he says.

4. In this same article, James Q. Wilson, UCLA criminologist and framer of the “broken windows” theory, states that signs of disorder in society–such as graffiti, abandoned cars, broken windows, and uncollected trash-frighten law-abiding Citizens into avoiding public places. Those places are then left to criminals who further deface them, creating a downward spiral in which the fear of crime leads to an increase in criminal activity. The presence of graffiti discourages citizens from shopping or living in affected areas. As established businesses relocate or close, new businesses might be reluctant to move into areas where customers would feel unsafe. As property values decline and law-abiding citizens with resources move, once-thriving neighborhoods can quickly degrade into dangerous places. Statistic show there is up to an 80% chance patrons, will not return if they fear current gang activity on your property thus, the seemingly trivial offense of graffiti ultimately can have devastating consequences for a community.

Stop Graffiti Vandalism With Good Planning


Graffiti vandalism is a $250,000,000.00 per year problem in Australia, and rising. It affects nearly every sector of every Australian community. Installing a security camera is one of the most effective ways to curb the problem and reduce the cost to stop graffiti.

This article will look at 3 major areas affected by the problem:

1) Public Building and School Security,
2) Business Security, and
3) Home Security, and will examine the effect of using security cameras to deter crime.

Graffiti vandalism is on the rise in Australia. In fact, the number of graffiti incidents doubled between 2001 and 2008 (the most recent years for which stats are available). The Australian government and concerned citizens are pushing for greater awareness of the problem, as evidenced in the recent “Keep Australia Beautiful” campaign. They are working toward reducing incidents as well as understanding why people participate in this type of crime.

Precious government funds are being diverted from other areas in order to fight this scourge in public areas. Business and property owners are being hit in the wallet too – everyone agrees that preventing graffiti vandalism is more efficient and less costly than cleaning it up afterward.

The problem is, Police can’t be everywhere at once of course, and most private citizens and small business owners can’t afford to hire security staff to deter the problem. So, what to do? It is good to catch offenders and prevent them from becoming re-offenders, but the best solution is preventing the act altogether. Using a security camera is one of the least expensive methods of preventing and deterring this crime.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) is a system of security cameras which transmit to private receivers, called DVRs (digital video recorders). Any number of security cameras can be utilised to observe graffiti vandalism hotspots. The data may be viewed from the camera as a live feed in real time, or recorded in the DVR for viewing later.

Often, a security camera in plain view is enough to deter a would-be vandal from acting in the first place. And if not, the data recorded during a crime is frequently used to identify and charge a criminal that isn’t discouraged by security cameras.

Unfortunately, statistics indicate that once an area is targeted by vandals, it’s more likely to be targeted again and again. A CCTV system can help identify potential problem spots and keep them from being hit repeatedly.

Anyone owning or managing property can benefit from installing a security camera in other ways than just reducing incidents of graffiti vandalism. Those who can benefit include:

1) Government Offices and Public Buildings (Schools, Hospitals, Rail Stations)

Schools are the most frequently targeted buildings by graffiti vandals. Other commonly-targeted public structures include statues, monuments, overpasses & underpasses, and utility boxes.

Installing CCTV systems in and around these areas may do more than reduce graffiti. Security cameras may record other types of crimes in progress and give police valuable leads to solving them. Cameras in and around schools can also reduce the occurrence of fights and bullying, and generally keep students and staff safer.

2) Corporations or Businesses Looking to Increase Their Business Security

These are the second most frequently targeted structures. Business owners in areas where graffiti vandalism is rampant can install a CCTV security camera system to stop graffiti and solve other types of business crime, too. It can also help to reduce internal theft and keep employees and customers safe.

3) Private Property or Homeowners Concerned About Home Security

Occupied private homes are less frequently targeted than other structures. However, other things on private property, such as walls fences, may be vandalised. This is because they are usually located away from the occupied home and are thus more secluded and vulnerable.

By contrast, unoccupied homes are understandably a magnet for graffiti vandalism. These structures are often chronically targeted and may become problematic to manage without some type of deterrent.

A security camera system is such a deterrent, whether a property is occupied or not. It discourages not only vandalism but also theft, breaking and entering, unlawful occupation and trespassing. Additionally, it protects occupants (if any) from crimes like home invasions and burglaries.

In Conclusion

Criminals do not like to be watched. Statistics bear out the theory that a security camera (or group of security cameras) decreases the likelihood that a building, structure or area will be targeted with graffiti, and it may be the only way to prevent a vulnerable structure from becoming a chronic target.

Graffiti Art History


Graffiti’s first roots began to appear in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the late 60s when a couple of young boys started tagging corn bread and cool earl all over the city until almost every where you looked you would see corn bread and cool earl written in trains walls windows etc. Soon this radical way of expression know as graffiti art caught the community and local press attention.

A few year later after the movement of cornbread and cool earl took notice many graffiti artist where slowly appearing in to the streets of Manhattan, but it wasn’t until the year 1971 when the new York times published an article about a young graffiti artist by the name of TAKI 183 a boy who had tagged all over the city capturing every ones attention do to the fact that you would literally see his name tagged across the entire city.

Taki 183 was employed as a foot messenger and was often moving threw out the hole city something he took advantage of by tagging his name every where he would be at walls, trains, windows, cars etc. But even thou he was the first graffiti artist to be recognized for his art he wasn’t the first to start writing in New York there where plenty of others before him. But his fame opened the doors to many other young artist that would start emerging from the streets of New York.

Very soon graffiti art became a way for young kids to express them self’s by tagging there names on walls or trains using anything from paint markers, spray paints, etc slowly graffiti art started moving from the streets on to sub ways and until it became very competitive that graffiti artist would write their names as man times as possible.

After a wile graffiti artist discovered that they where able to paint on the trains by sneaking in to the train yards. something that decreased the chance of getting caught so they started working more in to detailed pieces called bombs or bombing a popular way of graffiti that even today it still exists.

Once the trains started appearing with many types of colors and tagged the community started protesting and the trains where cleaned every time some one would paint on them after graffiti artists realized that there was no point in painting them they stopped and moved there art back on to the streets where it has remained up to this date.

But graffiti didn’t stay just in new York or Philadelphia it rapidly caught the attention of many young boys and girls around the world from one continent to an other. Today graffiti is well established in many of the most popular cities and each and every city containing there own unique style of graffiti art.

if you want to know more about graffiti art culture then go ahead and visit my website where you will be able to read news,view images, upload images, play games and much more, hurry up and click the link below.