Thursday, September 12, 2013

Theme Thursday: Text

...or really graffiti as I am having a hard time following the rules over at Clan Donaldson...




Arsty speaking, these are really bad photos. I know. But I took them for Jude, not for mass (very tiny mass) consumption on my trip to Rome. 



Jude is a graffiti aficionado? fanatic? where is my thesaurus when I need it?



What I mean to say is that he has a passion for graffiti. An enormous, never ending, fixated, unenduringly obnoxious love affair with it. Jude is our, um, difficult child, but he can be as auto-didactic as the next child genius when something sparks his imagination. 



The boy knows and knows and knows like there is nothing else to learn about. He could give year long lectures on the history of graffiti, write PhD size dissertations on the various movements, players, styles, etc.

When I showed him these pictures, proud mother of a delinquent that I am, he basically shrugged and said he had seen most of it, knew who most of the "artists" are. Poor mom, always trying to be cool, always failing.



I have a kind of ambivalent, non-attitude about graffiti. I can't tell you how many varied and sundry discussions Obi and I have had with Jude over our right or non-right to appreciate actual crime, that after all, harms society in that it costs tax-payers money to pay officers to track down transgressors, jail them, pay for their mess (or art) to be scrubbed clean.  It can harm small business owners who are victims of said destruction and have no recourse. (Even Jude says he has no respect for this type of action, only in respectable places like billboards and under bridges.)




What I do know, when I look at it, not from a mom's perspective  or a taxpayer's, is that at the heart of it is the same yearning that is at the heart of the Cave Paintings of Lascaux, and every work of art since. A yearning for an individual to say to this world: "I am here. Let me show you. I have something I want to say to you." -But maybe sometimes, they don't have anything all that great to say.

20 comments:

  1. Interesting!
    Having lived in/near Philadelphia for 20 years now I'm pleasantly surprised how successful the whole wall mural movement has been to reduce graffiti (at least in the parts of the city I go regularly).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now that is some text and I think it's awesomely shot. Very interesting that your son is so passionate about graffiti and I have to say your final thoughts in the post really never occurred to me. I think I've only ever looked at it without the mom's/taxpayer perspective. Huh. Thanks for keeping me thinkin'.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wish I knew more about this kind of "art". I see it all the time on the trains that go by our home. I would like to know what the words say or mean!

    Your son is COOL..so is the mama!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can never figure out what they say. Jude instinctively knows, he just has an eye for it. He has to sit there and spell them out letter by letter, and then it comes into focus.
      Usually the "artist" will come up with a name that he uses, and writes it in all kinds of varied ways, sometimes creating a character that goes with their "name." And then there are various suffixes added to the end of their name, like ----ism or ----1. And whether the name has special meaning to the artist or not is up for speculation.

      Delete
  4. I'm always amazed at how talented some of these graffiti artists are.

    ReplyDelete
  5. There is something cool about it, but I guess when you look at it for what it is, it loses some of its appeal. What if there were places that were designed for it so that people could appreciate the art form but it wouldn't be vandalism??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree, Laura, and see 9peas comment below, as well. Unfortunately, a lot of the culture that goes along with graffiti is the thrill of being chased, having to produce complicated pieces and be on the lookout at the same time, scaling to unsafe heights in order to show off how well you can master physical obstacles, etc. So while I think it would help if cities did provide more acceptable places to show off skills, it wouldn't entire solve the problem.

      Delete
    2. Mikey and Jude want to open a graffiti restaurant where they will invite real artists to decorate the walls. Their art will stand on display for a set amount of time, then the walls will be painted again. Also, there will be wall space for patrons to decorate.

      Delete
    3. Well...everybody knows how great those two kids are at...bizness! It's bound to succeed!

      Delete
  6. You always have such profound things to say....I love your last paragraph. Very insightful into the nature of graffiti. That's pretty cool that your son is such a graffiti expert!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like graffiti that is it's own brand of art but a spray pain can with who loves who or foul language is what I consider damage to property and I am all for laws to prevent that kind of shenanigans. We have a local tamale place, the owner noticing the enticement of graffiti artists to do damage in the neighborhood of his restaurant got smart and hired 'true' graffiti artists to do the alley up right - and WOW does it look great. I like that kind of urban disconnectedness, he embraced the artist of the group and the group doesn't violate that space with foul language. Win/win!
    I think I like your Jude very much - he and my Jonah would get along well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is awesome, and I totally agree. Yes, the kind of graffiti that is "shenanigans" as you call it even drive Jude crazy. That is just so smart of the shop owner. There were a couple places in Orlando that did the same, and the art they are able to produce is absolutely art on every level.

      Delete
    2. Um, my keyboard is broken and you can tell that I didn't proof read this comment before publishing *smacks head*. *urban connectedness* + a few more, good gracious - sorry about that!

      Delete
  8. What a niche I've never even thought about! Who knew there was so much behind graffiti? Most of the time I notice it, I'm just wondering how the heck they got up there AND were able to paint something recognizable!

    ReplyDelete
  9. That is a fantastic take on the 'text' theme! I love the creativity that comes with this link-up. And I do like your take on graffiti vs art as well. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I know next to nothing about this subject and am once again learning something new when I visit here. Thanks so much for sharing! : )

    ReplyDelete
  11. There is a graffiti (not going to use the word "artist", since he's lazy and doesn't try to be artistic at all) who tags everything with the moniker "FIB". The kids and I, in our trips around the state, are fascinated by Fib's migration from Hartford, where we assume he started, since his tagged buildings are many and close together, to the outlying areas, where we'll see "Fib" spaced out further and further, on utility boxes, highway retaining walls, and garbage cans. Even Gabriel, who is pre-literate, can recognize the distinctive lettering and yells "FIB!" like an archeologist discovering some artifact. Someday I mean to get a map of the area, and we can put pushpins in all the places he's tagged, as a sort of exercise in geography, map skills, and one's sphere of influence, but for now, we just have fun with our Fib finding.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well, I think you are a cool mom. And Jude will in about 7 years, give or take. I love your last paragraph, too. I think our society has lost a way for people to meaningfully say "I was here" through crafts and artistic skills. We used to be a nation of builders, but no longer. Kids these days (ha! I'm not ancient) are struggling to find their worth in the world, something tangible to exhibit that they ARE here and worthy of noticing. I wish eh did it in a better way, but I do understand the yearning. After all, isn't that part of the reason I blog?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Connoisseur perhaps? Great shots.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Really clever post and I also LOVE your closing line. What a unique take on the "text" theme....

    Thanks for the little break in my AM...loved it.

    God bless

    ReplyDelete

I heart comments!