Graffiti As An Art Form

By Melanie Ullman
Graffiti is a term used to describe drawings or writings on a wall or public place. It is commonly seen in subways, alleys, or other forms of public property. Some people consider graffiti as vandalism, while others insist that it’s art.

While it’s true that graffiti is sometimes used as a weapon of subversion, it can actually be an immensely positive form of artistic expression. Crude graffiti sometimes involves cheap barbs at symbols of authority, or even vulgar messages. But sometimes graffiti can be a force for change. For example, shreds of the Berlin wall contain graffiti that expresses the feeling of the post-cold-war generation. Many of these artists have no experience of the wall except through history classes. They have no real concept of the pain, suffering, and sacrifice that the long slab of concrete represented. But they do have feelings about it, and these feelings can be understood by analysing the graffiti on that wall.

Another example of positive graffiti is the concept of reverse graffiti. It ranges from using your finger to write ‘wash me’ on a dirty car to scraping images into a dirt stained wall. The concept was popularised by street artists, and is sometimes called grime writing, dust tagging, or clean advertising. Commercial entities use it for guerrilla advertising. These artists suggested that instead of cleaning the accumulated dirt on public surfaces, they should simply modify it. They did this by using chisels, wire brushes, and other tools to scrape images into the grime. The images were mostly themes from nature like trees, animals, and fish. The clean patches of concrete contrasted the dirty patches to make calm, serene pictures.

Graffiti as we know it began in the 1960s, and mainly consisted of images painted on public walls using spray cans. The art is considered illegal, because permission was not sought. Today, some commercial companies hire graffiti artists to decorate their property. It is used as a form of advertising and sometimes promotes social causes. This form of graffiti is more easily recognized as art because of its legality.

Some argue that placing images on public walls is not necessarily a bad thing. From as far back as the Stone Age, people painted animals and other motifs onto rocks and cave walls. We generally assume that these paintings were done on the cave dwellings of the painters, so that wasn’t necessarily graffiti. The walls were private property and were painted with the permission of the owners.

But others argue that very fact that graffiti is illegal proves it’s an art. Many underground movements have produced some of the greatest art, and this is especially true in the music world. This argument is built up by mentioning the time factor. Many graffiti projects are done at night, because the artists don’t want to get caught by the authorities. Yet despite the time limits and the darkness, they are still able to produce immensely beautiful and intricate images. The ability to create such fine work under so much pressure is the mark of a true artist.

Been a while - back in action!

It's been quite a while since I last updated this blog. The main reason was that I had to put Graffitipix on hold - for a long time.

Much of the issue has been time. I've been caught up in other business ventures which have taken most of my time and energy. However, now that those other businesses are more-or-less stable, I'm able to get back to what I love - great artwork!

I've focused on graffiti art for many years, and have assembled a wonderful collection from Miss Van, Fafi, Banksy, and others. Most of my collection is in the way of 'private' graffiti photographs rather than canvases. I continue to collect photos of great art - and please feel free to continue contacting me if you have any great photo's that you'd like to talk about or sell.

One area that I had gotten into in a big way was Prison Art. In fact, I had started The Prison Art Project (http://www.prisonartproject.org), specifically to collect, show, and sell prison art.

Now that I have the time and opportunity to get back into the whole art thing, this is going to be where a good deal of my focus will be.

If you have any prison art, or correspond with anyone who is locked up and creates art, or has buddies on the inside that do, please contact me.

It's been a long time, and I really look forward to picking up where I left off, and then taking this whole thing way, way further.

I'll be completely revamping the Graffitipix.com website, as well as re-designing and re-launching The Prison Art Project. I still have what is probably one of the largest collections of prison outsider art in existence, at least on this side of the bars.

And so look here for more (and frequent) updates as I kick this whole thing back into gear. In other words, come back and visit soon, and often! If you have any questions, comments, or anything you like to communciate with me about, feel free to leave a comment below.

You can also expect that I will be posting some of the images, both graffiti art and prison art, on this blog. That should be beginning in the next coming weeks.

Thanks to all for your ongoing support!

The Graffiti Art of Banksy

Banksy is a protest graffiti artist. He is residing in Bristol, UK and his art features an alterative political view that goes against the mass media perspectives. Banksy has been featured in numerous magazines and galleries. His primary use of stencils has lead to groundbreaking artwork that many have tried to emulate and use as inspiration for their work.

Banksy is known for his paid works as well. He has been hired by numerous charitable organizations like Greenpeace to do work for their causes. His canvas works have been sold for up to 25,000 pounds. Banksy is knows for his reclusiveness and no one really knows who he is or his real history.

Banksy is a self published artist, he currently as of 2008 has 4 books out. His first is in black and white called “Banging your head against a brick wall” This was followed by his first full color book, “Existentialism”. Later in 2004, he published his first book called “Cut it out”. His latest book “Wall and piece” came out in 2006

Banksy’s art is unique. His pictures are all painted from odd perspectives and no one really knows much about him and how he does his work. He does comment and talk about his craft on his website. It’s speculated that he was either too slow for freehand graffiti and would get caught, or he just was not good at freehand.

His work has been seen around the world. His work has shown up after hurricane Katrina on derelict houses. Banksy has been known for his outrageous demonstrations. At the Glastonbury festival, Banksy arranged the portable toilets into a Stonehenge formation. At the art museum that housed the Mona Lisa, Banksy went and put up a replica picture in the men’s room with Lisa having a yellow smile on her face
.
Banksy prefers his identity hidden, he has refused receiving many awards to keep up his mystery. All we can do is sit back and enjoy his work, and see what new feats he will come up with.

Miss Van - The Original Graffiti Girl!

It would be impossible to approach the subject of “graffiti” without mentioning Miss Van, one of the “girls” who adorn the walls of the old Toulouse.

Now based in Barcelona, Miss Van earned her stripes on the streets of her native Toulouse – a city in Southwestern France that is home to a world-famous graffiti scene - where she set the standard for her peers and discovered an early affection for ruffling feathers.

An artist from a young age, Miss Van dedicated herself to art school and graffiti at the same time, and made no efforts to hide her love for street art from her professors. In the early 1990s, she began tagging and going around with friends. It was not long before she began to develop her trademark “sexy, erotic images that will disturb or seduce people on the street.” She likes to explore the symbiotic relationship between artist and public space, especially the fact that she can deposit images freely into a fully engaged environment and thereby encourage a heightened level of interplay between the viewer and her work.

You can see some of Miss Van's work - photo's taken of some her very best graffiti - at Graffitipix. In fact, you can order museum-quality, exhibition grade prints at absurdly low prices now.

While you're there, check out some of Graffitipix's other extraordinary images, including Fafi and some of her original Fafi girls and "Fafinettes" - photo's taken before her paintings starting appearing on lunch boxes!

Big Changes Coming to Graffitipix!

We have BIG changes coming to Graffitipix.com this summer!

We will be adding some TERRIFIC new photos of Miss Van, FAFI, and some other graffiti artists "to be named later" - you can check the site beginning mid-July.

We will also be adding to the Pop-Art, and Pulp Covers categories, as well as adding some new categories.

Also, there will be additions of some incredibly cool and beautiful "anonymous" graffiti art - some from taggers we don't think we have ever seen before.

I'd also like to mention that The Prison Art Project is coming along very nicely!

Lastly, we've had so much fun with our Graffiti Pictures, that we are creating new websites in some entirely new (well, new for us) art categories:

Native American art;
Religious art;
Vintage and Classic Automobiles;

as well as a few others, also "to be named later".

Check back here often!

Been a while, but I'm back!

It's been quite a while since I last posted, but I'm back! We have quite a few plans in the works for Graffitipix, including many new pics that will be offered, as well as some exciting new categories.

Lots of very cool Miss Van and Fafi pics coming!

The biggest "addition" will be an entire gallery of Prison Art for sale! These will be individual artworks. We've been working with about 20 inmate artists, and now have over 300 pieces of amazing artwork that we will be offering!

One reason for my absence is that I've been helping out an Internet Marketing group - you can see their blog at Improve Your Internet Marketing - these guys really know their stuff, and I've learned a lot about marketing on the internet.

Look for the Prison Art and other very cool additions coming in the next few weeks!

Graffitipix is back on Ebay!

Well, it's been a while since my last post... we had a series of back-to-back family crises, but fortunately they have passed.

The big news is that we are back on Ebay, auctioning some FABULOUS new graffiti prints from Miss Van, Fafi, and others.

You can see what we have on auction - our Ebay ID is, you guessed it: graffitipix!

We are also very excited to be working on our next big project, The Prison Art Project! This will be a web site similar to Graffitipix.com, except it will feature exclusively Prison Art. This is "outsider" art created by some incredibly talented inmate artists that we have begun co-responding with.

Look for The Prison Art Project to come online in the next month or so. In the meantime, stop by Graffitipix.com and see what's new!

What the heck is "White Balance" anyway?

If you take pictures, you've heard the term "White Balance". Maybe you saw it in the instruction manual of your digicam, or in a post about photography. But what is it? Simply put, it is how white white is; if you pointed your camera at a truly white object, how accurate would the picture be? This is important if you take pictures of graffiti, which are often shot outdoors and sometimes at night. Amy Renfrey from www.DigitalPhotographySuccess.com
wrote a little piece about the subject which she has allowed me to post here:

Understanding White Balance

In digital photography terms, and traditional, you will most likely hear the term “white balance” quite a lot. It’s an important meaning because many digital photography enthusiasts concentrate on the lenses and digital camera without first learning about how light works.

In a nutshell, “white balance” in digital photography relates to the ‘temperature’ of light. If you notice when doing your digital photography indoors, the photo will have a bluish colour through out the digital photo. Then if you take your digital photography outside you will notice the photo then has a warmer tone to it. This is your white balance feature on your digital camera working to adjust the image.

To give you a direct example of how white balance works in your digital photography think of this; have you ever noticed how your colour pictures come out a more bluish tone in the shade? The problem is that because light has temperature, the camera has to analyze this change in its own limited way compared to the human eye.

You can help reduce the blue by altering the setting on the camera or adding a warmer color filter such as yellow. Some colour filters have different shades or hues of the same colour. Each warmer colour filter moves towards a warmer feel and increases in density.

Your white balance in digital photography also works when you walk into an office building. The fluorescent light might be different from that of the doctor’s or a drug store? Well, you’re not imagining things! The reason is there are over 40 different ranges of fluorescent lights and the problem for us digital photographers is that each one has its own colour temperature. It’s not to be avoided, please no! It just means you need to be aware that all florescent lighting is not the same and that you’ll have to consider this when shooting under this type of light.

You can work well with white balance by switching indoor shots to an “outdoor” setting to eliminate the bluish tone in indoor shots. And alternatively you can set the white balance mode to “indoor” when you are outside to reduce some golden/yellow saturation in your outside digital photography shots.

Graffiti Research Lab

Pratt Institute, a well-known, well regarded art school in Brooklyn, NY (I was born in Brooklyn!), is the home of the Digital Arts Lab.

The Digital Arts Lab is a research facility dedicated to the interdisciplinary exploration, invention, study and creative inquiry at the nexus of the arts, technology, and culture through rigorous scholarly research and innovative thinking to establish new knowledge and forms of creative expression.

The Digital Arts Lab recently hosted a presentation by G.R.L., or Graffiti Research Lab. Now if you have never heard of G.R.L., you are in for a HUGE treat! G.R.L. has done more for moving the art of graffiti beyond traditional boundries than perhaps anything else ever has!

I posted an earlier entry on L.A.S.E.R. TAG - one of the absolutely coolest non-traditional graffiti efforts ever concieved -mentioning G.R.L. But the sheer number of projects going on under their umbrella is mind-numbing!

Some of the projects revolve around "Throwies", little self-powered colored LED's attached to magnets that are 'thrown' - hence the name - against anything magnets stick to i.e. doors, bridges, buses, etc. to create a whole new form of graffiti.

Do yourself a favor and visit G.R.L. - much of the inspiration for my site, graffitipix.com, comes from their. Just remember to come back up for air!

Molly

Bullied by Gallery Owner

As you know, I run graffitipix.com, a site that sells pictures of graffiti street art. I recently received a disturbing email from a French gallery owner claiming to speak for all these graffiti artists - who shall remain nameless for the time being - threatening all sorts of actions; going to far as to suggest even "bigger" consequences than legal actions! I dunno, maybe they plan to come to my apartment and beat me up...

This comes from some misleading (intentional?) notion that a gallery owner showing some pictures from an artist somehow 'owns' the rights to anything and everything that artist might have done!

Now let me say, I respect intellectual property. And an artists rights. But we're talking graffiti here! Art intentionally put into the public domain! First, unless you are the photographer, you can no more claim copyright to a picture of the side of a building than you can to a picture of the statue of liberty! Does Michael Jackson write to People Magazine when they publish a Paparazzi's picture on their cover??

Second, what copyright? - graffiti is illegal in most places.

Now in fairness, we inadvertantly posted pictures of some works that were not public access public space pictures. We apologized, and they are all in the process of being removed. But to knowlingly try and bully us away from something we have every right to do, suggesting some dangerous "big" consequences, flies right in the face of what graffiti is all about! Graffiti is about free expression, about transcending boundries, and yes, thumbing their nose at the establishment.

Now that the establishment is making a buck from it, all of a sudden greed kicks in - and worse yet, under the guise of "what the artist wants"! What the artist wanted, at least before the gallery owners got there, was free creative expression. What happened?

Molly

Miss Van and Fafi - different, yet...

Doing one of my frequent Google searches on Miss Van, I came across a blog that had comments on her work going a few years back.

Now, I have a *lot* of photo's of Miss Van's work, pictures that I've taken or acquired, and some of them are available for sale on graffitipix.com. Needless to say, I'm a true fan of Miss Van. I think her characters are sexy, sophisticated, and her work has evolved pleasingly.

I can say exactly the same for Fafi. And having looked at *so many* Miss Van and Fafi images, though similar in that they both paint girls and cute creatures, everyone is strikingly different.

Of course, not everyone feels the same way. I know this. Still, it was interesting to read some of the comments:

• "Her stuff looks like Fafi’s artwork. And thats not good to begin with."
• "I can see a similar inspiration in both Miss Van, and Fafi’s works, but one can see that Miss Van has a far better feel for the paint and her mark making…not to mention color. I wouldn’t even compare the two."
• "I knew of Miss Van before Fafi…I think it’s a case of great minds thinking alike."
• "i like em both, but yeah.. they get balled into the same person quite a bit."
• "Indeed Miss Van has been painting a bit longer than Fafi, and it shows. Miss Van’s linework has more of a sophistication to it, with a greater handling of the stylized characters and colors than Fafi."

'Course when you really consider...

• "Interestingly enough, both are from the same area of Paris, in Toulouse, so I’m sure that they know each other."

Opinions, they're like &%$#% - everyone's got one. Anyway you look at it though, no one can argue, that they both produce Serious Art!

Molly

Track tragedy ruled accidental

Just passing it along - sad!

Islington Tribune [London] - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 23 February 2007
Graffiti artist died on tracks

A graphic designer was electrocuted when he slipped on train tracks after drunkenly reverting to the graffiti lifestyle he had abandoned since the birth of his child, an inquest heard yesterday (Thursday). George Andrew King, 22, was hit by 750 volts of electricity when he fell on the live rail near Caledonian Road and Barnsbury railway station during a graffiti spree in the early hours of Saturday September 16 last year.

After a night at a media party, he had gone on to the rails with friend and fellow spray-canner Jason Edwards, who ended up trying to prise his convulsing body from the line with a plank of wood before calling for an ambulance.

Mr Edwards said he had been walking ahead of Mr King as they returned to the station after tagging a bridge.

He said: "I just turned round and he was lying on the rail. I know from before - it's instant death on that track."

Though they risked their lives and broke their own safety protocols by rushing to the still-live line, the paramedics could see instantly that Mr King was dead, Coroner Dr Andrew Reid was told. Katherine Ketchaev, Mr King's partner and the mother of his young son, said he had given up graffiti on the railways since she had become concerned for his safety - but had given in to temptation after a few drinks while she slept.

Police experts said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

Verdict: accidental death.

No More Graffiti!

Have I lost my mind???

Surely the owner of a site that sells graffiti prints (www.graffitipix.com), and writes a blog on graffiti (you're reading it) can't be advocating the end of graffiti, right?

Right. I have not lost my mind - yet! You see, among other pastimes, I surf a lot of graffiti sites. I also manage my own, which included creating ads with Google Adwords. When I create my ads, they are based on keywords, as in what searches do I want my ads to show up for? The most obvious one, of course, is "graffiti".

And so, the ads for graffitipix.com (hopefully) show up on sites searched using "graffiti". Other keywords include "spray paint", "graffiti writing", "writing on walls"... you get the idea. Well guess what - those are the very same terms you might want if you were in the business of removing graffiti!

I mean, if I'm a city planner, property manager, builder, etc., and I wanted to have graffiti removed, these are some of the keywords I would search on: "removing graffiti", "removing spray paint"... you get the idea.

The ironic part is that the companies that perform these services and sell these products ("graffiti removal solvent") buy the same Adwords keywords. And so, their ads show up right alongside mine! "Beautiful Graffiti" right next to "Remove Graffiti"!

Next time you browse graffiti sites, pay attention to the ads. You might see mine. And right next to it, you might see one on how to undue all that beautiful art.

Perhaps most ironic of all, one can imagine, is that someone legitimately looking to rid their outside wall of graffiti may find "Graffiti Removal Experts" - and if they look close enough, an ad promoting graffiti!

(That picture up top is either a very sad picture of art gone away, or a pristine wall just begging to be tagged!)

Happy Passover and Happy Easter, one and all!

Molly

Another word on cameras

As you might imagine the paradigm shift from traditional film-based photography to digital is rapidly creating new opportunities to learn and grow. The photography industry is moving at an incessant pace, and digital cameras sales have surpassed their film-based cousin at an alarming rate each year. On January 16, 2004, Eastman Kodak announced it would end its sales of film cameras in the United States and on June 15, 2005, Kodak announced it will discontinue production of black-and-white photographic paper by the end of the year as it continues its transition to digital photography. Soon digital cameras will hit critical mass and film will only represent a minute segment of the industry.

What are the main differences?

The differentiator between a traditional 35mm film camera and digital cameras is how the pictures are captured, processed, and stored. A conventional camera exposes an image on a roll of silver-halide coated film. A digital camera captures an image on a photosensitive silicon computer chip called a charged couple device, also known as a CCD. The camera converts the image captured by the chip into digital data and saves it in a camera's memory as a digital photo. These photos can then be copied onto your computer's hard drive where you can email, edit, and save them.

CAMERA SELECTION

Just as with traditional film cameras, digital cameras come in two offerings: point and shoot, and digital single lens reflex (DSLR).

Both types of camera use flash memory cards (“digital film”) to store images and are immediately available for viewing through the camera’s rear liquid crystal display (LCD).

Point and Shoot

Point-and-shoot cameras are extremely affordable and remain the most popular in current market conditions. These cameras are easy to use, give outstanding results, and for all practical purposes are compact. Point-and-shoot cameras mainly offer a limited feature set, offering mostly automatic features such as: auto flash, auto exposure, and the camera selects the shutter speed and aperture for you. Cell phone cameras are low-end point-and-shoot.

Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR)

Digital SLR cameras offer photographers the ability to use interchangeable lenses and accessories, which give the photographer greater artistic control and flexibility. DSLR cameras allow photographers to visually check image sharpness and composition. The effects of changing lenses, changing exposure values, and viewing the camera's hisogram are immediately visible in the LCD viewfinder and/or eye viewer. There are many advantages of using DSLR digital cameras. They can handle a variety of lighting and focusing situations unlike point and shoot cameras. DSLR cameras offer optical zoom as opposed to just digital zoom, which essentially crops pixel data and will add unwanted noise to an image.

IMPORTANT TIPS

• Look for cameras that can save files in RAW. Saving your image as a RAW file will provide you with a higher quality image to work from in post processing. Images shot in RAW remain uncompressed, unlike JPEG images. Through repetitive opening/closing of JPEG files image -- image degradation occurs.

• Equally important is finding a camera with a minimal amount of shutter lag. It can be rather frustrating with some of the point and shoot cameras available when there is a long lag between clicking the shutter and the camera taking the shot. Choose a camera with a large buffer memory. This allows a number of images to be continually snapped before stopping to allow them to be downloaded and processed.

• Digital camera quality and the size of the created images are continually rising. As a general rule you will need at least 1800 x 1400 pixels (2.5 mega pixels) to print up to 6 x 4 inch with good quality. To date recommendations include the Canon Rebel XT (8.0 Mega Pixels), Canon EOS 20D, Nikon D70 and so on.

DIGITAL FILM: FLASH MEMORY

Manufacturers of cameras, namely Canon, Olympus, and Sony use memory cards that are usually not compatible with one another. Canon uses compact flash cards and/or IBM micro drives. A micro drive is similar to a compact flash card, but it was formerly recognized for its larger capacity. Olympus uses an xD Picture card and smart media card, and finally there’s Sony. Sony uses a memory stick. File formats generated by flash memory for digital cameras are RAW, TIFF, JPEG. RAW being a memory intensive format uses several megabytes of data on a memory card and does not compress the image at all.

Both RAW and TIFF are known as ‘lossless’ file formats because compression algorithms are absent, thus giving the photographer more pixel data and better image quality. However, since RAW is not as widely recognized as JPEG in the photography marketplace, special conversion software is necessary to convert images from RAW to TIFF or JPG. Some camera manufacturers include RAW conversion software with their higher end point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras, but it is not as great as some RAW applications developed by cutting edge companies such as PhaseOne, a Danish company that markets an outstanding product called Capture One DSLR. It is made specifically for photographers that wish to process RAW files.

One peripheral that will save battery life on your camera is a compact flash card reader. It plugs into your USB port and permits you to download your images by inserting a memory card in it. This is preferred over downloading from your camera/cable because your camera’s battery juice will quickly render your camera's battery dead, especially if you are downloading several hundred photographs. The memory card reader acts as an auxiliary drive. Just make sure you get a memory card reader specifically made for your type of memory card and that it can handle a high capacity card such, i.e. 4GB (Gigabyte) flash card.

At graffitipix.com, we use mainly a 10-megapixel Canon camera and save in RAW format. That's why our prints look soooo good!

Molly

Collaborative online graffiti fun!

I came across a neat little time-waster... ok not so little, I just spent over a half-hour before I even knew it. A very interesting idea: collaborative online graffiti.

Here's the premise- you enter a "room" that basically looks like a subway station platform. You get a spray can and a pick-box for spray type and color, and a few different brush types. Using your mouse, you tag away. Here's the neat part: you are not alone!

Each room has some number of fellow taggers. You see what they are doing, and they see what you are doing. As might be expected, there are the annoying "ruin everyone elses stuff" riff-raff, but you can click on their names and they are subsequently ignored! Now you see only your stuff and whomever you aren't ignoring!

Needless to say, there's lots of garbage, childishness, vulgarity, etc. But there's also some wonderful stuff!

All in all, a neat little diversion and a very clever idea for a few minutes of rec!

Even the name of the site, Graffiti Playdo, is suggestive of what you will find. But don't just listen to me, check it out!

Molly

Are copyrights on graffiti illegal?

Let me first say I believe strongly in copyright, and Intellectual Property (IP) protection in general. I believe an artist's work is their work. In an earlier post I talked a bit about copyright issues on graffiti art.

But what are the boundaries on copyrights when it comes to graffiti in a public access public space? (If you're reading this, you know I run graffitipix.com, a site that sells pictures of graffiti. We are careful to use photographs that we took directly or acquired the rights to.)

I recently had the opportunity to talk with an IP expert, and he said something very interesting - for the most part, graffiti is illegal. That is, tagging the side of a building is illegal without express permission from the building owner, and even then most states and municipalities make it illegal anyway. But here is the interesting part: under US law (and many other jurisdictions), you cannot profit from illegal activity. And as J.D. Lasica of "Freedom To Tinker", points out, it is unclear whether you can copyright an image created illegally.

Most would agree generally that the artist owns the rights on the art, the photographer owns the rights to their own photographs.

I've discussed with this with a government legal expert. It's not at all clear whether you can or would want to claim copyright over an image that you've created illegally.

My opinion, based in part on my own research into copyright law as well as my own personal feelings is that that when a graffiti artist tags a building, they are intentionally putting their work into the public domain. You cannot copyright public access public spaces. If you take a picture of the Statue of Liberty, you own the rights to that photograph.

What do you think? Can you - and would you want to - claim copyright on graffiti if it is illegal? And does that invalidate the copyright?

Molly

A graffiti glossary...!

If you're reading this, you no doubt know that "bomb", "tag", "paint", and "spray" are different ways to describe creating graffiti. We probably understand that a "tagger" is "tagging up" when he/she does their "tag".

But unless you're an active tagger - or reading this blog! - most of us wouldn't know the terms "Icy Grape" or "Jungle Green" (old, discontinued Krylon spray-paint colors that are prized by taggers when the odd can turns up.).

Well, thanks to Zimbio and 149st.com, we can all learn the vernacular. I came across a graffiti glossary, and just had to pass it on...

Molly

L.A.S.E.R. Tag - how cool is that...?

I stumbled across this video on a Zimbio blog, and was blown away! Imagine using one of those laser-pointers to tag the side of a building 10 stories wide and half a block across?!?

Well, thats not exactly possible (yet!), but these guys at Graffiti Research Lab have combined some neat technology to simulate just that!

L.A.S.E.R. TAG video

Basically, they've outfitted a pc with a camera and software that tracks the light from the laser pointer and superimposes it over what the camera is looking at. Pointed at a building, the camera displays that image on the pc. Someone with a laser-pointer "tags" the building as if the laser-pointer were a paint brush or spray can. The camera then "paints" it onto the building!!

Whomever wrote the software really nailed it: the "paint" from the laser-pointer even drips after its applied!

Molly

Giclee... Huh? What is "Giclee"??

One of the terms used in the art world, particularly regarding digital fine-art, is "Giclee" (pronounced "Zee-clay").

Giclee comes from the French word "giclée" and means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The term is specifically used to indicate prints created typically using professional 8-Color to 12-Color ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets. Giclee prints are sometimes referred to as Iris prints, which are a printer pioneered by Iris Graphics, and now owned by Scitex.

I use a Scitex Iris printer to produce the prints on graffitipix.com.

The quality of the giclee print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.

Numerous examples of giclee prints can be found in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Chelsea Galleries. Recent auctions of giclee prints have fetched $10,800 for Annie Leibovitz, $9,600 for Chuck Close, and $22,800 for Wolfgang Tillmans (April 23/24 2004, Photographs, New York, Phillips de Pury & Company.)

More about printing next post...

Molly

$$ for your graffiti photographs

Hello! As the owner of graffitipix.com, I would like to buy any photographs you have of interesting or unusual graffiti. I sell prints of graffiti art on my site, including Miss Van, FAFI, Banksy, DAZ, Camille, and others.

If you own any photographs of graffiti that you think would look good as prints, I am willing to buy them from you, or make them available on my site and split the proceeds with you.

Just drop me an email.

Molly