Insanity is... by Young Cain
September 15th, 2009 6:22 PMHumans are designed based on natural needs, this means we require certian stimulation to keep us alive, this amounts to the physical, (sleep, food, water, excercise, sexual) and the spiritual (mental, creative, memory, and regular healthy stress). I'm a Jung fan. :P.
I based this task off of creative expression of the self, which, I feel in it's rawest form, is graffiti. Grafffiti, as a craft, is designed solely on the artist's need to create, because graffiti is generally looked down upon in society. The street artist MUST be motivated in order to create in a space where they are usually discouraged to create in. Sure, it may be tempting to do something illegal, but there is a certian dedication to those who learn the craft itself. It's an underrated art form.
Being an artist, one learns to appreciate not just one form of art, but all art as it exists. I, for example, don't like to only classify myself as a writer, because I feel that the singular art form, coming with the word WRITER as in, "you write", limits my options. I am not a painter, one who paints, or a musician, one who plays an instrument, but an artist, one who creates based on what inspires me. This is also how new art forms are created: though experimentation and dappling in multiple disciplines.
Every expression of the self is always different, because everyone is different from different influences and impacts in life, so the art in the raw is very representative of the artist themselves, like a dream would be. The self is referenced in art, but on a very personal level, not as a generalization.
I am learning graffiti also, primarily stencils, and found a great deal of inspiration in my travels and findings. The photos are based in San Francisco and all around Italy.
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I began my quest in Italy, and found a great deal of graffiti as I graced the railroads in Sorrento and Pompeii.
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Okay, I lied. This was taken in Florence. I don't remember the artist's name, but they're fairly well known in the community: i've seen the stencils before. Also, I loved all of the notes on the wall, like people were posting secrets or wishes. I can't read italian tho'
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From the Train station
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While in the train station,
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also a station
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MOST BRILLIANT GUY EVER!!! He used stencils to create full fleged paintings of Rome with the planets as a backdrop. All he had was a stencil of the city, newspaper, a knife, some cd's and his spraypaint. He worked fast too. By the time I took this there was a huge crowd forming.
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This is Clairon Alley in San Francisco, it intersects with Valencia street. Absolutely covered.
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I believe I took this while at a photo shoot somewhere by my house while dragging Otto along.
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On the day I went tasking on Haight street, I took my friend Phil with me. I learned ten seconds later that I was NOT to take photos in the costume shop... :P. We ended up walking all over Golden Gate park and he introduced me to a REALLY good chinese resturaunt in the sunset
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I decided to put my own tikki hermaphrodite up too. He liked Haight street.
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These can be found around Haight and Valencia st.
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I still don't know what it says...
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This sort of struck me, even though it's just someone writing in cement... I had just read the Glass Menagerie and two of the three main characters names are Tom and Laura, who are siblings. The play is about Tennesee Williams copling with his sister's illness... it ends very sadly.
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Who doesn't love Bob Marley?
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looking and loving color contrast...
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a yin yang description has never been so simple
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musicians on haight! I don't remember what they were playing, but I remember that I liked it!
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Badger badger badger badger MUSHROOM MUSHROOM!
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I wonder if this guy is the same one who makes the hermaphrodite: same places...
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I love graff of almost all sorts, even the noodly scribble words can accrete to make a texture that is all human, all city. I think graffiti is an natural mode of expression for human beings and that it reflects the community in a given place so well. win!
Interesting interpretation. Thank you for genuinely making me think!