Graffiti/Street Art [lotsa pichers]
 

Growing up first in the jungle, and then in the bush, I never really got the taste of an urban environment until high school. Even then it was more of a suburban one than something full of tall buildings, cluttered pavements, dirt, grime and honking horns. Hobart itself is only classified as a city because it would be embarrassing for the state to have a Capital Town rather than a Capital City. So when hip-hop culture finally hit me, I was hit pretty hard. I think it was Ill-Communication that did it.

Hardly anyone in school was into hip-hop, apart from me and a few Filipino guys, but we made do. Being a DJ was too expensive, being a MC was too popular, and break dancing was too hard, so I chose graffiti. Cans of paint were cheap, and tagging was easy. Sure I didn't have any sort of artistic skill, but neither did anyone else my age so it didn't matter. I'm glad that nothing remains of my 'work' though.

Stencils seemed like the perfect avenue for me, since I had nobody to teach me real graffiti writing, so I spent a lot of time doing those. To be honest I thought they were pretty good, at the time. I had a silhouette of 5 WWII soldiers fighting that I used to put everywhere, and my girlfriend helped me make a multi-layered one of the Beastie Boys that looked really good, but nothing remains of those now. Getting Hello Nasty around 2001 and hearing Mixmaster Mike turned me into the wannabe DJ that I could never convince my parents to let me be, so I gave up stencils. Seeing some works by Banksy on a trip to Bristol revived it for little while though. Seeing 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' has given me a familiar feeling in my stomach that I used to get before leaving the house at night to go and deface public/private property.

So anyway, I've always loved street art in all it's forms. I spent some time as a 'toy' watching other guys spray their pieces for a while, and I'm always very impressed with what my small city-esque town can achieve as far as talent is concerned.

I'd like people to post in this thread photos of street art in their area. If I wanted to see the best stuff from NYC/Paris trains I could Google it, so local graffiti is more interesting. I'm sure there are a lot of better stuff out there in Europe and the US than what Hobart is capable of, and I'd like to see it.

I've got loads of pictures and I'll post them all if people are interested. NOTE: NOT BY ME.




Above speech bubble says: "What a waste of time and resources"

MY PHOTOS, NOT MY ART

University of Michigan students aren't very creative. :<


New Yorkers are better.

Actually I think it's the other way around. The b/w-portrait-wit-colour style is pretty popular.

I like the mega man. I takes time to make a multi-layered stencil like that. :>

I nearly dropped my camera and broke my feet getting this one.

Did it strike you dumb with its lustful gaze?

Nah, it gazed into my heart and saw that I was pure, so it cast me assunder :(

Also when walking backwards I tripped down some stairs.

A new piece just showed up on my streets, I'll have to take a picture of it.

:lol

D:

Cool.

I saw a lot of graffiti in Buenos Aries and Rio. will contribute
Update: Okay, as promised, here:
This first one is on the wall of a church, right across from the hotel I stayed at in BA.


I don't remember where these next ones are from





Don't let their smile fool you..they're up to something.



They're a lot more artistic in Brazil.

That's all for now, but I'll post more later if you guys are interested.

Yeah, I'm interested, it's all good. Brazil graf is awesome, by the way. They have a very unique style there called pichacao, which means something in Portugese I would assume.


Points for recognition!

Oh you.

It's crooked and the edges aren't cut out right and it's generally shit... but I got the same old rush of being a vandal once again, so I'm going to do more.



I'm going to make one the size of a house and post it on the side of a skyscraper. Mark my words.

Hmm, I just noticed that I posted some pictures twice. Oh well. Here are some other examples of wheatpasting. Not mine.



The 'weld' is a rainforest in Tasmania that's being logged, fyi.


Same one by me, I've got another image lined up to take to the printers though, and I'll make it much bigger since this one is so small (A3 seems bigger when you look at the blank paper...). A car drove past when I did this and in that brief second I suddenly imagined myself running from and being caught by the police, and then spending the rest of my life in gaol. Because I'm a rebel. No, I am.

That is tiny. :(

Fuck off I'm trying >:

ALL I MEANT WAS THAT YOU SHOULD TRY HARDER

Oh, I see. Sorry.

CUZ YOU SUCK

The first set of pictures are friggin' awesome. Batman, the "D:" guys and mustache mural are my favorites. I'd actually try to take this up but I'd end up losing too much of a stencil just by being outside to make the effort worth it. I also shit a massive brick being any where near society. I'm assuming taggers adopt from the local foster home and roam the wilds until they get a dingo to give chase, there's no way those stencils could be whole by the time you've climbed over a fence. Man, street people be crazy skilled. Especially down unda'.

Is there a way to polish or glaze over wheat paste? My virginity just called I'm really in the mood for embracing it. Porno mache fleshlights and didlydo's ya'll.

PS WE ALL MUST BEGIN SOMEWHERE ZHUKOV!! SOMEWHERE!

Edit: Sorry for the ignorance (ha ha yeah right) but who is that dapper man you glued on the door?

Hmmm, not entirely sure what you just said. "Being near society" isn't a problem; you do it when nobody is looking, and hopefully nobody is anywhere near you either.

Also, you keep your stencils folded up and in a folder, seperated by wax paper to keep the paint sticking. Depending on what you use a stencil wont last very long though; printer paper for instance only lasts a few sprays before it's not worth keeping. Cereal box cardboard is good, but you can't have too much detail. I used the recycled paper bags from a local record store - they were thick, the perfect size, and I had lots of them.

Spray a clear gloss spray over the poster if you want it shiny. You can get that from art stores. If you want it thick and hard then just add more paste.

I wouldn't call yourself ignorant for not knowing who is in my poster, either.

Well, turns out printing a picture out in A2 size costs a god damn fortune, so I decided to get some marker pens (don't know what you call them in the US... fat tipped pens filled with paint?) and make something from scratch. By scratch I mean copying something else.