Well hello there,
Check out the stencil I made. It’s not your average graffiti project and I’ll tell you why. In January of this year I developed a project that involved the ecology of my neighbourhood. I wanted to try something I’ve never done before, so I threw my hat into the whole “urban-graffiti-tagging” scene and made 7 stencils.
I’m going to start by saying that I have a love-hate relationship with any type of urban artwork. It’s a paradox because urban art such as graffiti or tagging is supposed to be raw and spontaneous; however, the vast majority of the work out there has a major lack of concept, craft and/or originality. So where is the real median between spontaneity and conceptualization? What I’m getting at is, the amount of talented “street artists” are very few and far between, and it’s very obvious.
Enter my project. Since I’m a total noob in regards to street art, I came from a different angle in terms of execution. I replaced spontaneity with an absurd amount of preparation, and used biodegradable paint made of flour and cornstarch. First, I used biodegradable paint as a play on the permanence of traditional street art media like spray paint or tagging markers. Second, for those who don’t appreciate my work, it will degrade into nothing over time. So my legacy as a graffiti artist will fade away with the artwork. And third, instead of self-indulgently using my name as the artwork, I substituted some personal mantras as the message. The messages are short, to the point and I tried not to be preachy. I’d like to say that this artwork is selfless, but come on now. It’s graffiti and all graffiti always has and always will impose its will against society; even if the message is a positive one. Yet another paradox, hmm . . .
