i had a great discussion recently with a well-known graffiti artist within our youtube
graffiti space. i'm sure most of you have heard of him. if you have any guesses put them down there.
anyway, long story short i was complaining about how this one writer at my local free wall spot
that you're going to be seeing some painting footage of today always thinks he can dictate
how other people are doing graffiti. and this led Grim and i to have a discussion about if graffiti
specifically as an art form is influenced by the culture surrounding graffiti, or the traditions,
values, rules and customs of the art, or vice versa. or is graffiti art and graffiti culture
two totally separate things. oh wait, whoa whoa wait wait, did i just say Grim? yeah, i mean that
would make sense because that's who i was talking to and none of you saw it coming! but yeah, about
a month ago Grim and i had this uh little chat. and everything's good between us of course. but
it was that chat that's the reason we both have videos coming out for you guys to watch today!
Grim and i both want to start a discussion with all of you guys today about if graffiti as an
art form is affected by graffiti culture, or if they're just two totally separate things. in fact
at the end of the video i'll link on screen for you Jon's video on the topic as well. and it'll of
course be in the description for you to check out. so as i get into painting whatever scrap can piece
at that free wall you're seeing, let me give you an example of graffiti culture; at this free
wall pretty much everyone agrees that because it's a free wall the whole wall is fair game.
anyone can paint there. you can paint whatever you want. my personal rule is if you can burn it or
at least come close, you can paint over it. and it's that mutual understanding between graffiti
artists that that is a rule, that is an aspect of graffiti culture here. it's a rule, value,
generally widespread understanding. but if you actually think about it, that rule itself actually
has nothing to do with graffiti. that could be the same way that people who paint nothing but smiley
faces and roses decide if they can paint over each other's work. the rule itself is actually totally
separate from graffiti as an art form. and this is sort of where i'd love to get everyone else's
opinions on this because my next question is, okay are there any sort of aspects of graffiti culture
or rules that directly affect graffiti art as an art form? and i'll tell you what I think,
but first i sort of want to make like a loose argument for both sides of the conversation here.
and to start i think it's almost easiest to argue that graffiti as an art form is not affected at
all by graffiti culture simply because graffiti art itself is explicitly directed sort of by
artistic concepts, a lot of which Grim explains really well over on The Artist Block by the way.
But by that logic, because graffiti culture isn't about if you're managing your negative space well
or if your letters create a balanced piece, hell no it doesn't affect what graffiti art is
or does! to put it in visual terms, whatever scrap can piece you're seeing on screen right now
that I'm painting, i didn't actually have to consider anything about graffiti culture
to paint that piece. but... it's not that simple... i painted that piece where i did
because the rules of the free wall sort of dictated where i could acceptably paint that
piece, within the graffiti culture I mean. and don't get me wrong, that's very different than
directly affecting something about a graffiti piece, but i think we're one argument away here
about how the environment of an artistic piece is actually part of the piece or something like that,
away from saying now that the culture is affecting graffiti as an art form. so as
you can see we might be on a bit of a slippery slope here. so for the argument specifically
that the two are totally separate, the only thing that i think i can say is that graffiti
culture doesn't actually have any impact on artistic concepts obviously. and i swear to god,
i swear to god if any of you are about to say anything about anti-style...[...]
you. but on a personal note, i don't think that graffiti art is just the artistic
concepts and the letters. graffiti culture can still dictate a lot of different things
about graffiti. for example even since the days of Taki 183 there has been a mentality that you must
get up as much as possible everywhere, or at least that's been a prominent aspect of
graffiti culture in the past. and that mentality, although not necessarily related to graffiti art,
has influenced where millions and millions of Tags, Throws N Pieces have been done for 50-plus
years! by the way i think i'm running a sale right now on these shirts. You can check that out. it's
it's down there. But hell that mentality or aspect of graffiti culture is solely responsible for the
birth of the freight and train graffiti scene as a whole! so really what i'm trying to say here is
the culture having held that value so high of getting your name up everywhere for so so long
has influenced the actions of graffiti artists and graffiti writers for a long long time. and
i think that that is worth something to the art form, if that makes sense.. think of it this way.
if graffiti art was just the artistic concepts and the letters involved in it, then it would
just be... art I guess. and i don't think graffiti is just art. there are even many graffiti writers
who argue that graffiti is not art at all. they're [...] wrong for the most part, but they they say
that. and because i don't think graffiti is just art i do think it is graffiti culture that gives
it that something more almost. and i know i'm not enunciating my point probably very clearly at all
here, but i think it's the values and culture of graffiti in the past which influences the attitude
that graffiti is made with today. and i don't know if that makes graffiti culture part of graffiti
art. i'd love to get your opinions on that. but i do know for me as variable as graffiti artists
are, as people and as artists, it just feels wrong for graffiti art and the culture surrounding it to
be completely independent from one another. and i think there may be some pretty strong argument to
be made somewhere about how graffiti culture does influence graffiti art and vice versa,
but they become more mutually exclusive over time as the variance between graffiti communities and
individual graffiti artists increases, but i'm not interested in trying to figure out
how to make that argument. what i am interested in is reading what all of you think about this.
is graffiti art and graffiti culture separate or are they influenced by each other? let me know!
i guarantee you i will read your comment show it some love with a reply. and not only that i know
Grim is also going to be interested in all of your opinions as well, so leave a comment down
there for him and make sure that you check out his video on the subject as well! it's on screen
right now. i haven't seen that video yet, so if you're watching this when this video comes out,
i'm probably over there right now watching his video. i will see you guys there. peace!