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+<br />
The<br />
DrawBridge<br />
Street Art, Graffiti Issue<br />
BIP<br />
INTERVIEW<br />
12 YEAR-OLD<br />
CAVE<br />
TENDERLOIN<br />
?<br />
1
Paint Life
Contents n August<br />
Down the<br />
Rabbit<br />
Hole<br />
Street Art<br />
BiP<br />
Guess<br />
Cave<br />
Randoms<br />
4<br />
8<br />
11<br />
14<br />
16<br />
3
STREET ART<br />
VS<br />
GRaffITi<br />
10 WAYS TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STREET ART<br />
AND GRAFFITI<br />
Written By Lindsey Bartlett & Ariana Palafox<br />
S<br />
an Francisco spends $20<br />
million annually cleaning up<br />
graffiti. Complaints are made<br />
and what one person may<br />
think is beautiful another<br />
may see vandalism. The term<br />
“graffiti” has a negative conotation associated<br />
with it, yet the term “street art” gets<br />
praised. So how exactly do you distiguish<br />
street art from graffiti?<br />
Public Works works under the common assumption<br />
that the presence of graffiti “creates an<br />
environment that breeds bigger crimes.” But to<br />
the untrained eye, graffiti is not so far off from<br />
street art, a hot commodity in the city — and for<br />
that matter, trained eyes often don’t separate<br />
the two, either.<br />
“To me, it’s like asking what’s the difference<br />
between two different forms of art,” says graffiti<br />
and street-art photographer Gary Glasser.”We<br />
see art in all forms. I shoot murals, large and<br />
small. Colorful and not so colorful. Some of it<br />
may be considered graffiti.. all of it is art.”<br />
“What I feel is that street art is basically<br />
gentrified graffiti,” says another artist. “I used to<br />
be obsessed with graffiti, but I didn’t have anyone<br />
to do it with so my efforts fizzled out pretty<br />
early. I used to spend hours looking at graffiti<br />
online and in books. Now that I paint on the<br />
street, I think that traditional, letter-based graffiti<br />
is too constricting for me — but I still really<br />
love and respect it. Those guys risk<br />
everything for what they do.”<br />
“To me, they are all the same, honestly,” says<br />
artist PJ Sierra. “But graffiti is more so a ‘name/<br />
tag’ skill which involves crews and rattlecans.<br />
Street art is a hybrid of what graffiti is today.<br />
The difference, in my opinion, is the times. Because<br />
eventually, graffiti and street art will both<br />
be known as self-expression. And whether you’re<br />
a graff writer or a street artist, your goal is the<br />
same: To prove we existed on this earth by<br />
leaving our mark.”<br />
Still, that leaves a dilemma: Some residents of<br />
the city view these marks as vandalism, while<br />
many consider them art. But there are ways to<br />
distinguish the difference — and least legally,<br />
historically and culturally — and here are ten of<br />
them.<br />
“In essence, they are both the same,” says<br />
street artist Victoriano Rivera. “Each realm is<br />
a vessel that acts against the establishment,<br />
illegally applying paint or medium to an urban<br />
landscape. The difference being that one is a<br />
cultural movement; the other, a derivative of that<br />
movement, is now a commodity.”<br />
4
10) Graffiti Artists Have Crews<br />
Most graffiti artists crew up. In<br />
“Tagging Up,” Westword<br />
explored the complex<br />
relationships within the graffiti<br />
world, as well as the massive size<br />
of the community: An estimated<br />
seventy-seven crews are working<br />
in San Francisco; a couple of<br />
the largest are TMF and TWS.<br />
But then again, there are graffiti<br />
writers who don’t identify with<br />
a crew at all. Rogue writers who<br />
tag on their own include some of<br />
the most prolific graffiti writers<br />
in San Francisco. Unlike graffiti<br />
writers, street artists don’t tend<br />
to work their way up the<br />
hierarchy of a crew; they often<br />
come straight from the studio<br />
into the street-art scene.<br />
9) Graffiti Is Harder to Read<br />
There are many types of<br />
graffiti. Wildstyle is the most<br />
difficult graffiti signature to read;<br />
it has its own language. Then<br />
there is the tag, a signature using<br />
just one color, and the most<br />
common type of graffiti seen in<br />
San Francisco. A throw-up is a<br />
signature that uses two or three<br />
colors, but is still done quickly.<br />
There are also wheat pastes,<br />
stencils, slaps (stickers), bubble<br />
graffiti, block busters and “bombing,”<br />
which refers to the speed<br />
with which the work is done and<br />
focuses on quantity over quality.<br />
8) Graffiti Gets “Dissed”<br />
The hierarchy within the<br />
graffiti world is also a factor,<br />
reflecting years of conflict that<br />
include instances of artists<br />
tagging over other artists, or<br />
“dissing” the graffiti on the wall,<br />
because of long-standing rivalries<br />
between their<br />
respective crews. Sanctioned<br />
murals are less likely to get<br />
dissed: When murals are authorized<br />
by the city or businesses —<br />
particularly on “problem walls,”<br />
places where graffiti tends to pop<br />
up the most — 99 percent of the<br />
time graffiti writers will<br />
respect the art that is put there.<br />
If it’s beautiful and complex,<br />
taggers leave it alone.<br />
7) Street Artists Use<br />
Different Modes of Painting,<br />
Graffiti Artists Use Aerosol<br />
Aerosol is one of the major<br />
factors that separates<br />
graffiti writers from other<br />
artists. Although street artists<br />
may use aerosol, they also employ<br />
everything from acrylic and<br />
oil paint to projectors, wood or<br />
metal, and multimodal materials.<br />
Graffiti is all about the freehand<br />
use of aerosol. That’s the art’s<br />
defining factor, and as most<br />
aerosol artists will tell you, it<br />
takes years to perfect.<br />
“To me,<br />
it’s like<br />
asking<br />
what’s the<br />
difference<br />
between two<br />
different<br />
forms of<br />
art.”<br />
6) Street Artists Paint in<br />
Broad Daylight<br />
If you see artists painting<br />
during the day or early<br />
evening hours in San Francisco,<br />
they are probably creating<br />
street art. Street artists are<br />
also sometimes given lifts<br />
by the company that hired<br />
them. Graffiti writers almost<br />
always paint in the middle of<br />
the night or early morning to<br />
insure not getting caught.<br />
5) Street Art Is Abstract<br />
Many local street artists have<br />
the ability to move from the<br />
studio to the street without<br />
limitations; they simply consider<br />
themselves<br />
artists. Similarly, street art is<br />
often called urban art, public<br />
art or outdoor art, all politically<br />
correct terms that attempt<br />
to distance street art from<br />
graffiti’s bad reputation.<br />
4) Street Artists Use and Sign<br />
With Full Name<br />
A great sign that you’re<br />
looking at street art rather<br />
than graffiti is the signature<br />
on the bottom right corner of<br />
the piece. Often including an<br />
Instagram username or the<br />
creator’s full name, it is like a<br />
modern version of an artist’s<br />
signature on a canvas.<br />
Graffiti writers in San Francisco<br />
work under pseudonyms, often<br />
“Super Hero” identities. Street<br />
artists who were once graff<br />
writers usually pick a new<br />
name or begin working under<br />
their real name.<br />
5
3) Street Artists Talk to the<br />
Press<br />
If you can Google an artist<br />
whose work is on the streets,<br />
that person is usually a street<br />
artist. Graffiti writers are<br />
reluctant to talk to the press,<br />
because most of the work<br />
they have done is illegal and<br />
they run the risk of being<br />
apprehended for work they<br />
may have done years ago.<br />
Artist Shepard Fairey, creator<br />
of the iconic Hope poster for<br />
Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential<br />
campaign, was recently<br />
arrested in Los Angeles after<br />
the Detroit Police Department<br />
issued warrants for his arrest<br />
on two counts of malicious<br />
destruction of property — for<br />
acts he allegedly committed<br />
years before.<br />
2) Graffiti is Ever-Changing<br />
You are less likely to see a graffiti<br />
piece survive the test of<br />
time — and not just because SF<br />
Public Works will buff it out. Even<br />
on permission walls, graffiti is<br />
constantly being adding to and<br />
painted over: It is the most temporary<br />
form of artwork. In contrast,<br />
much of the famous street<br />
art in San Francisco will be remain<br />
untouched for at least a year,<br />
and some celebrated murals will<br />
be kept intact for years.<br />
1. Street Art Is Sanctioned,<br />
Graffiti Is Not<br />
Street art and graffiti both<br />
make San Francisco more<br />
colorful; they make artistic<br />
and political statements that<br />
reflect the culture of our city.<br />
In the end, the biggest difference<br />
between the two is not<br />
style, but the fact that graffiti<br />
is illegal while street art is<br />
sanctioned. “Street art is the<br />
evolution of graffiti,” concludes<br />
artist Anthony Garcia<br />
Sr., a Westword MasterMind.<br />
Key Terms<br />
Graffiti<br />
By Kate<br />
6<br />
-graffiti: Writings or drawings which<br />
are scribbled,scratched, or sprayed<br />
illicitly on a wall or other public surface<br />
-Wildstyle: commonly includes a set<br />
of arrows, curves and letters which<br />
have been so transformed as to<br />
be rendered arcane to the eyes of<br />
non-graffiti artists. It has also been<br />
common practice to incorporate<br />
3D elements into the pieces. Letter<br />
structures are therefore rendered<br />
to add depth of visual perception of<br />
the work. Many artists have different<br />
elements to add to their wildstyle that<br />
gain that writer a good deal of respect<br />
within the graffiti scene, especially<br />
if one creates his or her own style<br />
and stays original and creative. Veteran<br />
artists tend to go for more complicated<br />
forms of wildstyle in which the types<br />
are hard to read but broad in creativity.<br />
Getting one’s style mastered is key to<br />
achieving this success.<br />
-tag: a simple letter font that a writer<br />
uses as their alter ego to mark surfaces<br />
with, like a signature.<br />
-piece: short for masterpiece is generally<br />
a thought out body of work including<br />
intricate letter structure, sometime characters<br />
and other elements are included.<br />
-production: A collaboration of artists<br />
creating a singular “piece” or multiple<br />
“pieces” alongside each other, some with<br />
matching color schemes or overlapping<br />
themes.<br />
-all city: term writers use to declare that<br />
they have tagged their whole city or that<br />
they want to go “all-city” tagging every<br />
neighborhood in their city.<br />
-bomb: generally a quick 2 letter or<br />
shortened version of their tag name<br />
created in a hollow/bubble/straight<br />
letter structure that is bigger than a<br />
tag but smaller than a piece. This is<br />
more about quantity.<br />
-throw up: The same idea as the<br />
bomb but can be the whole tag name<br />
instead of a shortened version.<br />
-toy: someone new to graffiti or<br />
lacks common sense on the rules or<br />
isn’t very good style wise.<br />
-king: someone who has put in<br />
immense work in their scene that is<br />
respected by a large body of people.<br />
Generally someone who is either<br />
known for their style abilities or the<br />
quantity of their works one can find.<br />
-side bust: someone who places their<br />
tag/throwup/piece right next to another<br />
persons without their knowledge<br />
sometimes overlapping their work.
This is an insult.<br />
-hack/dis/cap: in any scene there are people who do not<br />
like each other and in the world of graffiti you can demonstrate<br />
that by destroying someone else’s’ work by either<br />
marking a line through their work (hack/dis) or going over<br />
their work (cap).<br />
-bubble letters: a letter structure, very bubble like, no hard<br />
lines can be found in this letter structure.<br />
-characters: a cartoon or stylized version of a non-letter<br />
form (think of a cartoon character)<br />
-euro style: a European stylized way of writing graffiti that<br />
was influenced from old 80s New York train style letter/<br />
character from.<br />
-burner: generally a throw up or a piece that has been<br />
intact at a location for a long period of time. Burned into a<br />
surface, long lasting.<br />
-getting up: the act of doing illegal graffiti.<br />
-mural: generally a legal form of art work on a wall/public<br />
space. Can use any mediums.<br />
-street art: a style of art that has influences from graffiti,<br />
(use of spray paint, letter structure, scenery or lifestyle<br />
depicting urban subculture.) Can be both legal and illegal<br />
forms of street art. The artists themselves can have<br />
a background in graffiti but their main focus is generally<br />
performing larger more thought out bodies of work.<br />
-moniker: generally a character along with a nickname.<br />
The term moniker generally refers to hobo graffiti where<br />
hobos would mark different train cars as a calling card or<br />
marking their trips/life along the way.<br />
-writer/graffiti writer: identity, someone who writes illegal<br />
graffiti would be known as a writer or graffiti writer.<br />
-stencil: a cut out of an image used with spray paint generally<br />
to mark a surface. The most well known stencil artist<br />
would be Banksy.<br />
-straight letters: a straight letter structure style/form of<br />
graffiti. Generally used to be large scale so it can be read<br />
from far away.<br />
-Grilled: a surface that is covered by tags or throw-ups on<br />
a single area.<br />
7
INTERVIEW WITH<br />
BiP<br />
Oakland<br />
Can I meet up with you sometime?<br />
Sorry, staying anonymous demands paranoia.<br />
Why are you still anonymous?<br />
Most of my smaller work is illegal, and I don’t want the<br />
distraction of maintaining a public image.<br />
Why don’t you do interviews?<br />
Don’t have much to say that wouldn’t<br />
look better on a wall.<br />
Will you paint my wall?<br />
Talk to my producer at representative[at]BIPgraffiti.com.<br />
Be prepared<br />
for me to paint an original piece of art<br />
without content guidelines. No amount of<br />
money changes that.<br />
How do you pronounce your name? Acronym or one<br />
word?<br />
Absolutely does not matter. Do your thing.<br />
8
San Fransico<br />
San Francisco<br />
Vallejo<br />
San Fransico<br />
San Fransico<br />
9
Grass Roots<br />
1077 Post St SF<br />
10<br />
Relax your Hamster
Street Art<br />
or<br />
Graffiti?<br />
Tenderloin<br />
District<br />
Pop quiz! Which pieces are street<br />
art and which are considered<br />
graffiti in this neighborhood of<br />
the month!?<br />
11
1<br />
1. Olive<br />
& Polk<br />
2. Hemlock<br />
& Polk<br />
2<br />
3. Alice B.<br />
Toklas<br />
& Polk<br />
4. Olive<br />
& Larkin<br />
3<br />
12
5. Olive<br />
& Polk<br />
4<br />
6. Austin<br />
& Polk<br />
7. Post<br />
& Larkin<br />
5<br />
Answers on<br />
pg. 16<br />
7<br />
6<br />
13
Cave<br />
The 11 year-old Street grafitti artist<br />
Written by Ariana Palafox<br />
A<br />
n 11 year-old graffiti artist. Damn<br />
at 11...hell I don’t remember doing<br />
anything that cool at 11. I’m sure a lot<br />
of you out there probably were doing<br />
amazingly cool stuff but at 11 I was<br />
busy watching Looney Tunes and eating ice cream.<br />
Sure I slopped a paintbrush on a piece of paper here and<br />
there, sharpened a few colored pencils and created scribbles<br />
that would reluctantly be hung on the fridge but what<br />
this kid creates is, to me, amazing. Mind you, he actually<br />
started using a spray can when he was 9 and mentally he<br />
was there even before then but at 9 his hands had finally<br />
grown enough to actually comfortably hold a spray can<br />
and create some spectacular works of (street) art.<br />
JPS is his crews name although as of last year his crew<br />
only consisted of him alone. “Three letters, someones<br />
piece. Its not a gang its a crew.” He says, making sure that<br />
the difference between the two is duly noted.<br />
“Just painting stuff.” he adds, “JPS that is the crew I’m<br />
in by myself because no one really paints my age around<br />
here.” He goes on to talk abut having met a boy his age<br />
in Berlin that also painted and that it was the best day<br />
ever. It’s actually really inspiring to know that even though<br />
he obviously yearns for a “crew” he continues to do what<br />
he loves even if it’s alone. His observant nature has made<br />
him a prodigy of the street art community and his dedication<br />
has earned him an internship with Apexer, a well<br />
known street artist from San Francisco.<br />
You’ve found your art, little dude, I hope you find<br />
your crew.<br />
“It’s not a gang, its a crew”<br />
His graffiti persona goes by the name Cave. His real name<br />
unknown since, like many others of the craft, he wishes to<br />
remain anonymous as he mimics the rules of the graffiti<br />
masters. “They don’t know who they are. Sometimes they<br />
do illegal stuff and, you know, that could get you into<br />
trouble.”<br />
Yet unlike those he references, he only painted on legal<br />
walls and in his backyard or at least he did...last year. This<br />
year you can find his mark throughout SanFrancsico, the<br />
city by the bay he calls home.<br />
14
15
Random<br />
Corner<br />
Find the banana<br />
somewhere in the<br />
magazine and<br />
win a high five!<br />
© Made by Ariana Palafox<br />
16<br />
Find the dick in the sea of Ducks<br />
Answers<br />
1. Graffiti<br />
2. Street Art<br />
3. Graffiti<br />
4. Street Art<br />
5. Street Art/Mural<br />
6. Gaffiti<br />
7. Street Art
A Poem:<br />
If you’re scared to check<br />
your bank account<br />
You should probably check<br />
your bank account<br />
The End<br />
Convenient ways to check your balance<br />
anywhere you are.<br />
Life Transactions
19
Fin<br />
Thank you, come again.