Celebrating Forefront of Graffiti Article

Kennedy, Randy. "Celebrating Forefront of Graffiti." New York Times 22 Jul 2011. Web. This article focuses on a graffiti writer known as Taki 183. He was one of the most popular taggers in the late 1960's and early 1970's. He was Greek-American,his real name was Demetrius, and he lived on West 183rd street. At the age of 57, he was invited to a a signing party for "The History of American Graffiti." Demetrius had lived a normal life, and had went to college. He claimed to have been doing graffiti because it was easy and fun. Also, he stated that early graffiti, while he was a teenager, was simple tagging and considered it a  form of vandalism. However, later on real artists starting doing graffiti and it became a true form of art.

Graffiti Art and its purpose - HipHop Network

Stowers, George. "Graffit Art." HipHop-Network. Fall 1997. Web. This essay focuses on the reasons graffiti is a form of art and the purposes it serves on society. Graffiti has existed since historic times when people lived in caves. Those cave drawings have been preserved and are important to historians and artists who study them. When graffiti became popular in the 1970's, graffiti writers improved their tags in size, color, texture, style, and form to compete with others. Soon, tagging turned into skillful art drawings on private and public spaces. Graffiti artists started to acquire pleasure and honor for their pieces while they also desired fame. They initiated to express themselves through their pieces, just like other type of artists such as musicians and authors. Since graffiti continually improved over the next decades, artists started forming crews to complete larger and more complicated pieces. Therefore, graffiti served as one of the best ways of connecting people of all different racial backgrounds. Graffiti enhanced their creativity and planning abilities.

Graffiti Hall of Fame

Graffiti Hall of Fame is one of the most interesting places in New York City for me. A variety of legal graffiti are displayed on the walls of the Jackie Robinson Educational Complex's courtyard, in Harlem. They are some of the best graffiti I have ever seen. Kramer's article, "Painting with Permission: Legal Graffiti in New York City" correlates with the Graffiti Hall of Fame in multiple ways. They both illustrate how some graffiti artists have turned to legal graffiti making in the past twenty years. Also, they both affirm that graffiti artists are mostly interested in creating fine pieces and not making any sort of profit out of it. They spend a lot of money on paint and sprays out of their own pocket just so they can create graffiti for everyone to enjoy.

The Art Newspaper article

Humber, Larry. "Graffiti: is it art or vandalism?." Art of Newspaper [Toronto] 07 Nov 2012. Web. Some officials in Toronto started to notice the artistic elements of graffiti around the city. For that reason, they set up a committee which would take pictures of the best graffiti they could find and they would decide which ones the city would keep. This became a controversial issue with private property owners who had a different opinion about graffiti. They did not want any sort of graffiti on their property even if they were marvelous.

Brochure

City of Saskatoon. Reducing graffiti in our Community. Saskatoon: Safer City, 2013. Web. This brochure labels graffiti as vandalism. First it states that graffiti is a criminal act, and that it does not belong in their neighborhoods because it lowers their standard of living. The brochure mentions all the people that are economically affected from graffiti, such as property owners and taxpayers. It tries to persuade citizens to remove graffiti from their properties, and it lists a lot of methods which can remove graffiti from many different surfaces. Lastly, the brochure states that graffiti only disfigures their city buildings and makes their community look bad.

Personal interview

Blerim, Markos. Personal interview. 13 03 2014. I interviewed my friend Markos, who has been doing graffiti for the past 5 years. Markos is in a group which does graffiti and produce rap music. There are five members in his group, and they have been best friends since elementary school. Markos stated that the reasons he does graffiti are personal pleasure, and to send across meaningful messages to the youth. For him, doing graffiti is well-spent quality time with his best friends. Also, graffiti allows him to write what is bothering his mind and relaxes him. Markos believes that there are kids out there who feel the same way as him about certain things in life, so he hopes his messages will inspire those those kids and will let them know they're not alone.

Any type of source citation and annotation (article)

Lueck, Thomas. "Graffiti Back in Subways, Indelibly This Time." New York Times 25 04 2006, n. pag. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. The article addresses the rise of a new graffiti movement which involves the subway trains once again in the history of New York City. However, this time the writers use etching acid to write on trains which costs a lot more money to be removed meanwhile it cannot be removed completely. Some reports state that etching acid is harmful to passengers and can burn the skin if it is not dry. Mayor Bloomberg passed a law which banned the sale of etching acid and other graffiti instruments to anyone under the age of 21. Moreover, high school and college student supported by a fashion designer, Marc Ecko, are filing a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the ban. The lawyer representing these students in Daniel Perez.

Edited Collection Article

McCormick, Carlo. "Rules of the Game ." Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art. Taschen Benedikt Verlag Gmbh, 2010. 20-51. Print. This article focuses on the social impacts of graffiti on the writers and the property owners. Graffiti was viewed as vandalism by most people, however the writers saw it as a form of expression. The war on graffiti did not stop the writers from continuing their passion. The article is followed by several graffiti pieces around New York which revealed the youth's feelings towards society, and could be considered inspirational. For example, one graffiti illustrated a man walking on a bridge while he was on fire. The artist maybe wanted to show that we will always have stressful problems throughout the journey of life. 

Woodhaven Graffiti

Mihail, Ani. Woodhaven Mailbox Graffiti. 2014. Photograph. n.p. Web. This weekend I visited a friend in Woodhaven, Queens. As I was walking I noticed that most of the USPS mailboxes had graffiti on them. The graffiti were simple name tags, and most of them were created by the same writers. Some mailboxes looked like they were painted, probably to cover the graffiti name tags. The writers most likely lived in those areas and declared their territories by tagging the mailboxes.

YouTube Video (film)

Pray, Doug, dir. Infamy . Image Entertainment , 2005. Web. The film captures the lives and graffiti-related activities of six popular street artists who put their lives in danger to leave their marks in society. It shows the journey and progression of these artists through different cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.  Also, it presents the different personalities of each of the artists, while they all possess one in common, humor. The film addresses how the parents of the artists contributed to, or were unfavorable, to their graffiti art. Moreover it informers us of different methods and techniques graffiti artists in different cities use and rely on.

Newspaper Article

Yarrow, Andrew. "Keith Haring, Artist, Dies at 31; Career Began in Subway Graffiti." New York Times (1990): n. pag. Web. A New York City artist, Keith Haring, died of AIDS at the age of 31. He started as a subway graffiti artist and was known for his unique images of human figures going through daily activities. His images became their own cartoon universe and increased in value up to $350,000 a piece, as they were shown in museums and art galleries. Moreover, Haring created AIDS awareness and anti-drug posters and graffiti.

Academic Article

Grazioli, E. "Frontier art—New York graffiti {Bologna Museum of Modern Art}.." Flash Art International 117 (1984): 33-33. Database. The city of Bologna promotes a project named "Frontier-The Line of Style" to strengthen writing and street art. These two subjects of interests are considered two of the most appealing and entertaining expressions in modern art society. The project is affiliated with  the show "Arte di Frontiera. New York Graffiti" which contained some of the most influential new York Graffiti-Artists such as keith haring, Jean-Michal Basquiat, and kenny Scharf. Bologna intends to regain its popularity for Wring and Street Art. 

Style Wars

Silver, Tony, dir. Style Wars. Prod. Henry Chalfant. Public Art Films, Plexifilm, 1983. Film. "Style Wars" illustrates the birth of a cultural movement, known as Hip Hop, in the late twentieth century in New York City. The film focuses on graffiti, rap, and break-dancing, which are the three main components of Hip Hop. Most importantly, it reveals the cultural impact graffiti imposed on society and the urban lifestyle. "Style Wars" did a great job at presenting a lot of different perspectives on the practice of graffiti. The writers considered it art, while others looked at it as vandalism. In addition, many people regarded the practice of graffiti a race-relating issue. Middle-aged individuals and the media associated graffiti with Hispanic and African American teenagers. However, "Style Wars" presents some white graffiti writers in the film, to convey that the movement involved teenagers of all races, and not just teens of minority groups.