New ways of doing things are also meant to make things easier and faster. You can see example of this in almost everything we do and own these days.

When mixed with something as free-form as graffiti, ease, speed, and variety allow artists to portray their visions in the best way they see fit. This is somewhat why almost no photograph these days is left completely untouched. Although some might say this takes away the truth and power behind the image, I disagree. Many pieces wouldn’t be near the images they are if some slight editing had occurred.

For example, this is a piece that I did several months ago:

I didn’t necessarily have to edit it at all. However, just cleaning up the image with some brightness and level adjustments can make a huge difference in actual presentation.

Of course, I’m not trying to suggest that every picture should follow the golden ratio or anything. All I’m saying is that variations of an original image can often be the more visually appealing pieces.

Bonus!

One of my favorite freedoms tied to computer graphics is the ability to flip through color, size, and all kinds of other options at the click of a button.

For the graffiti artist, this can be a Godsend. After a piece i sketched out, whether by hand or in some program, it can then be taken into Photoshop or other similar editing software. Here the piece can split in an infinite number of directions. The user can select borders that can be adjusted in many aspects, layer several backdrops or fill layers with custom brushes, move letters and designs, and almost anything else reasonably imaginable.

Here’s a little clip of something I’ve been playing around with to test out some new styles, layering trick, etc.:

GZE

Last Pixels For a While, I Swear

I’ve had a couple articles and images pulled up for a while that I just keep forgetting to post. I just got too much of a kick out of them not to share.

Concrete Jungle

These installations, aptly named “Concrete Jungle”, are part of a showcase done by the Cape Town Street Artist, Mr. CoeOne. This is the kind of stuff we need more of everywhere.

Check out the article here and CoeOne’s flikr here.

Lost Racers

Also, I wanted to share the awesomeness of Arcade Art‘s Lost Racers.

Lost Racers

Arcade Art’s other work includes pieces from Halflife, Pikmin, Resident Evil, and more. Most are for magnetized and for sale for pretty cheep. The lost Racers actually come in separate packs, each with their own set of accessories and unique collectible card.

Check out more from Arcade Art here.

Comin’ Around Again

Last, I wanted to bring up some more recycled art.

This image was from an article I found just after posting “It’s Good to be Trashy”. It had some awesome furniture it in, though, so i kept it until now. Yes, some of it looks ridiculously uncomfortable. Still, I thought people might wanna take a look. Click here for the article.

Fully Loaded Chair

The Fully Loaded Chair, made by Alexander Reh, is made from once fired 12-gauge shotgun shells. Each can be slid out and replaced.

Check out more from Alexander Reh here.

Since the first day I started to really get into street art, one name has continued to appear: Banksy.

This British artist, believed to come from Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol, is the classic of today’s graffiti world. His works are some of the most inspiring, moving, and down-right creative I’ve ever seen.

Banksy has done hundreds of pieces across the globe, although a large portion of his portfolio can be seen covering the building and many of their most awkward perches of London. Many of his modern masterpieces have even been valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Several have even reached over half a million.

This particular piece was given to Simon Duncan, leader of the band formerly known as “Exit through the Gift Shop”. It was an apology gift, given by Banksy after he named his newest movie the same name. After being insured by Sotheby’s, it was then estimated to be worth £200,000 (that’s $305,209.76):

One of the greatest parts about Banksy is that he is still one of the die-hard taggers who remains unidentified.

All that is “known” is that he was born sometime around 1974 and that his name is possibly Robert. There have been several alleged photographs of Banksy and some reports that he might be Robert Gunningham, but Banksy’s agent has denied all of these claims. Banksy had this to say about it:

“I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as being ‘good at drawing’ doesn’t sound like Banksy to me.”

Check out Banksy’s website here.

Something interesting I’ve been hearing a lot about lately is free speech areas.

Most of the time, these “protest zones” are sectioned off, permanent locations where people can rally, protest, or whatever else they want in order to exercise their right. These days, many are parts of college campuses, skate parks, or other active social spots.

Background

Some of the first major free speech areas were started during the 1960′s and 70′s, around the time many were protesting the Vietnam War. Located mainly on college campuses, many of these areas were simply large, fenced-off openings of grass or concrete. Usually, the only requirement was that the location of the protests could not disrupt classes.

As always, nothing can be perfect. Problems began to arise whenever these areas began to be pushed too far out of the way. Also, many times reporters are said to have been barred by local officials for merely showing coverage of these areas or talking to people inside.

Free Speech Zone at 2004 Democratic National Convention

Even around the time of the 2004 election, George W. Bush was said to have commonly used protest zones. During some of these rallies, anyone carrying anti-Bush signs was escorted to the designated areas. If they refused, they were promptly arrested.

Today

Free speech areas still exist on many campus and public grounds, but I still don’t think they’re common enough.

Everyone deserves a chance to be able to go into public and let their thoughts be heard. Friends and family are usually some of the only people most of us in depth conversations with. If these peers won’t let you get your point across, who will?

That’s why I think more of the areas, long with designated legal walls where one could leave their statements for many to see, are definitely needed. Like I said, many campuses still have one, but many don’t. There are even websites such as www.legal-walls.net that show some of these areas, but none have many locations in the first place.

Here at UTD, we have the “spirit rock”. This is actually a set of three rocks, one just noticeably larger than the others, where students pack layer after layer of spray paint advertising athletic games, Greek events, etc.. However, if anyone was to put something that could be taken even slightly offensive up there, they would be hunted down and more than likely expelled.

I still like the idea of the rock. I even plan on doing some work on it over the summer. Still, we do need more places to express our thoughts and be heard.

First of all, I’m not saying that this project was a failure. It looks great so far, I just don’t have time for the method I chose.

Everything was going great until my girlfriend stumbled upon an article explaining that Campbell’s work was laser-etched. Unless I’m mistaken, this doesn’t mean he used a laser in-hand. Instead, a design is put into a program on a computer connected to a large machine. Inside the machine, a laser flashes back and forth, slowly moving from on side of the object to the other. While this is happening, burst of light are burning out the designated areas. Whether he has it set for different depths or does each layer individually, I don’t know.

To clarify, I’m not saying that this makes his art any less credible. I still think his work is some of the best and just plain coolest I’ve seen all semester.

However, I had been doing all of this by hand. I had already cut out 39 layers of stencil, going through several X-acto blades in the process. But that wasn’t even the worst part.

Just to add insult to injury, my dad owns an engraving shop about 20 minutes away. At his shop sits a nice sized laser engraver that would probably be for this exact thing. This realization was just kind of a slap in the face.

You can see now why this project’s on hold. Next time, I definitely plan on doing a little more research before jumping into something like this.