There are a variety of angles and issues surrounding graffiti: The on-going debate between community members who view graffiti as a crime and nothing else, to those who appreciate the artistic merits behind the sometimes illegal art form. Graffiti is in the midst of making its way from being a subversive art form crafted from a street/urban lifestyle to becoming more mainstream by making appearances in well-known art galleries and museums. Yet, each day graffiti artists are arrested. Cities worldwide are devising unique measure to capture these artists, while some of their measures are preventative others are focused on cleaning the art up as quickly as possible. And there are still other graffiti artists who are inventing some incredible new technologies to make graffiti, some that even challenge the notion of conventional graffiti.
My goal in writing this blog has been to challenge the traditional notions of graffiti. I understand for many this art form wreck their property and their day. I understand they have strong feelings about stopping graffiti from spreading throughout their city. But I also want people to realize that not all graffiti is gang related. Much of it is done by very talented artists who have not found any other way to express their skill. I tried to remain as objective as possible. If you read my blog, sure, you will get the sense that I love graffiti – but hopefully you also get the idea that I honestly wish there were more ways for the graffiti artists out there to express their artist talent in a wholly legal manner.
There are a lot of Web sites dedicated to graffiti out there. They feature photos of graffiti from around their communities, but they stop there. I have yet to find another graffiti news blog. This is what will set my Web site apart. My goal is to have the most comprehensive graffiti blog on the web by featuring news on all the various issues within the graffiti world and also by continuing to display photos of graffiti I find around the world.
First things first – the name has got to go. I cannot be kaylawebley.com and attract an audience. I would change it to graffiticentral.com or something that equally says this is THE place for graffiti news, information and photos.
News blog – THE source for graffiti news and information
I want to expand my news content. I would continue to blog about all of the issues I am currently blogging about, but I would also want to do more original reporting. I would travel to graffiti events worldwide and post live-on location accounts. I want my site to be the place to go for graffiti news. If I could attend graffiti events, I would feature live shots of paintings in progress, host audio interviews with famous graff artists, snap before and after photos, details any new trends in graffiti art (what’s the paint of choice this year? New styles? Techniques? Who are the up and coming stars?), and cover any news events on-site (Did some punks spray a nearby semi-truck? How will that reflect on the artists painting in this year’s event?). I would attend local graffiti events and art openings and write about what effect this could have on graffiti art. I would follow the cases of high-profile graff artists who are arrested, from warrant to jail sentence. My site would be the news source for graffiti artists to get news about artists they know. I would host more interviews with people-in-the-know from graffiti artists to art experts critiquing the work. I would also interview enforcement officials to see how well their efforts to crack down on graffiti are shaping up.
I have consistently been told my photos are the best feature of my blog. I want to take that and run with it. I would launch photo galleries on my Web site to display my photos in a more user-friendly, interactive way. I would let users comment on the individual photos and critique the graffiti art and artists. If my Web site was known to be a place to go to have your work critiqued or critique others work I think it would be hugely popular within the art community. I would continue to take photos at every opportunity. I would strive to take more photos in and around Chicago as well as travel to different locations to showcase the differences in graffiti art across the globe.
Discussion
People seem to either really like graffiti or really hate graffiti – either way there are a lot of strong opinions and discussion items. I want to host online forums for discussion where users could post their own questions to the masses and incite a debate. I will also post questions to the audience as a whole from time to time to aid public discourse on the topic.
Click here to go to PART ONE: project overview
Click here to go to PART TWO: community profile
