happykatie :: katie rocks out the interwebs

Ecko speaks out against anti-graffiti laws

Marc Ecko has been firing away at Mayor Michael Bloomberg's new law changing the legal age from purchasing and carrying spray paint and broad tipped markers from 21 to 18.

A group of art students and design professionals sued NYC saying that the law was making it difficult for them to do their school and artwork.

The final decision was favorable to graff-heads in the Big Apple.  District Judge George Daniels said:

"It is unreasonable to tell young artists that they have the right to express themselves," but then place "unreasonable restrictions with regards to their ability to obtain tools to communicate their art," the judge said.

Good to remember that these kids didn't have it nearly as hard as their Chicago spraypaint head brethern.  No one can purchase spraypaint and fat markers at all - regardless of age.  Craziness!

I'm all with Marc in saying we should be spending our graffiti clean-up dollars on after school programs or in special art groups like Philly's Mural Arts program.  Our city needs some major beautifying and it would be amazing to see that legitimately happen with the help of our talented graff artists.

KnittaPlease strikes it big on the interwebs

Looks like the local KnittaPlease girls are getting some international blogwide attention.  Pretty snazzy!  They're even rocking the Platial space to tag their tags online.

In other silly graffiti news, I've been digging the WeKillYou crew for their simplistic snaggly tooth monster characters and good humor.  They appear to move in packs, so be warned.

Graffiti belongs to the people

Great Graffiti Hackers article in Wired magazine.  Gotta' love those techi graff artists:

FLASHLIGHT BRIGADE

Who: PIPS:lab art collective
Where: Amsterdam
How: Audience members are asked to draw using a variety of light sources: an aerosol can rigged with a 3-volt bulb for producing skinny lines, a battery pack attached to a handheld 12-volt lamp to make thicker strokes, or a 220-volt spotlight for larger-than-life beams. A digital camera set for a 30-second exposure captures the light trail. A brief flash ends the shot, revealing the artist and capturing the scribbled illustration. (Pablo Picasso did much the same thing for photographer Gjon Mili in 1949.) Stills and video of the installation, called Lumasolator, are displayed during the performance and uploaded onto the group's Web site.
Word: "Graffiti belongs to the people, but not everybody is allowed to express themselves on the streets," says PIPS:lab cofounder Keez Duyves.

Break out the paint rollers - Sony unleashes PSP graff irritation

As a ridiculously enthusiastic fan of graffiti culture, I have more than once raised an eyebrow towards corporate graffiti -- just as I'm inclined to be less than impressed by many 'street marketing' campaigns in general.

That's why this newsbit about a Sony PSP graffiti ad campaign is just plain annoying (via Popgadget). People all over the country have been complaining about the appearance of PSP graffiti ads popping up on the sides of buildings lately and are, rightly, perturbed by their blatant corporate nature. A brilliant quote:

"For some strange reason, I'd rather see my friendly local gang lay claim to that wall then have it given over to some crappy corporation and their urban marketing campaign."

Amen to that.

(Image of corporate sponsored graffiti sell-out via Wooster)

Tagging in Iraq

I found this January BAGnewNotes post about some noted 24th Division Punisher tags.  Very interesting - I've seen lots of anti-war graffiti in town and in online photog collections, but have yet to find a place with war sentiments in the actual warzone area.

I'm sure that Iraqis have a lot more on their minds than making hip stencils or finding killer caps for their spraypaint cans, but there must be some really powerful messages scribbled somewhere that deserve to be seen.  Anyone know where I can find such things?

Randomly ::  Today's A.Word.A.Day is 'scut' - a worthless, contemptible fellow.

Also - please cross all your cross-able digits that I get the gorgeous 1920's hardwood floored, flower gardened image of gorgeous-ness house that I looked at last night.

German graffiti smackdown

Yet another rather extreme example of governments going over the top to find graffiti kids:

In a recent incident a motorcyclist was killed when he was  hit by a police car chasing a graffiti artist.

"We've got to stop the graffiti hysteria," said Stroebele, a member of parliament for Berlin. "We need prudent measures against graffiti, which is annoying and illegal. But we don't need wild manhunts in central Berlin with scenes from a James Bond film."

Graffiti problems do not = infrared camera-equipped helicopter chases.