Bluejake

(...)"they never include street artists in this kind of event"!

It´s a pity!!! In my country (Portugal)is the same...

:)

Not really

I personally like both street art and graffiti, but part of the reason I think street art is not as accepted is that I think a lot of street artists feel that they started some kind of new movement that was already there. This is not a new movement and just because someone went to art school and then in 2001 decided to try their hand at vandalism, does not all of a sudden make it cooler or any more "expressive" than graffiti. Cost and Revs and XMEN were doing wheat pastes way way back and I don't think a lot of street artists know their history or even care about it. I see they just go right over other people's graff which is disrespectful. Graffiti started from kids who were chillin on the street. Whether you were rich or poor or in between, it was a unification of kids who were out in the street doing art. Street art is like the trendy, hipster graffiti. How can you put down graffiti, which street art takes it's whole influence from? They are both forms of expression and street artists need to learn the unwritten rule of respect for other's art. A tag might just be a tag to you, but can you do it??? Graff writers have made up their own font and perfected it. Graff writers practice for years to perfect their art of making letters. Yeah some of it sucks, but so does a lot of street art too. I do both, I never got up all over but did my share of both for the past 15 years. I do feel that both should be united, but I feel that a lot of street artists don't respect or even like graff, the art that started it all.

A good site with some good points made is this one:
http://www.streetartblows.com/

Click the middle finger and read. I like some of the points they make on it.

One other good point they make is that it seems that street artists almost justify what they do as being ok and graffiti being bad and when it all comes down to it, the average store owner is going to think both are vandalism.

just to be clear, i love graf- especially a well-executed tag or throw-up. i even like real burners- the kind people execute without permission, in the middle of the night. i just can't stand legal pieces- when there's no threat, you've removed half of what makes graf interesting.

and i disagree with what you said about street-artists not knowing their history- i think everyone knows and respects REVS and COST's work from 1990-4- that's celebrated by everyone.

I disagree. I definitely have more interest in illegal graff but come on,what's wrong with them painting a wall and enjoying it for the art and fun of it. Not everyone can do always do illegals forever, people have jobs and families. And honestly I don't think enough people DO know Cost and Revs. I respect a lot of street artists but I just think some try to give graff the bad name and take all the "artistic" credit. I just think a lot of people jumped on the street art bandwagon because they felt it was more understood (and trendy,artsy, etc) than graffiti. I try to stay away from SCENES in general because it just gets way too snotty and clickish for me and I feel street art(a little more) and graff both have it in them. I mean everything does if you really look at it.

Do you know if they'll be doing this again next year? I know it was for the release of Ecko's video game, but it seems like this was such a big hit with everyone- I think they should make this a yearly occurance. I couldn't get there to check it out.

Just curious, what is your opinion on the art at 5 Pointz (Phun Factory) in LIC?

i dont know dude, There is only so much you bag on people who do this, if your hobby was something like illegal street racing or something like that i pretty sure people would bag on you for that too.. but its like, ever since the dawn of mankind we have been writting on walls, and telling stories with pictures and words in our own unique way. Some people are better than others and these "toys" are learning, i don't understand why we can't provide an enviroment to foster that, whether it be legal or illegal.

now people are just gunna say some ignorant shit after this so whatever.

nice photos!

I don't even know what street art is...Is it newspaper glued to a building? Or metal work welded to a lamp post? I was writing before most of you were born and this theory that graffiti artist should only do illegal peices is silly. Most of the people there have paid there dues by getting locked up many times and running from german shephards to save their asses. I agree with Step 1 whoever he is, that graffiti was a different animal and I'm not saying "tags" should be treated with too much respect either. In 35 years I've only seen a handful of tags which I thought really looked good, and the rest of it was crap which covered the 5 boros and terms like "I bomb" or "I'm All City" were cries from kids who probably felt this was their only chance to matter. I was impressed by the turn out and Mark's a very good businessman, since he's tapping into what the kids want. It was a lot of fun, but I thought the music sucked and I would have paid twenty bucks to hear something from back in the days (Soul Makossa or Marvin Gaye)

Malta! S.A. retired 1976 and very toy...

hello mark .. I like you.. you are the best .. preace from the BUcharest city subways.. peace SUA and big up writhers...