Post #1: Art Around Us

    I prefer to stand and look out the window on my daily commute on the 7 train so I can admire the graffiti on the roofs and sides of apartment buildings. The picture above is from the Elmhurst stop. I absolutely love and admire graffiti because it accurately represents the raw New York City scene as well as provides the city with vibrance and culture. Bloomberg had the graffiti mecca 5Pointz painted over, because to him, graffiti is a "sign of decay and loss of control". Much like the broken window theory, Bloomberg believes that once a building has been defaced by graffiti, the whole neighborhood will follow and soon deteriorate. While that may have some truth to it, graffiti should most definitely be considered an art - and i'll take graffiti over gentrification any day.

 I believe that street artists do what they do for the sole purpose of making their mark permanent in the world. Everything from their tag name to the font/lettering, and the colors are chosen to accurately portray themselves. Some street artists, however, choose to be political or try to send a message through their graffiti. When Banksy tore up NYC in November, it was kind of his way of telling us New Yorkers to get out of the house and stop being caught up with work and school so we can catch one of his installations (the vendor in Central Park). Banksy never publicly announced his whereabouts so we would have to randomly stumble across his work on a wall in an obscure location.

This piece was done by Banksy during his visit to NYC. The old school graffiti handwritten style used to show NYC's well-known gutter accent with the neatly italicized font-like writing underneath, is telling us that we often abandon our unique born and bred borough accents to conform and show professionalism to corporate institutions such as universities and businesses. 

A viewer should appreciate the color choices and style of text a street artist makes because they just want to inspire us with their individuality and boldness.