Directions: Using a digital camera, take a photo of graffiti you discovered and found interesting. (No internet graffiti). Place graffiti on individual blogsite and write a blurb about the graffiti. Is it or is not art? Why? Justify your answer.
When Dr. Whittington was going over Graffiti as art, she asked us to decide whether it was indeed art or not. I had always thought that the train cars that passed me, decorated to the hilt with pictures and names was very colorful. To me, that seemed like art. The names that sometimes caught my eye, spray painted on buildings, not so much. Then she explained to us that the 'spray painted names on walls and such' were just tags- people leaving their marks. Does that constitute as art? Not so much, but the scenes the artists create is art to me.
The three scenes of graffiti I took photos of reminded me of "The Wizard of Oz". I could clearly see Dorothy, the TinMan and even the Wizard, I just saw them through the eyes of someone living in a different time and place from my own world. Dorothy had grown curvy and vivacious, yet, she still looked demure. The TinMan was still encased in tin, but he had a certain jaunt to his walk that you could just tell was filled with soul, even though he never moved. And the Wizard, well, you didn't see him- just as we didn't see him in the original story until the end. He was omnipresent and quite powerful. His very name frightened those who heard it; he was majestic and mighty and I saw that through the big, bold letters and the deep color of near royalty: sapphire blue.
Whomever the artist was who created these three separate pieces, he or she should be applauded. They took an old story and made it new, whether they meant to or not. I really enjoyed it and I took their artwork and recreated in my mind, the story I loved so as a child; because isn’t that what art is really about? Recreating and seeing through a fresh perspective?
