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.
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