I just uploaded a bunch of new photos to Flickr.
Of special interest are pictures of an urban art project that's sprung up at the south end of the California Street bridge in Missoula. A guy has put up a metal fence of sorts, with a note inviting people to decorate it, as long as there's no hate speech. The result is a vibrant graffiti collection.
18 Comments:
PROPS TO THE OWNER FOR SUPPORTIN LOCAL GRAFF AS IT IS AT THE SORRIEST LEVEL EVER!THIS IS THE ONE AND ONLY PLACE WHERE GUY BAKER,I MEAN GAY BIKER,OTHER MISSOULA LAW ENFORCEMENT AND OF COURSE THE ANTI GRAFFITI TASK FORCE CANT TOUCH US!GRAY WALLS,GRAY LIFE
Hey.... this is ECHO... the walls biggest user.. after i was caught by the fuzz expressig my art... ive been deticated to this wall.. and other legals walls... Thanks Dan
Hey Echo, thanks for commenting. I checked out your site (fixed link: http://www.echo21echo.piczo.com/?cr=6&rfm=y). I like your About Me page. I'll check out more later.
the wall is a good promotional tool for local graff but theres no glory or real fame in only hittin legal spots.if you only hit legal spots then your lettin the system win,and thats not what graffiti was created for.From 94 through 95 every fuckin building in town was hit!the cops didnt know what to do.the editorials in the Missoulian were all filled up by the graffiti haters.we gotta bring it back to that level!live to bomb!
Hey patia,thanks for utilizing digital media to advertise local street art.I googled "missoula graffiti"and your blog here and your flickr page came up.And also the KBGA home page turned up with some cool stuff.its unbelievable that theres so few outlets to local graffiti online.
Hi Anonymous,
I've been thinking about your comments since you left them. It's really interesting timing, because in the Art Appreciation class I'm taking right now, we're focusing on public art and the value of art.
From my textbook: "Works of art can possess aesthetic value -- they can make our world a more beautiful place. Or they can have social value -- they can enter the public arena to make our world a better place in which to live."
I am definitely not a "graffiti hater," but I have to say your comments about "glory and fame" concern me. Although I don't know a lot about graffiti (what my textbook calls "visual literacy), I know I enjoy beautiful or thought-provoking graffiti. I love the California Street Bridge project, I love a lot of what I see on trains and freeway overpasses, and I even like a lot of the silly stuff on bathroom walls and school desks.
But OTOH, I wouldn't want to see graffiti everywhere I looked. For that matter, I wouldn't want to see a Matisse or a Picasso everywhere I looked, either. I also think tagging is stupid -- it annoys me to see some dumb nickname scrawled a wall. And I think private property should be off-limits.
So, I'm curious -- genuinely curious -- do you think every place is fair game for graffiti, or do you think there should be a line somewhere? When is graffiti art, and when is it vandalism? Is there value to graffiti beyond your glory and fame? Do aesthetics matter?
Truly, I'm interested. I would like to learn more about graffiti and what motivates you guys.
"there is no real history to graffiti,everyone has their own history."Zephyr-famous NYC graffiti writer. To explain what motivates me Patia,I have tell you about my own personal history.
In the middle of the school year in 1993 a kid moved to town from Bakersfield,CA and enrolled at Sentinel High School.It didn,t take long for he and I to become aquainted because we were in numerous classes together.Right off I noticed that he was always writing and drawing colorful images of the same word over and over.Upon questioning he explained to a group of kids and myself that he was a graffiti writer and that "Dazed"was his graffiti name he wrote back in Cali,As was the same word he always drew in his note books.It wasn,t long after that myself and the rest of the community began to notice "Dazed"written on various man made structures all across Missoula.Not just written,but colorful painted murals that just jumped out at you as if they were alive!
Well this caught on quickly because Missoulians had never seen anything like this in their community before.The only graffiti that we knew here was your occasional politcal or anarchy based scrawl under a bridge or in an alley downtown.Now this was a friend of mines own personal advertisements,illegal billboard's all across the city.I had to do it too.I was completely infatuated with this concept.I honed my craft by practicing my self chosen "code name"on thousands of sheets of paper and went too work,using others property for my own canvas.
I quickly aquired fame and respect that Id never had before.
By the spring of 1994 there were probably 50 prominent writers displaying there work all over the city,half of which were members of Dazed's crew.They called themselves"Tribe"and painted it all over town along with their individual code names.
By this time the majority of the community is in an uproar.The police form this "anti graffiti task force",volinteer groups are out painting over our work.By the summer of 1995 the whole graff scene just fizzed out.your time and effort seems wasted when your work is painted over within 24 hours of being manufactured.Now all thats left of graff from that era is the ugly brown and grey patches of paint on buildings and bridges city wide.
Dazed kept writing though, but
moved to Iowa where he was killed in an auto accident in 2001.R.I.P.
Today from writers like Echo,Gas 134,and the legal wall,graff is making a come back in Missoula.Theres a battle raging in my head because here
I am at 30 watching these young cats do what
I once did,but now I have other responsibilities and obligations to where the legal ramifications could really effect my lifestyle.Once in a while I sneak off under the moonlight for one more round just to hear that spray nozzle hiss in the quiet night and let the cops know one more time that a legend is still at large.
Just know that when you see that 1 word tag written on a dumpster or some door outside of a bar that it stands for something greater in another location where one has the time to make perfection without the worry of the law catching up to him or her at any moment.
Is graffiti art or a crime?Definately both,and thats why its the greatest art that there is.
oh sorry patia,just a couple more things.A "toy"is a writer with very little skill or style,more of a wannabe,that out of jealousy usually "slashes",or goes over another's work.A very common occurance at the Cali St. wall.They usually are the ones that give graffiti a bad name by writing on houses,cars,churches,etc.Those are the lines that legit writers dont cross.
If ever you want to understand more and would like to see a film about the first graffiti writers that set the stage for what graff is today,then you should check out the award winning documentary "Style Wars"1982.A film about the first urban graffiti writers that "bombed"(as in painted graffiti)the New York subway system in the 1970's and early 80's.A 2002 version of the DVD has an awesome bonus disc that interviews all the current NYC legnds that were just kids in the origional movie in 1982. Peace
oh yeah,I swear Im done after this-www.StyleWars.com
hey wut up?this is SOID1 in Helena.you can have all that shit.for me i have to get out more work than other taggers.its not about quality its about quantity.ya gotta win with more shit!
Hey, sorry it's taken me so long to respond ... I've been way too tired lately.
Before I forget, if you guys comment again, would you click "Other" and type in a name so I can keep you straight? Thanks.
Anonymous, thank you so much for giving me so much good info. It's interesting to hear your perspective. I think it's funny that a kid from Bakersfield inspired you -- damn those Californians! (Shh, don't tell anyone, I grew up in Santa Cruz.) But if I'm not mistaken, graffiti art came out of Latino culture originally, right? And Bakersfield is just north of L.A., so that makes sense.
I checked out the Style Wars site -- it's really cool, thanks. I loved the trains. And I put the movie on my Netflix queue. I also moved up Basquiat, which I've been meaning to watch forever.
You said: I quickly aquired fame and respect that Id never had before. But fame and respect from whom? Teenage boys? Everyone else probably just thought you were a pain in the ass! :-)
I guess I'm somewhere in the middle -- not a hater, I can appreciate the art, but honestly, I support the "fuzz" in keeping you guys under control. Private property ought to be respected.
The last time I was at the California Street Bridge, I noticed that sections of the bridge itself had been painted over. Clearly, graffiti had migrated off the wall and onto the bridge, and had then been painted over. While that's understandable, I would hate to see that beautiful bridge covered in graffiti. I love the wall, though. I go visit it every time I have a doctor appointment nearby. I love the river, the view from the bridge, the architecture and colors of the bridge, too. This place is too beautiful to be entirely covered in graffiti or any other art, for that matter.
I guess what it comes down to for me is that this is Missoula, not Bakersfield. Montana, not California or NYC. And I'm guessing you guys aren't innercity minorities, either, so your graff probably doesn't have the same social meanings that it does in the barrio or the 'hood ... right?
Not that I think there's anything wrong with art (and music) crossing cultural and class boundaries. We're all human, we all see and hear and feel; we all want to be seen and heard. I mean, I'm a blogger because I think I have something to say. I've carved out my own little virtual wall here where I can share my experiences and visions with whoever stumbles by.
But SOID1, you wouldn't want me hanging up my pretty pictures and writing my deep thoughts all over your bedroom walls, or on your car, would you? Don't you think you owe the rest of the us the same respect? I don't want to see your tags or whatever everywhere I look. I'll take quality over quantity any day.
Anyway, I do appreciate you guys taking the time to comment. We don't all have to think alike. That's what makes this world interesting.
I can relate to Patia frowning upon how the graff flooded over from the wall to public and city property.Only toy assholes give a situation like the legal wall a bad rap when they go beyond a generous situation such as the wall.Toys give real writers a bad image to those who are misinformed.Im from San Diego and we had a massive underground art gallery which was probably 20 acres or so of old concrete sewer tunnels which local writers called "Ant Hill".The City had no problem with our art until Toy Fucks stated writing on power boxes and buildings outside the entrances to Ant Hill,it was then blocked off at every entance and a whole decades old art gallery was painted over by the city.Anyway Im glad to see Missoula's comin up as far as graff goes.peace
I too remember how kick-ass the graffiti scene was in Missoula back in the early 90s.At that time i had no real interest in any graffiti other than straight tagging.I thought the political graff was stupid,which one could understand because at that time I was just a Young Punk and all I cared about was smokin weed,tagging,and girls. Today as im a grown adult and my interests are far more broad,im finding that im just infatuated with all the stencil graff that has appeared. A form of graffiti that wasn,t here until recently.Its tagging,but it has a different meaning as most of it consists of current villains or situations in the political world.It shows how important of an element graffiti is to our society by contiually evolving and transforming into new brands of the art.I have to stay true to the form that I have always wrote though.I need to keep representing MY era by just straight Bombing.But i like analysing and studying all the stencils in town.I hope their here to last.
hey im from the 90s era of graff too.I remember all that yall have spoke of.Im finding myself just infatuated with some of the stencil work we have in town now.Thats a form of graff that never existed here until recently.The fact that graff is continually evolving shows the magnitude of the art that it is.Im always gonna be a bomber though,but I admire the work that the stencilists are making.Its just as illegal as any graff so that sits well with me.Live to Bomb!
sorry patia i thought i erased my first post, the one thats more indepth.Publish both if you like, i dont care if i look stupid
Umm... so yeah echo again... i also have a myspace site that is alot more up to date... www.myspace.com/echokos
thanks
Hey Echo. Your MySpace page is set to private, and it won't let me add you without knowing your last name or email address.
I'm at http://myspace.com/luneluxe if you want to add me.
Hello patia, um i think i got it so my page is off private now, so check it out... and if you still have to add me, just type in my last name as ONES and it should work
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