MAGAZINE

+
The
DrawBridge
Street Art, Graffiti Issue
BIP
INTERVIEW
12 YEAR-OLD
CAVE
TENDERLOIN
?
1

Paint Life

Contents n August
Down the
Rabbit
Hole
Street Art
BiP
Guess
Cave
Randoms
4
8
11
14
16
3

STREET ART
VS
GRaffITi
10 WAYS TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STREET ART
AND GRAFFITI
Written By Lindsey Bartlett & Ariana Palafox
S
an Francisco spends $20
million annually cleaning up
graffiti. Complaints are made
and what one person may
think is beautiful another
may see vandalism. The term
“graffiti” has a negative conotation associated
with it, yet the term “street art” gets
praised. So how exactly do you distiguish
street art from graffiti?
Public Works works under the common assumption
that the presence of graffiti “creates an
environment that breeds bigger crimes.” But to
the untrained eye, graffiti is not so far off from
street art, a hot commodity in the city — and for
that matter, trained eyes often don’t separate
the two, either.
“To me, it’s like asking what’s the difference
between two different forms of art,” says graffiti
and street-art photographer Gary Glasser.”We
see art in all forms. I shoot murals, large and
small. Colorful and not so colorful. Some of it
may be considered graffiti.. all of it is art.”
“What I feel is that street art is basically
gentrified graffiti,” says another artist. “I used to
be obsessed with graffiti, but I didn’t have anyone
to do it with so my efforts fizzled out pretty
early. I used to spend hours looking at graffiti
online and in books. Now that I paint on the
street, I think that traditional, letter-based graffiti
is too constricting for me — but I still really
love and respect it. Those guys risk
everything for what they do.”
“To me, they are all the same, honestly,” says
artist PJ Sierra. “But graffiti is more so a ‘name/
tag’ skill which involves crews and rattlecans.
Street art is a hybrid of what graffiti is today.
The difference, in my opinion, is the times. Because
eventually, graffiti and street art will both
be known as self-expression. And whether you’re
a graff writer or a street artist, your goal is the
same: To prove we existed on this earth by
leaving our mark.”
Still, that leaves a dilemma: Some residents of
the city view these marks as vandalism, while
many consider them art. But there are ways to
distinguish the difference — and least legally,
historically and culturally — and here are ten of
them.
“In essence, they are both the same,” says
street artist Victoriano Rivera. “Each realm is
a vessel that acts against the establishment,
illegally applying paint or medium to an urban
landscape. The difference being that one is a
cultural movement; the other, a derivative of that
movement, is now a commodity.”
4

10) Graffiti Artists Have Crews
Most graffiti artists crew up. In
“Tagging Up,” Westword
explored the complex
relationships within the graffiti
world, as well as the massive size
of the community: An estimated
seventy-seven crews are working
in San Francisco; a couple of
the largest are TMF and TWS.
But then again, there are graffiti
writers who don’t identify with
a crew at all. Rogue writers who
tag on their own include some of
the most prolific graffiti writers
in San Francisco. Unlike graffiti
writers, street artists don’t tend
to work their way up the
hierarchy of a crew; they often
come straight from the studio
into the street-art scene.
9) Graffiti Is Harder to Read
There are many types of
graffiti. Wildstyle is the most
difficult graffiti signature to read;
it has its own language. Then
there is the tag, a signature using
just one color, and the most
common type of graffiti seen in
San Francisco. A throw-up is a
signature that uses two or three
colors, but is still done quickly.
There are also wheat pastes,
stencils, slaps (stickers), bubble
graffiti, block busters and “bombing,”
which refers to the speed
with which the work is done and
focuses on quantity over quality.
8) Graffiti Gets “Dissed”
The hierarchy within the
graffiti world is also a factor,
reflecting years of conflict that
include instances of artists
tagging over other artists, or
“dissing” the graffiti on the wall,
because of long-standing rivalries
between their
respective crews. Sanctioned
murals are less likely to get
dissed: When murals are authorized
by the city or businesses —
particularly on “problem walls,”
places where graffiti tends to pop
up the most — 99 percent of the
time graffiti writers will
respect the art that is put there.
If it’s beautiful and complex,
taggers leave it alone.
7) Street Artists Use
Different Modes of Painting,
Graffiti Artists Use Aerosol
Aerosol is one of the major
factors that separates
graffiti writers from other
artists. Although street artists
may use aerosol, they also employ
everything from acrylic and
oil paint to projectors, wood or
metal, and multimodal materials.
Graffiti is all about the freehand
use of aerosol. That’s the art’s
defining factor, and as most
aerosol artists will tell you, it
takes years to perfect.
“To me,
it’s like
asking
what’s the
difference
between two
different
forms of
art.”
6) Street Artists Paint in
Broad Daylight
If you see artists painting
during the day or early
evening hours in San Francisco,
they are probably creating
street art. Street artists are
also sometimes given lifts
by the company that hired
them. Graffiti writers almost
always paint in the middle of
the night or early morning to
insure not getting caught.
5) Street Art Is Abstract
Many local street artists have
the ability to move from the
studio to the street without
limitations; they simply consider
themselves
artists. Similarly, street art is
often called urban art, public
art or outdoor art, all politically
correct terms that attempt
to distance street art from
graffiti’s bad reputation.
4) Street Artists Use and Sign
With Full Name
A great sign that you’re
looking at street art rather
than graffiti is the signature
on the bottom right corner of
the piece. Often including an
Instagram username or the
creator’s full name, it is like a
modern version of an artist’s
signature on a canvas.
Graffiti writers in San Francisco
work under pseudonyms, often
“Super Hero” identities. Street
artists who were once graff
writers usually pick a new
name or begin working under
their real name.
5

3) Street Artists Talk to the
Press
If you can Google an artist
whose work is on the streets,
that person is usually a street
artist. Graffiti writers are
reluctant to talk to the press,
because most of the work
they have done is illegal and
they run the risk of being
apprehended for work they
may have done years ago.
Artist Shepard Fairey, creator
of the iconic Hope poster for
Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential
campaign, was recently
arrested in Los Angeles after
the Detroit Police Department
issued warrants for his arrest
on two counts of malicious
destruction of property — for
acts he allegedly committed
years before.
2) Graffiti is Ever-Changing
You are less likely to see a graffiti
piece survive the test of
time — and not just because SF
Public Works will buff it out. Even
on permission walls, graffiti is
constantly being adding to and
painted over: It is the most temporary
form of artwork. In contrast,
much of the famous street
art in San Francisco will be remain
untouched for at least a year,
and some celebrated murals will
be kept intact for years.
1. Street Art Is Sanctioned,
Graffiti Is Not
Street art and graffiti both
make San Francisco more
colorful; they make artistic
and political statements that
reflect the culture of our city.
In the end, the biggest difference
between the two is not
style, but the fact that graffiti
is illegal while street art is
sanctioned. “Street art is the
evolution of graffiti,” concludes
artist Anthony Garcia
Sr., a Westword MasterMind.
Key Terms
Graffiti
By Kate
6
-graffiti: Writings or drawings which
are scribbled,scratched, or sprayed
illicitly on a wall or other public surface
-Wildstyle: commonly includes a set
of arrows, curves and letters which
have been so transformed as to
be rendered arcane to the eyes of
non-graffiti artists. It has also been
common practice to incorporate
3D elements into the pieces. Letter
structures are therefore rendered
to add depth of visual perception of
the work. Many artists have different
elements to add to their wildstyle that
gain that writer a good deal of respect
within the graffiti scene, especially
if one creates his or her own style
and stays original and creative. Veteran
artists tend to go for more complicated
forms of wildstyle in which the types
are hard to read but broad in creativity.
Getting one’s style mastered is key to
achieving this success.
-tag: a simple letter font that a writer
uses as their alter ego to mark surfaces
with, like a signature.
-piece: short for masterpiece is generally
a thought out body of work including
intricate letter structure, sometime characters
and other elements are included.
-production: A collaboration of artists
creating a singular “piece” or multiple
“pieces” alongside each other, some with
matching color schemes or overlapping
themes.
-all city: term writers use to declare that
they have tagged their whole city or that
they want to go “all-city” tagging every
neighborhood in their city.
-bomb: generally a quick 2 letter or
shortened version of their tag name
created in a hollow/bubble/straight
letter structure that is bigger than a
tag but smaller than a piece. This is
more about quantity.
-throw up: The same idea as the
bomb but can be the whole tag name
instead of a shortened version.
-toy: someone new to graffiti or
lacks common sense on the rules or
isn’t very good style wise.
-king: someone who has put in
immense work in their scene that is
respected by a large body of people.
Generally someone who is either
known for their style abilities or the
quantity of their works one can find.
-side bust: someone who places their
tag/throwup/piece right next to another
persons without their knowledge
sometimes overlapping their work.

This is an insult.
-hack/dis/cap: in any scene there are people who do not
like each other and in the world of graffiti you can demonstrate
that by destroying someone else’s’ work by either
marking a line through their work (hack/dis) or going over
their work (cap).
-bubble letters: a letter structure, very bubble like, no hard
lines can be found in this letter structure.
-characters: a cartoon or stylized version of a non-letter
form (think of a cartoon character)
-euro style: a European stylized way of writing graffiti that
was influenced from old 80s New York train style letter/
character from.
-burner: generally a throw up or a piece that has been
intact at a location for a long period of time. Burned into a
surface, long lasting.
-getting up: the act of doing illegal graffiti.
-mural: generally a legal form of art work on a wall/public
space. Can use any mediums.
-street art: a style of art that has influences from graffiti,
(use of spray paint, letter structure, scenery or lifestyle
depicting urban subculture.) Can be both legal and illegal
forms of street art. The artists themselves can have
a background in graffiti but their main focus is generally
performing larger more thought out bodies of work.
-moniker: generally a character along with a nickname.
The term moniker generally refers to hobo graffiti where
hobos would mark different train cars as a calling card or
marking their trips/life along the way.
-writer/graffiti writer: identity, someone who writes illegal
graffiti would be known as a writer or graffiti writer.
-stencil: a cut out of an image used with spray paint generally
to mark a surface. The most well known stencil artist
would be Banksy.
-straight letters: a straight letter structure style/form of
graffiti. Generally used to be large scale so it can be read
from far away.
-Grilled: a surface that is covered by tags or throw-ups on
a single area.
7

INTERVIEW WITH
BiP
Oakland
Can I meet up with you sometime?
Sorry, staying anonymous demands paranoia.
Why are you still anonymous?
Most of my smaller work is illegal, and I don’t want the
distraction of maintaining a public image.
Why don’t you do interviews?
Don’t have much to say that wouldn’t
look better on a wall.
Will you paint my wall?
Talk to my producer at representative[at]BIPgraffiti.com.
Be prepared
for me to paint an original piece of art
without content guidelines. No amount of
money changes that.
How do you pronounce your name? Acronym or one
word?
Absolutely does not matter. Do your thing.
8

San Fransico
San Francisco
Vallejo
San Fransico
San Fransico
9

Grass Roots
1077 Post St SF
10
Relax your Hamster

Street Art
or
Graffiti?
Tenderloin
District
Pop quiz! Which pieces are street
art and which are considered
graffiti in this neighborhood of
the month!?
11

1
1. Olive
& Polk
2. Hemlock
& Polk
2
3. Alice B.
Toklas
& Polk
4. Olive
& Larkin
3
12

5. Olive
& Polk
4
6. Austin
& Polk
7. Post
& Larkin
5
Answers on
pg. 16
7
6
13

Cave
The 11 year-old Street grafitti artist
Written by Ariana Palafox
A
n 11 year-old graffiti artist. Damn
at 11...hell I don’t remember doing
anything that cool at 11. I’m sure a lot
of you out there probably were doing
amazingly cool stuff but at 11 I was
busy watching Looney Tunes and eating ice cream.
Sure I slopped a paintbrush on a piece of paper here and
there, sharpened a few colored pencils and created scribbles
that would reluctantly be hung on the fridge but what
this kid creates is, to me, amazing. Mind you, he actually
started using a spray can when he was 9 and mentally he
was there even before then but at 9 his hands had finally
grown enough to actually comfortably hold a spray can
and create some spectacular works of (street) art.
JPS is his crews name although as of last year his crew
only consisted of him alone. “Three letters, someones
piece. Its not a gang its a crew.” He says, making sure that
the difference between the two is duly noted.
“Just painting stuff.” he adds, “JPS that is the crew I’m
in by myself because no one really paints my age around
here.” He goes on to talk abut having met a boy his age
in Berlin that also painted and that it was the best day
ever. It’s actually really inspiring to know that even though
he obviously yearns for a “crew” he continues to do what
he loves even if it’s alone. His observant nature has made
him a prodigy of the street art community and his dedication
has earned him an internship with Apexer, a well
known street artist from San Francisco.
You’ve found your art, little dude, I hope you find
your crew.
“It’s not a gang, its a crew”
His graffiti persona goes by the name Cave. His real name
unknown since, like many others of the craft, he wishes to
remain anonymous as he mimics the rules of the graffiti
masters. “They don’t know who they are. Sometimes they
do illegal stuff and, you know, that could get you into
trouble.”
Yet unlike those he references, he only painted on legal
walls and in his backyard or at least he did...last year. This
year you can find his mark throughout SanFrancsico, the
city by the bay he calls home.
14

15

Random
Corner
Find the banana
somewhere in the
magazine and
win a high five!
© Made by Ariana Palafox
16
Find the dick in the sea of Ducks
Answers
1. Graffiti
2. Street Art
3. Graffiti
4. Street Art
5. Street Art/Mural
6. Gaffiti
7. Street Art

A Poem:
If you’re scared to check
your bank account
You should probably check
your bank account
The End
Convenient ways to check your balance
anywhere you are.
Life Transactions

19

Fin
Thank you, come again.