Graffiti : Jennifer Byerly

Some of the most intricate and interesting works of art are hidden from public eye, locked up by some rich collector, and go completely unnoticed everyday. Graffitti, is not one of these forms of art. Graffiti is meant to be seen - at any cost. It is forever changing, morphing, being painted over and erased entirely. It is temporary art that oftentimes requires lots of planning so execution can be done in minimal time due to the illegal nature of the art.

In recent years graffiti has increasingly gained respect in the art world though. The anonymous British artist Banksy has sold pieces of his for upwards of $6,000 each, and has celebrity admirers like angelina jolie and brad pitt, who've spent $400,000 on his works.

Graffiti began with street artists tagging buildings and trains with their own personal monikers as a means of signifying their presence and fearlessness of police and dangerous locations. Nowadays though, it is a relatively respected art form with intricate and innovative designs. For an anniversary my boyfriend brought me a book filled with such pictures, from all corners of the globe, capturing some of the most moving and beautiful works of art I'd ever seen. The editor of this book "Graffiti World", Nicholas Ganz, writes in his preface "Letters used to dominate but today the culture has expanded: new forms are explored, and characters, symbols, and abstractions have begun to proliferate. Over the past few years, graffiti artists have been using a wider scope of expression. Personal style is free to develop without any constraints, and stickers, posters, stencils, airbrush, oil-based chalk, all varieties of paint, and even sculpture are used. Most artists have been liberated from relying solely on the spraycan."

Some of the first means of prosthelytizing were graffiti. Amongst early christian architecture there are scratches in walls of saints and apostles, around towns there are fishes and crosses inscribed with "Inri." It only makes sense that graffiti would be an effective and human means of conversion, sketched by one person for the eyes of others, it involves participation, as required by Van Der Leeuw's definition of religous art.

If I could I would post every image in that book as a part of this blog post, but because that's not possible I urge every one of you to look up more artists like Banksy, Mak1, Case, Other, Siloette, Swoon, and Besok. And maybe, to even view the pieces of local graffiti around us everyday as spontaneous and gorgeous works of art.