I shimmied and Harlem shook my way through the crowd to get a view of the art. There were art pieces of animals with glowing eyes, girls in hand-drawn black-and-white illustrations, shadowy figures positioned in photos that I swear must have been from World War II (sue me if I’m wrong), and even an alter of sorts for weed, yes, weed.

The beer I drank earlier was wearing thin and I needed to get to work. Low and behold my luck was bestowed upon me (I never use bestowed, but it sounds nice on paper). I ran into a few artists and two attendants whom all were not too shy to speak in front of the camera. Cody Cochrane, a North American artist, and Tim Schafer, a Bay Area artist, spoke about their art and why they do what they do. And two guests of Minna, Aaron Arabian and David Felice, gave their views of Minna and some of the artwork. So sit back and enjoy four minutes of funtastic fun at an art gallery that even you, yes you, should skip your way over to.

Several of Banksy’s pieces were discovered throughout San Francisco. A couple of them sprouted out in Chinatown, another one appeared on Haight Street, and another magically made its way to Alcatraz, mmhmm, you heard that right *snap.* Some argued that his San Francisco artwork was a publicity stunt for his recent film, while others think that his work may be done by the hand of assistants. Whether or not the pieces are Banksy originals, one particular artist named “Otter” tried stealing some of his spotlight.

Otter strategically planted images of the Otter Pop otter, along with a tagline of his name, on some of Banksy’s street art murals in Chinatown. How long did Otter’s piece last? Five hours. The owners of the shop, which Banksy paid fifty bucks to use as his blank canvas, painted over Otter’s attempt to get his fifteen minutes, I’m sorry, five hours of fame. But that did not stop Otter from hitting up another Banksy piece right above an H&R Home Furnishing rooftop. I loved Otter Pops when I was growing up, and I still do, but is this artist that desperate to get his or her name out there? Maybe Otters attempt to gain some attention was a cry to Banksy lovers that there are more street artists than Banksy. Who knows.

Is Banksy overrated? That is really the question for you to answer. Is he popular based on his anonymity? Is he popular because celebrities like Brad Pitt dig his style? Or is he popular because he is the best, hands down? I think Banksy’s work is over-hyped, but I am not taking away from the work he puts out. He makes political statements and continues to do so even with the amount of attention that comes along with it. Sure he makes a little bit of cash for his art, but why not get paid for something you’re good at? Even the joker knew that.

There are tons and tons of artists out there putting up amazing pieces of work like graff writer Reyes, or street artist Bigfoot, who don’t get the attention that Banksy gets because everyone drools over whatever he does. Sure Banksy makes bold moves such as his political statement in Disneyland, but is he really someone that deserves all of the attention? And what am I doing by writing yet another blog on an artist that has the blog world already exploding with people talking about the same stuff? Maybe this is my way venting out towards something that doesn’t need as much attention that it received, and still is receiving. I am in no way someone who enjoys drinking hatorade. Hell, I even supported Banksy’s film and I liked it. But the next time you take a stroll down the street and see a stenciled out rat, chilling on the side of the building ask yourself if it really is that big of a deal. Just a thought.

(Photo: sfslim)

The film takes us through Guetta’s obsession with cameras and how he filmed his life literally from dusk til dawn. Most observers would deem him crazy or even an idiot, and most did, but he continued filming with an obsession like no other. The phone was like an extended body part for him. But he needed more than filming random run-in’s with people. He needed “excitement.” His cousin “Invader,” who was a street artist that pasted Space Invader cutouts anywhere he could think of, helped feed his obsession.

He filmed everywhere his cousin went, meeting other street artists along the way. But Guetta got bored. He wanted someone who was not as easily accessible as his cousin. Low and behold came street artist Shepard Fairey, who is known for the infamous “Obey” stickers and images as large as billboards, that are posted all over the world. They went around the world, marking their territory as they went along. Guetta even helped Fairey on his late night Spidermanesque trips on rooftops and billboard signs.

Eventually, Guetta wanted more yet again. At this time the super-secretive unicorn of a street artist, Banksy’s popularity was at an all time high. He wanted to film alongside him. Through luck, he was able to stumble across Banksy through Fairey. To answer all of your thoughts, no, Banksy did not show his face nor did he use his real voice. Anyway, Guetta and Banksy went everywhere to film.

Hours and hours of footage later, Banksy forced Guetta to put together a documentary. The result: garbage. But like a kind-hearted mentor, Banksy encouraged Guetta to become an artist himself, something he was already getting into as he worked with more and more artists, and put together his own show. He learned their secrets. He knew where to go, what to do, and how to do it. But he missed one thing: Originality. But that still did not stop him from putting together an over-the-top, all out art show.

And what was this “street artist’s” name? Mr. Brainwash. Seriousness aside, I can make a whole blog on his name alone. But anyway, the argument becomes should I feel sad for the people who work under Guetta or do I feel sad for the gullible money-spending patrons who walk through the door? *Shrug.* His off the wall, horribly unoriginal art show was a success and it was all built from the hype Banksy and Fairey helped build for him online.

And Guetta ran with the idea and promoted more so than he worked on his “art.” Whether the even was real or not the result and build up equaled something that was entertaining throughout. So maybe the “crazy idiot” was really a mastermind after all, learning the tricks of the trade from the best and regurgitating it back to the public in order to exploit a subculture and make a quick buck.

So what does this film have to do with the graffiti culture? The graffiti culture is definitely an underground do-it-yourself scene and this movie showed pieces of it from the 30×40 feet paper images artists used to plaster onto buildings to the extreme lengths some take like climbing billboards late night to achieve their goal. But the film also makes you think whether street art is for money and acceptance or for self expression. It is hard to tell these days when artists are selling some of their artwork and making a decent living from it.

In the end the film was great. Definitely worth a watch. Though the film is not about Banksy, the main character in the film is interesting and well developed enough to watch and enjoy. And this is a side note, but I never even heard of a guy named Mr. Brainwash. Aweful name. Personally, I think Fembot is even cooler. Or so my mom thinks….Jeez.

Mr. Clean SF

Gone are the days of Mr. Clean only being a balding man plastered on cleaning bottles used to scrub kitchen floors. The new millennium embraces the latest tidy man Deputy Director of Operations for the Department of Public Works Mohammed Nuru, also known as “Mr. Clean San Francisco.” His aim: to put a hurting on the dirt and grime in the streets of San Francisco.

What exactly does this mean for Nuru? Not only does he wish to keep city buildings and streets in tip top shape, plant trees, and scrub the urine-smelling streets down, but he wants to keep graffiti at a minimum.

Wait, did I just say graffiti? Indeed I did, but he has reason and even logical solutions to keep both property owners and graffiti writers with a smile on their faces.

Nuru, who also works as the chair of the graffiti advisory board, says the main issue with graffiti in San Francisco are tags. Not only does he see this problem on other people’s property, but he notices this occurring on murals that graffiti writers put their blood, sweat, and tears into. What does this cost the city? According to Nuru, cleaning graffiti costs San Francisco 20million big ones.

Yeah, it is a pretty penny to keep the city clean from graffiti, but Nuru does not take the easy way out and simply slap cuffs on graffiti-writing culprits. He cooperates with several creative outlets that promote creativity.

The San Francisco Art Commission, for example, matches graffiti writers with property owners. The artist and the property owner work out a deal that enables the artist to throw up a mural on the proprietor’s place of business. Nuru says there is a huge response from the art community. “The artists become big partners with city agencies,” says Nuru, who also adds that property owners have the ability to choose between specific graffiti writers in a portfolio if they would like to work with them.

Even with a creative outlet like the San Francisco Art Commission, the truth is, there are still writers that choose to break the rules. To curb that Nuru says SF has a database that keeps track of most tags that specific writers use. And if that writer happens to get caught he or she would be prosecuted for all tags he or she had done. Other than a database, Nuru says graffiti writers caught defacing property sometimes must spend time and do graffiti scrub downs themselves.

In the future, Nuru hopes to create a space for writers to periodically put their work up. He says he wants to hear what graffiti artists want and that this idea is in the works. He really wants the writers to determine what the rules should be for he is an artist himself and he appreciates art. “We are not trying to stop this type of art,” he says, “but we want to stop this defacing and vandalizing of people’s property.”

Maybe Nuru’s dream will come true, maybe it won’t. It’s hard to say. Just because skate parks exist does that mean suburban skaters will suddenly stop hopping fences and skating their high school? I think not. So will providing a space for graffiti writers stop them from defacing property owners storefronts? Maybe it will, but odds are there will be someone wanting to walk on the wild side and feel the rush of watching wet paint lightly cover the surface of a blank canvas.

Click on photo to watch slide show:

Rather than pull my marvelously curly hair out my head, I went to have a few words with my friend Ric who has been around the graffiti culture for several decades. Yeah I’ll admit it, I’m still a bit uncultured about graffiti so I needed to ask him a question. During his lunch break, I asked for his opinion about who he thought were the greatest graffiti artists today. I was pleasantly surprised to discover his answer to my question.

In the back of my mind I thought that if the artist is not from the Bay Area then it definitely had to be someone from New York. Come on, it’s the home of hip-hop! No sir, I was wrong. These artists come from the home of sauerkraut and French bread. They are none other than Germany and France.

The first response that came to Ric’s mind was the style of lettering that graff writers in France and Germany have mastered. That style happens to be 3d graffiti art. he spoke passionately about a german graffiti artist Daim. He says Daim has some of the best 3d graffiti art ever, which is something I have never seen until after he mentioned it to me.  And yeah, I won’t lie, some of his pieces looked like they were coming right at me. But it’s ok, I had my computer screen to protect me. He also mentioned another artist named Totem, who, according to Ric, has lettering that is shaped similar to a shark.

Before Ric could get into more detail about his favorite artists he talked about the art of the letter and how it can be manipulated to look like nearly anything you want them to look like. Ric says that his interest in the letter and how people shift it and rock it brings the thrill to graffiti writing. “There has to be a passion in everything you do,” he says. He says he doesn’t see as much passion as he did in the old days, but he knows there are still people that “bomb hard.” “There are cats now that reduced considerably to how much they used to get up and now they cut back,” Ric says. “But when they do get up it’s even sicker because of all the time they allowed to wait.”

And what is Ric’s next step for his graffiti art? Yes, 3D graffiti art.

Mad graff by Amoeba

Vibrant colors from all shades of the rainbow cover a majority of the walls on San Francisco’s Amoeba music store that rests on Haight Street. Every piece of art seems to come together as planned. Some pieces layer over others and make the shop nearly stick out like a sore thumb, only if there wasn’t a clinic across the street that happened to be smothered in graffiti writing as well.

I was struck with curiosity about the graffiti on the outside of the shop. Though I have been inside the store several times, lucklessly searching for Robin Thicke’s first album, Cherry Blue Skies, I wanted to know more about what is did for the store, along with the community.

Upon entering the shop I ran into a bag checker. On his forearms were several tattoos. He wore a snazzy beret-like hat titled atop his head, thin-framed glasses, and a faded black shirt with green print that read pop rocks. I later found that he goes by the name “Ric.”  I asked Ric about the work on the outside of the building.

He and another man, who chose to go by the name “Ralph” spoke about the artwork.

“The graffiti art deters other people from tagging our walls,” said Ralph, who mentioned the graffiti has been on the building for three years. Having murals, rather than tags, painted on their walls deters the law enforcement from cracking down on their business since business owners are required to paint over tags to avoid the risk of being fined. “People don’t want to keep buffing their building all of the time,” said the heavily tattooed Ralph.” So they get an artist to put a piece up. It makes it easier for everyone.”  Ralph and Ric both agreed that the Newsom administration’s attempt to clean up the city will only create a clean slate for graffiti artists to continue painting on. And just recently, the city’s Department of Public Works plans to clean up all graffiti covered trucks as well.

Graff

“This war against graffiti is a never ending cycle,” said Ric in between checking in customer’s bags. “People can keep taking it down, but to a graffiti artist it is a blank canvas.”

In Ric’s opinion, graffiti still has a negative stigma attached to it. He said that old school graffiti artists need to step up and teach younger graffiti writers the art of throwing up a piece. Fortunately, there is one San Francisco artist, Nate1, that teaches kids the art and history of graffiti in a monthly class held at the 1AM Gallery on Howard and Sixth Streets. He does this for a low rate and the students get something more than lessons on how to manipulate letters.

The graffiti outside of Amoeba Records and throughout San Francisco does more for the store owners, but it also creates an atmosphere where people from around the world can come and visit. The graffiti brings more life into the city and gives it a sense of culture and weirdness that San Francisco is well known for.

Graffiti by Amoeba