Since I was 16, I've had a huge draw towards street art and graffiti. The medium has grown immensely in the past decade incorporating several real life issues into street art to educate the public in a more "hands-on" way with politic and coroporate issues that may otherwise go unseen. I often feel cliche mentioning that my favorite street artist is Banksy, but his work is so original and fascinating and conveys some of the deepest meanings that street art has ever seen.
Now that I am working in the graphic design field, I find myself pulling inspiration and stylistic elements from street art into my projects. I enjoy the simplicity and bluntness that street artists use to get their point across and i often try to incorporate the straightforward attitude into my design pieces. I recently read this article which interviews Australian street artist/ graphic designer, Water, and I found a lot of connections in the way he describes the relation between his two passions. I hope you guys find a little inspiration in not only the article, but Banksy and the street art style as a whole. (If you find this interesting, I HIGHLY recommend the documentary "Exit Through The Gift Shop")
That is a really cool way to view this sort of medium. I was personally never a fan of this style of art because I always felt that is was a very wrong thing for people to be spray painting and ruining other people's property. It may not be ok to do, but I do have to admit that there are some street art that I am absolutely amazed by.
ReplyDeleteI've been inspired by street art for a while now too. Although, I'm not too huge of a fan of Banksy, Shepard Fairy, and some of the other street artists featured in Exit Through The Gift Shop I still think that it is a good documentary for an introduction into the genre.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend the documentary Beautiful Losers for those looking to learn more about the genre. It's not strictly about street art, but it deals a great bit with it and also touches on skateboard art, experimental film, and naive art. It features some of my favorite artists Chris Johanson, Barry McGee, Margaret Killgalen, and Ed Templeton. My only gripe with it is that some of the interviews with the artists come across way too pretentious, but I guess they are artists.
I love Banksy as well, honestly him and Shepard Fairey are the two most influential people to me and really why I really got into graphic design. I love how blunt street art can be, and how it always has a political/ethical message behind it. I have seen Exit through the Gift Shop and its a great documentary, I would also recommend checking out some of Space Invaders artwork (it's mentioned in the movie I believe). But I think street art in general is really evolving into something more than just 'graffiti' as well as becoming more accepted as a form of art. Another cool new form of street art I've seen more recently is projections, either on buildings, statues, or trees. Check out some work by William Culpepper's (Grafik Intervention), he was a professor at NAU and now teaches at the Academy of Art University.
ReplyDeleteJessie and Patrick…
ReplyDeleteYou guys may want to take a look at Faile (if you haven't already heard of them). It's an art collective formed by two former street artists. The two guys actually met here at NAU…before dropping out and moving to NYC.
I remember watching Exit Through the Gift Shop. It really does give you a completely different view of street artists. Banksy, though cryptic, is really a normal kind of guy. As much as I love Shepard Fairey's work, I have to say that I think he sold out to the trade a little. He's less of a street artist and more of a designer now.
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