See Us Now : Graffiti
“In Chaos We Thrived” — a poem
See us now: Graffiti
Our words, bold, loud, daring
Anywhere, we can be
Sky’s the only limit
See us now: Graffiti
Hear your mind scream “wary”
Read the names we carry
Unrest voices, dwelling
See us now: Graffiti
One-and-the-same, you, me
More than paint, dig within
Respect is all we seek
See us now: Graffiti
Rebels of paint, shifting
Street art of harmony
Slow-down, we never be
Hear us roar: Graffiti
Our worlds, bold, loud, daring
Anywhere, we shall be
Sky’s The Only Limit
I would like to thank Warren "Storyteller" Brown for the wonderful invitation to write on “graffiti”!
I was able to do a bit of research and finally settled on some brief facts as concepts for my poem piece.
First, Second and Third Stanza: The beginning of graffiti where earning respect is considered as the main motivation. Any wall or surface is an opportunity for graffiti. Public’s perception was very much negative towards graffiti — unrest faced by the public and unrest faced within the graffiti community (which is influenced by political, economical influences etc.)
i) Tagging is described as the simplest and original form of graffiti — where the artist, or “tagger”, leaves their own signatures on public surfaces/spaces (for example: own logo or pseudonym name) [5]
ii) Taggers often try to outdo one another by tagging in unusual spaces or tag over each others’ signatures/works; the focus is more on the risks in creating works at challenging places. [5]
iii) Graffiti tagging was often created to promote the tagger’s own reputation in the graffiti community, whereas street art/graffiti art are intended more for the general public audience. [5]
Fourth Stanza: The evolution of street art from graffiti established a sense of harmony in public’s perception of graffiti / graffiti art / street art — a shift from a highly negative perception to a much more tolerable / positive one in present day; and this will continue to impact / influence public perceptions in the future — perception of art is always evolving, as well as art itself.
i) Graffiti precedes and thus inspires street art which we are familiar today. [1, 3]
ii) There is difference between graffiti, street art and graffiti art. Graffiti is described as being more “word-based” in which its “writers” are mostly self-taught; Street art is described as visual art often done by artists who are formally trained; Graffiti art is a more elaborative type of graffiti in which colors and/or images similar to what was often seen in street art are used — an overlap between graffiti and street art. [2, 3, 4]
Fifth Stanza: The definition of “graffiti” has changed drastically (lines blurred even more between graffiti/graffiti art/street art) through the years. The value of graffiti as art is slowly but surely becoming more acceptable to the public — which will fuel more artistic talents in years to come to share their art with the world: spreading peace through creativity and inspiration.
Tagging some of my fellow writers/poets on this fun write! Please do kindly tag me in your works, I would absolutely love to read them!!
(If you are too busy to do it, that’s okay too! Totally understandable!)
CDTPPW, Mustapha El Hajj, Deana K Rodriguez, Ann Christine Tabaka, Annieb, Emily Gibson, Benighted, Mick Gibson
