San Diego Graffiti

During my exploration of the streets of San Diego, I found that it is a surprisingly diverse place to find graffiti and street art. I wanted to share a little of that variety in blogging about the controversial Poseidon piece, the classic early graffiti hippie inspired VW bus, the live-art street character pieces, the installation of orange bikes, and the community mural. Although all of these art forms are different from each other and represent San Diego in distinct ways, there were commonalities between the artworks that I was drawn to. One thing I found particularly interesting was that the only one of these works that was done illegally was the Poseidon piece in Ocean Beach, and that artist was fined $50,000 for committing such a crime. All of the other art was either commissioned, like the community mural in Ocean Beach or done legally, like the orange bikes in La Jolla. Granted, most of the places where I looked for street art were in high-traffic areas in San Diego, but the strict laws and high penalties that control street art were shocking to me. I even visited the less trafficked, less upscale district of Mission Beach and all the remnants of graffiti I could find were painted over, hence, no art is pictured in my blog from Mission Beach. On a San Diego government website there is a graffiti control program which states,

“Children and young adults become involved in graffiti vandalism for a number of reasons: gang association, peer recognition, lack of artistic and recreational alternatives, the element of danger, and lack of appropriate parental supervision and discipline.” ("Graffiti Control Program ")

The city of San Diego has a no tolerance policy against graffiti. It makes sense why it was so difficult for me to find any graffiti or street art that was done illegally. Even when graffiti is done illegally it seems as though the city makes a point of covering over it right away. I understand why it is illegal to vandalize private property, but they stereotype graffiti artists on the city’s government website as follows:

“Involved in graffiti vandalism for a number of reasons: gang association, peer recognition, lack of artistic and recreational alternatives, the element of danger, and lack of appropriate parental supervision and discipline.” ("Graffiti Control Program ")

The city is efficient at addressing the negative aspects of graffiti, but is not as skilled at recognizing the powerful messages that street art and graffiti send to the public. "Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem." (Rollo May) Even though the city strictly enforces the graffiti laws in San Diego, I am happy to see that many artists are still able to express themselves despite the legalities and are still able to communicate to the public through their art. Tazroc and Swank One’s mural was commissioned, yet it was still edgy and not watered down for public consumption. The orange bikes in downtown La Jolla and the VW bus in Ocean Beach bring art to the public without making it a legal matter. Even the Ocean Beach murals is an annual project that the community takes part in, and allows people to appreciate street art more. Unexpected art brings something to the public that gallery art cannot accomplish: it places art in the realm of daily life, not in a rarified, controlled setting. We usually do not go out and seek out street art, instead it finds us.

Work Cited:

The City of San Diego , "Graffiti Control Program ." Accessed July 29, 2013. http://www.sandiego.gov/graffiti/reporting/index.shtml.

Graffiti 1: VW bus Ocean Beach

July 25, 2013. Paint. Ocean Beach on Newport St.

It is no accident that this sixties inspired hand-painted VW wagon was parked in the heart of Ocean Beach, right off of Newport Street. Ocean Beach is the Berkeley of San Diego. With a hippie vibe, the culture revolves around peace and love. The artist took special care to paint every inch of the car to pay homage to the style and symbols of the era: psychedelic colors, rainbows, flowers, smiley faces, peace signs and a smiling sun, painted with a graphic pop art look. It brings a wave of happiness just to take it all in.

Volkswagens were the ‘wheels’ of the sixties counterculture and a part of our cultural history: “In the U.S. it was referred to by some as a hippie van or bus because it was used to transport groups of young people and their camping gear and other supplies to concerts and anti-war rallies. Some owners painted colorful murals on their buses and replaced the VW logo on the front with a peace symbol.” ("VW bus, icon of counterculture movement, goes into production")

The peace movement that arose during the Vietnam War spawned a counter-culture of draft-dodgers, flower children, earth day, free love, and an outpouring of art, music and creativity. Ironically, the VW is an icon of a ‘love not war’ movement in America, but the car was originally conceived by Adolph Hitler working with Ferdinand Porsche in 1930’s Germany. The vehicle that began as a mass-produced communist car evolved into an icon of liberal counter-culture and individualism in America. ("VW bus, icon of counterculture movement, goes into production")

Once a visual statement is made anonymously in public, it takes on a life of its own: it belongs to the public. The artistic styles of the sixties from face-painting and album art, to bright colors and drug-induced psychedelic posters and hand-embroidered gypsy clothes and jewelry have been adopted by corporate America. Expensive brands like Lucky Jeans and Free People are capitalizing on the styles of the sixties, without a nod to the serious anti-war atmosphere that generated those peace symbols.

The tension between the corporate world and the anti-consumer sub-culture is discussed in an article called “Street Cred” about Frank Shepard Fairey. They discuss that his Obey campaign was meant to open people’s eye about how manipulative advertising can be. Since then, Fairey’s Obey campaign has grown and Fairey has been criticized for turning his populist political statement into a corporation. Fairey’s Obey message journeyed from counterculture to mass-production, whereas the Volkswagen bus went from mass-production to counterculture symbol . The “Street Cred” article poses the question, “Does capitalist consumption erase critical thought by immediately incorporating it into the mainstream?” The ubiquitous Obey brand certainly gives support to that argument. Yet the hand-painted VW bus defies that view. The Volkswagen brand was mass produced in 1930’s Germany and sold for decades in various versions all over the world. But it will always remain a sixties flower child symbol of optimism and individuality. This iconic exuberantly painted VW van could not be more representative of Ocean Beach. Painted in bright colors with a wave swirling around the front, and LOVE painted for all to see, is a great moving artwork for the peace-loving area that is Ocean Beach.

Work Cited: 

Modern Painters , "Street Cred ." Last modified 2008. Accessed July 30, 2013.

This Day in History, "VW bus, icon of counterculture movement, goes into production." Accessed July 25, 2013. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/vw-bus-icon-of-counterculture-movement-goes-into-production.

Graffiti 2: Poseiden Ocean Beach

Randall McGee. Save the Ocean or Perish in My Fury. July 17, 2013. Winston's, Ocean Beach. 

A monumental aquatic piece covers an entire brick back wall of Winston’s Beach Club in San Diego's Ocean Beach district. It is an imposing futuristic work showing a cut-away of an ocean filled with geometric structures and a half-submerged aquatic sea god with an angry robotic face and a fish tail water holding a forked scepter. The figure is huge – a small ship gives him scale. The color palette is black, sea blues and greens against a soft sunset sky. The sea is barren of fish and plants. The feeling is one of foreboding.

Authorship of this masterful work was claimed by graffiti artist Randall McGee, an eighty-five year-old Ocean Beach local. According to a 2011 article in the San Diego Reader it took McGee nine hours to spray paint the mural and it was completed a couple days before the summer solstice. Randall McGee explained that the male figure is Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. When asked about his intention, McGee stated “It seemed like the perfect spot to get the message across that the ocean is in crisis and its protector is girding for battle. We're facing mass extinction - the eradication of man from the planet. That's really the point of all this…trying to help people wake up." (San Diego Reader).

It is clear that Mr. McGee intended this graffiti to send a message to the public. Anna Waclawek, in her book Graffiti and Street Art explains, “Street artists replicate and subvert the signs and symbols of urban environments, sometimes with an overtly political agenda...By replacing the stylized written word with the graphically designed image, street artists have expanded the communicative potential of their visual language”(33) Similarly, McGee uses his symbols as a powerful communicative tool. He calls on Poseidon to send the warning inscribed on the wall “Save the ocean or perish in my fury”, McGee is sending an urgent political message to the public through his art.

Randall McGee’s creation became controversial in 2011. At the same time that Mr. McGee was trying draw public attention to his environmental cause, city officials urged that the piece be removed because it is was not “safe” for the public to receive such information. Deputy City Manager Richard Phillips argued, “But there were issues of protocol and safety; if you tell a whole town that they're about to find themselves underwater - well, after Japan, people have been feeling a mite panicky." So while city officials claimed they were trying to ‘protect’ the public by covering or removing graffiti, but in effect what they did was to attempt to silence public voice. The city issued a fine of $50,000 and the requirement he remove the work. He must have prevailed, because today the piece still stands.

As Banksey writes in one of his street art stencils “If graffiti changed anything, it would be illegal ” implying that because graffiti has the power to effect change, it is considered illegal. This constant struggle between the people and the rules of society is a prevalent theme in graffiti and street art. Often times the purpose of street art is to communicate a message to the general public, and it is the societal regulations that aim to prevent that from happening. Randall McGee was able to get his message through using his talent, his artistic voice and a big brick wall.

Work Cited:
Mencken, Walter. Stabbing Poseidon Ordered Removed From Wall of Winston's in Ocean Beach, "San Diego Reader." Last modified June 27, 2011. Accessed July 25, 2013. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/almost-factual-news/2011/jun/27/stabbing-poseidon-ordered-removed-from-wall-of-win/.

Graffiti 3: Live Downtown Pieces

Swank One and Tazroc. July 21, 2013. 25ft x 15ft. Fifth Street, Downtown.

At the intersection of Fifth Street and Island Street in the Gaslamp District, San Diego I was lucky to come upon some live graffiti art. It was the first time I had seen graffiti in progress, the artists using an arsenal of tools to cover a brick wall; paint supplies, ladders, rags, tape, and so on. Their control, precision and speed was impressive.

It was interesting to watch graffiti painted publicly and in broad daylight. It was in the middle of the day during Comic-con weekend, so the streets were packed with people, many stopping to watch the artists at work. Graffiti started as a covert underground scene. The book, Black Noise, describes how in the late 1960’s in New York writers would do graffiti in train yards where they would have to memorize train schedules and break into train yards, risking both physical and legal dangers. For these two graffiti artists above in San Diego, they are doing spray painted graffiti art legally and the only trouble I can imagine they had getting to this wall was to find parking in the Gaslamp district.

After doing some research, I found that both of the artists working on this mural are paid, commissioned graffiti artists. The artist on the left, Brian Garcia or street name Tazroc, found frustration in doing graffiti illegally so instead he legalizes the walls he does for graffiti. Tazroc is Chicano and is inspired by Chicano culture as well as with hip-hop culture. Tazroc is known for his photo realism and has had countless famous Hollywood clients such as Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Jay Z, Beyonce, Usher, and Brittany Spears. The Los Angeles hip-hop style is very present in his work - over-sexualized females, gangster males and low rider cars. The figure he was painting that day was a dark haired young woman smoking, provocatively dressed in a Mexican ruffled blouse, looking dreamily at the viewer from under a hat. She was painted softly, in almost a delicate, wistful way, like a smoking Mona Lisa.

The other artist, known as Swank One, does everything from aerosol, to painting, graphic art, logos and advertising. These two artists bridge the gap between graffiti and consumer art. He had painted the head of a beautiful, skeletal looking horses head, and there was smoke in his painting too. There was a darker undercurrent in the imagery when the two images were combined, perhaps the horse was heroin, or such villain. Although these artists retain their original graffiti style, they are paid and do their art work legally.

On the other hand, street artists are self-appointed and not all produce works of brilliance. Some deface private buildings with anger or carelessness. So, there are those, such as the sponsors of the artists Tazroc and Swank One, who are patrons of street artists, which brings their work a wider audience, allows viewers to ask more about the messages they send, and allows to artist to earn a living. To decide where to draw the line between art and vandalism, we must balance the importance hearing the individual voice, along with the importance of being conscious of community.

In the book, Graffiti and Street Art Anna Waclawek discusses how there are clashing views on whether graffiti should be done legally or illegally. Waclawek writes, “Some wish to keep graffiti ideologically hidden and inaccessible to mainstream audiences, arguing that its illegality and sense of mystery are empowering...Others such as Lady Pink and Lee Quinones pushed their art form in new directions and now make a living from it, asserting that graffiti can still be meaningful when disseminated legally”(Waclawek, p.54).

I feel both methods have their place. The intimacy and spontaneity of art done surreptitiously fills a need, and certainly there are messages that would never find a legal sponsor; politically volatile, sexually explicit, or violent message. To paint the topic with a broad brush, and to expect artists to ask permission for every tag or sidewalk square would stifle artistic expression.

Work Cited:
Maximillian Gallery , "Tazroc: About the Artist ." Accessed July 28, 2013. http://maximilliangallery.com/artists/tazroc.

Rose , Tricia. Black Noise . Hanover & London: University Press of New England , 1994.

SwankOne, Accessed July 28, 2013. http://www.swankone.com/about.html.

Waclawek, Anna. Graffiti and Street Art . Thames & Hudson , 2011.

Graffiti 4: La Jolla Orange Bikes

July 21, 2013. Painted. 2ft x 4ft. Downtown La Jolla.

Vivid orange bicycles suddenly popped up out of nowhere: I was strolling with a few friends in downtown La Jolla when we saw four of them parked on busy intersections. The bicycle shown in the photo above was poised in front of a fancy brunch restaurant, “The Cottage”. Not only did the bicycle have an orange frame, it had orange tires, orange brakes, orange spokes, orange everything. It was locked with a black cable to a black rack. When we came across the first orange bike my friends and I argued about whether it was art, vandalism, or just a new style you could purchase that way. Perhaps someone had ridden it down from Orange County. But once we saw the second and third bright orange bike, we realized that it was street art.

La Jolla is a wealthy, finicky, carefully manicured town with no trash or graffiti to be found. Downtown La Jolla is not a district where you would typically see tags, throw-ups, or pieces. I suspect that if any illegal art appeared in La Jolla, it would be covered up or removed right away. A street artist would have to be very savvy to install street art here. So it was eye-opening to realize there is really nothing the city can do about the overly orange bicycles neatly locked to bike racks, flagrantly complying with the law.

One way to skirt the issue of the illegality is to find a legal way to make street art. There is no law against painting your bike orange, and it is not illegal to park it on a bike rack. Thus, the city of La Jolla has no control over removing this particular piece of street art. The orange bicycles remind me of the street art done by Magda Sayeg, the woman who initiated yarn bombing. Yarn bombing is seen as a more playful, less politically charged form of street art. Sayeg’s technique is to knit colorful patterns around everyday public objects such as street signs, buses and lamp posts, transforming them into something soft and unexpected. The orange bicycles, like a yarn-bombed lampost, turn an everyday hard object into soft art and allow the viewer to really look at an object that would be otherwise overlooked. Both of these acts of street art bring color to everyday life, and inspire the observer to take the time to contemplate something in their surroundings. They challenge the observer ask...Why is it there? Who put it there? What is its purpose? Its purpose could simply be to make people question its purpose.

This approach is similar to Stephan Fairey’s image Andre the Giant. Andre the Giant has no specific meaning, and this ambiguity forces people to question what its meaning is. Street art is often a hidden act, unsigned, and without a descriptive gallery placard. A person discovers the work of art, not expecting it, so any meaning comes from their own experience of the piece. In my experience of the piece, the placement of the bicycles was most interesting. The four bikes were installed on busy corners with cars buzzing by, which implied action, perhaps urgency. The distance of one bike to another gave it an element of performance art, where the viewers were interacting with not only the bicycles, but the city space between each bike. Bikes imply riders, so in my personal story I assumed the orange bicyclists all knew each other, but didn’t they park together? Perhaps they were checking shops they had visited trying to recover something the group had lost…a cellphone…a wallet…a baby…their spaceship? Or perhaps just a can of bright orange spray paint.

Graffiti 5: Ocean Beach Mural

Ocean Beach Community. 2011. Painted Mosaic. 4905 Newport Ave., Ocean Beach.

This cycling-themed mural is found above a parking lot right off of Newport Street in Ocean Beach. I was immediately drawn to it because in the center, framed in a bike tire, is a bright all-orange bicycle with orange tires like the ones that popped up in La Jolla. The space is a horizontal, framed rectangle that has been installed against a stucco wall. It is hand painted in soft colors with a brushes, done in a painterly collage style, showing bicyclists, a surfboard, a dolphin, all along a winding blue stream or path.

This piece is part of a mural project started in 1999 by Ocean Beach local artist Rich James, “As a way to beautify OB and instill a sense of community”. ("Murals of Ocean Beach ") Since then, there has been a new mural painted every year. Each mural is made by all types of artists coming together at the annual Ocean Beach Street Fair to paint individual mosaic-like squares. The whole process is a community project. The mural is not done by one person, but instead is a collaborative effort coming from the Ocean Beach community. This particular mural was done in 2011. It is full of people riding bikes and has signs written such as “share the road” and “bike route”. This type of street art is commissioned and community based. It is meant to share a positive message with the public that encourages safe bike riding. This mural is helping to define the community of Ocean Beach. In the book Graffiti and Street Art, Waclawek discusses how public art interacts with the community. She writes, “The ambition behind new genre public art - to represent, interact with or speak to a specific community, in the hope of forging a meaningful relationship between artist and audience - has some ways moved the discussion away from the work itself to accountability”(Waclawek, p. 79) With bright colors, bikers, surfers, words that spell “Ocean Beach”, the message in the mural is clear, without hidden agenda or political agenda. It sends only a positive message to the public - encouraging them to bike more, and to be safe around other bikers.

Waclawek described how colors, font choice, letter and word forms influence the meaning of a piece. She discusses artist Eine of London, England and his two pieces: one of them painted with “Anti Anti Anti” in black, white and grey; another piece across the street painted with “Happy” in bright colors. The two very similar pieces convey totally different feelings and emotions when looking at them. The mural above is much more like the “Happy” piece. This mural is not only colorful, but has a playful, child-like style, and sends a positive message about encouraging bike riding. Another choice might have been to create a mural that was dark and said “NO CARS” instead. But that may have defeated the message.

Works Cited:
Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association, "The Murals of Ocean Beach ." Accessed July 27, 2013. http://www.oceanbeachsandiego.com/mainstreet-association/murals-ocean-beach.

Waclawek, Anna. Graffiti and Street Art . Thames & Hudson , 2011.