Starting graffiti

This weekend, I actually went out and put up some of my art on public structures. 3 were parking meters and one was a storm drain. I used my plastic and paper mouths and also used some Sharpie and I painted on the sewer drain. I spent most of my time this week, however, on preparing for the portfolio expo, so I did not get to spend too much time on my project. I was excited to actually get my artwork up outside though.

What I Did:
4 hours putting up artwork and photographing at night and the next morning
1 hour researching things about Ann Arbor
2 hours researching paper and wheat paste artists and tips

plastic with super glue

paper with wheat paste

paint

defining the whole mouth with paint

paper with wheat paste

with eyes drawn on with Sharpie

What I Noticed:
I came back the next morning to first see if my art was still attached and I wanted to photograph my art in daylight instead of using the flash at night. All were still attached. I noticed that the parking meter that had been in the sunlight (the one with the paper open mouth) was stuck on the most because the wheat paste had totally dried to form a nice bond. The other 2 parking meters still had not dried though because they were not in the sunlight and had only been sitting in the cold all night. I tried to peel off the plastic and the paper and it was fairly easy. The paint on the sewer drain was mostly dry except for a few little spots.

I think the one that looked the best was the kissy face on the yellow parking meter, but I agree with my classmates and professors when they said that when I added the eyes with Sharpie, it was a little too overwhelming and did not need to be added. I mostly just wanted to see how Sharpie would look directly on the parking meter without having to create a whole face with it though. I think the detail that I get with the colored pencils is great and the wheat paste seems to stay on better than the super glue. Plus, when applying the wheat paste, you can brush it underneath and on top of it all over so that there is no pieces hanging off freely, unlike the superglue, which you can only cover so much of the bottom of the plastic. I think with the weather getting warmer, the paper and wheat paste graffiti will only give me better results.

Sadly, I went back to the kissy face on Wednesday and it had been removed. Even the Sharpie marker had been cleaned off, which means that it was not someone just being a jerk and taking off the paper, but it was someone who really wanted the markings off. Even though my facial features did not interfere with anything on the parking meter, somebody did not like it. I have yet to see if the others are still intact. I would be very surprised to see them remove the paint from the storm drain.

I am still trying to figure out how to connect all of my pieces. I tried looking up facts about Ann Arbor that could give me a clue as to how the spots for my pieces could connect, such as similar events that took place in the spots that I put my faces, or demographics in certain areas, but I could not find anything that I could use in my project.

Some graffiti that I have been more closely looking at is paper and wheat paste graffiti. I found that wall paper paste stays on more permanently than wheat paste. I also found that thin paper like newsprint or old blueprints work better, which is something that I figured would be true.

Pavel Puhov's "Eyeglasses"

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I love both of these pieces for different reasons. Sadly, there was no information about Pavel Puhov's piece, so I do not know how it was created, especially in the snow. But I love the way the lamp post is being used. It takes a person with a lot of imagination to come up with making a lamp post into the temple of a pair of glasses, but now that he did it, it's perfectly clear, and the size of the piece is hilarious. I also really like the shark phone booth, because people have to put their head into the mouth of the shark in order to use the phone. Both of these ideas are so clever, not only in transforming these objects into different objects through graffiti, but the impact that they have is awesome, and the thought process behind them is genius.

When people walk by my pieces of art on the street, that is what I want them to think. Not only do I want them to think it is funny, but I want them to say, "wow, that is genius", or something of the sort.


What I Plan to Do Next:
I really want to come up with a creative way to tie all of my pieces together. I have been racking my brain for a while about this, but have not come up with any plan that I truly want to run with. I also want to revisit my storm drain mouth and add more detail now that the paint has probably fully dried (and is hopefully still there). Since I found out that somebody took off my face on the parking meter, it actually only makes me want to put more up to sort of retaliate. So maybe I will add more paper and wheat paste (or wallpaper paste) to other kinds of structures.