Street Art Essay

Graffiti was once labeled as street art which was frequently a prominent problem in urban cities; defacing or “tagging” public and private property was against the law. As time as evolved, so has the street art culture. Today, street art is one of most sought after and creative outlets for local artists. The culture around street art can be interesting in the fact that artists build their names and reputation with one piece of work at a time; sometimes when it starts to take over the city it gets the attention it has been wanting. Street art is now very innovative featuring many different art styles and often makes a commentary on a social issue and if it does not, then it was created to help change the city. During the course of this street …show more content…
Most urban cities have street art; San Francisco is no exception from this. Down an alley way in the heart of San Francisco’s Tenderloin section lies a piece of street art on a wall between two garage doors. The stencil art is capturing featuring a young Asian woman. The flowers – that appears to be roses of some sort are on her head. It is a profile angle of the woman who is seen wearing a floral jacket. As a reader of this art, it is not meant to be an American woman or an American piece of work. It is very different considering that is a female who is focal point of the art and not a male. The profile angle of the portrait makes the work feel like it is trying to tell a strong message. She is strong because she is looking out into the distance and not directly at us. She is hopeful for the future. This particular piece has a caption alongside it, stating “perfection is my right” which also happens to be the title. This provides anchorage to the image like we have learned throughout the course of the semester. The colors are just simply black and white in this – it conveys a lot of meanings based on the location of the piece and because of the artist. The locational aspect of this piece does add value and meaning; the tenderloin section of San Francisco, California is near the hustle and bustle of the downtown area. It has a large amount of characteristics to it. It maintains its reputation for crime such as illegal …show more content…
Small local street artists take advantage of the great livelihood of the neighborhood. Under the “el” or known as the Market-Frankford train line lives a block full of art done by many various street arts that features a variety of styles as well. Simplicity in art often captures my attention and that is just what this next piece did. It is a wheat paste art; an adhesive created from starch and water. The work features an all black background with 4 white outlined hearts. Each heart features a line that appears to relate to love and relationships in some aspect – whether it be negative or positive. I think that this art is meant to be relatable to many different people that come across it through out the city. There are many other hearts similar to this that are plastered to walls. The hearts and its mini quotes remind of the Valentine’s Day conversational heart candies, but the conversation on them are different than a happy hallmark holiday would portray. The wall art is located on the 1600 block of Front Street between Columbia and Oxford Avenue. This particular block is not as busy as the other end of Front Street is; the exact location of the work is plastered outside on the walls of HoneyGrow’s headquarters which is a Philadelphia-based restaurant. The location of the work does not change the main meaning, but instead I believe