Street Art

Street art is a controversial area in the art world. Some people view it more as graffiti than art, artists are arrested, artists are fined, and there work is continuously being covered up. However, I believe there is  distinction between graffiti and street art. I view graffiti as works of gangs tagging random places that are not visually stimulating. Street art may be a tag or a scene of some sort, but is very visually stimulating. Street art is a form of art where the artist use the world as their canvas.

This particular piece is done be the artist known ass "Swoon". She is an American street artist who has institutional training (though many do not) and has created works of art in the streets around the world. 

The work above was done by the artist known as "Banksy" who is from England and has also produced works around the world.

These artist are among the most known in the street art area of art, however, no matter where you are in the world you can surely find works of art in the streets. It is a mere tragedy that these works are normally only around for short periods of time. They are either painting over by governing bodies or painted over by competing artists. This is a core characteristic of street art. It is a competition as well a fight against "the man". Their art may be covered up, but they often reproduce their works in different locations for others to be able to view.

Some artists, such as Banksy, depict political issues with there work that brings the viewer to what may really be going on. A popular political work was done by Shepard Fairey that entails President Barck Obama. 

His Hope poster spread like wildfire through the 2008 campaign selling many accross the nation and even used in some political adds. This validates street art as a true practice of art and not just graffiti. 

Commonly in rural Texas we can experience street art via trains. Trains cars are often tagged mostly with names or gangs, but are very well done. It is amazing what this people can do mainly with a spray can. The art on the train cars can severely decrease the impatience of waiting at the tracks for the train to cross.