Summer solstice

I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell I am doing (at least with my sticker project).  Since 2004, I’ve been to Berlin six times and made dozens of trips to NYC, plus individual trips to San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Munich, and Madrid (mostly work-related except for NYC).  Students, alumni, and friends have picked up stickers in Amsterdam, Rome, and several cities in eastern Europe.  A couple of thousand stickers by now.  A growing database.  An exhibition in 2006.  A blog with musings and lots of links.  Two conference papers.  A few sticker contacts.  A…

Wooster Collective in Berlin

Too bad my SLU study group and I will miss the Wooster Collective meet-up in Berlin and a chance to meet Marc and Sara Schiller, the NYC-based couple who has done so much to advance street art around the world.  Plus the students would have loved going to the hip Club der Visionaere; they talked about it all the time. No complaints, though.  Our recent trip was fantastic in all respects!!

MediaSpree protest June 5, 2010

During the last day of our study trip to Berlin, Spencer and I found ourselves at the front end of a street protest against MediaSpree.  Well, the front end of 1/2 of the protest, as it turned out that two groups merged together from both sides of the Spree.  MediaSpree involves the commercial development of property along the river in the Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg districts of former east Berlin that is dislocating neighborhoods, squats, local businesses, etc. with big multinational shopping malls, office buildings, MTV, Universal Studios, and the controversial o2 arena.  People are calling it a new wall to…

Alternative Berlin

At Spencer Homick’s suggestion, my SLU students — Kat Dwyer, Bridget Montesanti, and Charlie Reetz — and I signed up for a walking tour yesterday with a group called Alternative Berlin to see and learn about street art.  It was a great way to begin our two week journey — better than I expected, to be honest.  Our guide Mark was extremely well informed, not only of the “scene” itself, but also about the ways in which artists engage the community with their work.  He discussed street art as much more than mere decoration and/or defacement of the public environment. …

Bomit presents “Giant Hype”

Not sure what’s up with this new Web site Giant Hype. Their first post highlights Shepard Fairey’s mural at Karmaloop in LA. There doesn’t appear to be any commentary on the new site yet.  Despite the success and glam, I like SF’s work a lot, indoors and outdoors.  Saw a great wheatpaste mural by chance in DC when I was there a couple of weeks ago.  Walking down the street towards Dupont Circle, hidden down an alley, and voila.  Lovely.

Stroke.02

Turns out Stroke.02 will take place in Munich the same time I’ll be in Berlin in May-June with three students from SLU.  I’m hoping to get funding for all of us to attend.  Our Hatch friends will be there, plus many other sticker and street art n’er-do-wells from throughout Europe.

the faith of graffiti

A few years ago, I stumbled across the faith of graffiti in a used book store.  Published in 1973, it includes documentary photographs by Mervyn Kurlansky and Jon Naar, with an essay by Norman Mailer.  As A-1, Aesthetic Investigator, Mailer describes meeting up with CAY 161 and other young street artists in an apt. in Washington Heights.  They talk about “the curiosity of past passions to write the name, as if, like the Twist, it was over.”  That is, by the time Mailer wrote the story in the early ’70s, legal penalties against graffiti artists in NYC were getting serious…

WHATYOUWRITE + trip to Berlin approved!

There are so many graffiti resources online these days including this one, “WHATYOUWRITE that’s what’s up.”  I came across it while looking up information about Martha Cooper.  Check out their long list of artists’ links. Also: my proposal to bring students to Berlin this summer was approved!  We’ll be there for a little over two weeks at the end of May – early June to document street art and sticker art for a spring 2010 exhibition at SLU.  We’ll meet up with Oli and Nada at their sticker Hatch Museum, and visit several sites such as the Galerie Neurotitan, Museum…

Stickerzzzzzzzzzzz!

A great aligning of the stars may take place in March where I live way up north in snowy nowhere’s ville.  So as not to jinx anything, I’ll keep this big news under wraps.  Can’t talk about it here.  Or here.  Or here.  Or here.  Stickerzzzzzzzzzzzz.