Street Art by Beverly Vargas by School of Art, George Mason University

t r A t e e r t S Isabella Vargas

t r A t Stree Written & Photographed by Isabella Vargas

Table of Contents Street Art Artist Interviews

Blake Jones Katherine Campagna Jeremiah Edwards Sarah Jamison

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Street art can be defined fluidly through the lens of the viewer. In order to have a well rouded understanding of street art one must look back at the history of how this art movement has emerged to what it is today. 8

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Where it all began The beginning certainly has an underground nature that has avoided the mainstream until just recently However public forms of communication can be traced back to Argentina between 13,000 and 9,000BC. Although the roots are unclear, we do know we can’t discuss street art without graffiti. By studying the history of graffiti art with sensitivity by analyzing the structure of graffiti and street art culture you will have a well-rounded

definition and understanding of how this art movement has emerged to what it is today. It all began in the 1960s with a 12-year-old boy named Daryl McCray from Philadelphia. Daryl started tagging his nickname, Cornbread, which he got from his love for his grandma’s cornbread. During the mid to late 60s Daryl lived at the Philadelphia Youth Development Center to avoid the violence and drugs that roamed the streets of Philadelphia. In his free time, he started Street Art

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tagging his name with his friends all over the center. Once released, he continued and tagged walls all over North Philly. Just a few years later during the 1970s, New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) infrastructure became the main location of a rapidly developing graffiti art movement. The graffiti art movement boomed because of the multifaceted interconnected system of that is the MTA, it connected the entire city in a variety of different routes. Additionally, the tools and materials became much more accessible due to the development of the spray can. Heavier policing started in efforts to clean up the city however, that was what made the activity more exhilarating and enjoyable. Decades later and the movement is still on the rise of being more accepted by society and art critics around the world. Depending on who you ask you will get a different definitions and perspective of what street art or graffiti writing is. This book will attempt to provide a full understanding of the movement, how we got to where we are today and will include interviews with talented street artists.

Street Art: Street art is a relatively new term, and the movement has gained international momentum as its main characteristics have challenged the conventional paths for success in the art world which leads to why it is still such a controversy. Street art has its roots in graffiti that cannot be ignore. Graffiti writing differs from street art specifically; however, it depends on who you ask. Street art is a type of visual art that exists in the “streets” often commissioned and incorporates aspects of graffiti mixed with traditional arts media such as sculpture, stencils, video work, and wheat pastes. Street art is an art movement that is created in public locations such as the walls of buildings for public visibility. Murals have been around since the renaissance and is just one type of example that is street art. Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera who painted on the walls of Rockefeller Center. Much street art resembles a mural. However, not all street art murals are commissioned, and not all street art takes a mural format.

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Many street artists will use other materials such as paste-ups and multimedia, stencil use, vinyl or eggshell stickers, clay, markers, fabrics, wool, and textiles are now seen in street and graffiti art. Whereas graffiti will typically use spray paint Unlike graffiti, street artists can and usually do seek permission to paint. They will submit their portfolios to different street art festivals or get permission from the property owner before

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starting a mural. There are even street art festivals like DC Walls, where artists leave their signature and social media handle to get their work out there and gain more attraction. There are some differences in cultures and practices in the street art and graffiti communities, and these cultural differences often lead to animosity between the two.

Street art is usually welcomed and encouraged to uplift the neighborhood, while the perception of graffiti is quite the opposite.

Graffiti: While murals have existed for many centuries, the idea of taking over the streets with art started with graffiti. Graffiti predates street art, and many

street artists draw their inspiration from it which is why it is important to understand how the art movement has developed over time. Graffiti is a text-based art form that involves writing one’s name or using words to bring light to something important specifically to the artist on a public surface. Many graffiti artists call themselves “writers” instead of artists. When a graffiti artist does a tag, they are writing their signature.

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Tagging is a symbol that someone was there. The most recognizable form of graffiti art is a tag. Tags and throw-ups, bigger and more elaborated artworks, are two techniques that graffiti artists use to paint their names. Graffiti is also mainly limited to markers, scratching tools, and spray paint, materials that will dry quickly. Typically, graffiti writers do not ask for permission, whether using public spaces or private properties. Under most laws, this expression is considered vandalism however the golden rule of graffiti is not to get caught, and these artists often work in stealth, under cover in the darkness. The artist gains a lot of respect from other artists if their work is in a hard-to-reach location, such as on a subway car or tall building. Graffiti is typically only created to speak with other graffiti artists in the community. Most graffiti artists aim to remain anonymous, so a graffiti artist who is commercially famous or well-known is perhaps already crossing the line to street artist.

Policing the art movement: As the years went on and graffiti became more and more popular, it started to become the noisy wallpaper of urban life. By the 1980s large inner cities became the hub for crimes, this perspective is what lead to The Broken Window Theory by government officials that states any area with signs of crime and suspicion, such as vandalism (Like a broken window), encourages additional and leads to more serious crimes. Additionally, there were “stop and frisk” policies that had been more intensely enforced during this time that became a bit controversial due to bias’ such as racial profiling. Public figures like the mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, believed that if they could crackdown on the small offenses like graffiti and jaywalking, it would help lower the overall crime rates in their cities. These policing efforts combined with programs designed to “clean up the city,” like the MTA’s Clean Car Program in 1984, make it easy to see why street art received such a negative reputation for so many years.

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Then in 1994, The New York Times reported on a crackdown in which a 25-member vandal squad arrested 21 people in 17 days. In 1995, Giuliani established the Anti-Graffiti Task Force by executive order aimed at curbing graffiti. Police officials saw graffiti as disruptive and dangerous, even today, there is stigma around the word without fulling understanding the practice. This pressure from law enforcement didn’t stop artists from evolving and getting their work out there. It just increased the number of arrests for vandalism, as well as forcing more and more artists to work in the middle of the night to avoid being caught. The movement continues to grow underground and develop into an incredible art form.

Activism: Street art is deeply rooted in the revolutionary practices of those who identified with various subcultures linked to class, race, and/or gender.

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1970s and 1980s New York City witnessed the graffiti boom, a time when artists influenced by rap, hip-hop, punk, and new wave countercultures took to the streets to communicate with members of their underground community. The medium evolved as artists tackled current political and social issues and introduced more visual elements in their compositions. Street art emphasized a political message, usually one of protest and resistance, and continued to place art in unconventional places. Yoga, a street artist, considers graffiti inseparable from integrity and freedom of expression. He sees it as “a rebellious art form,” but also a means to “spread political messages and fight propaganda.” He added that it’s a way of communicating, “to say, ‘I’m still going to be heard regardless of your attempts to silence my voice.’” By quickly dismissing street art as “vandalism” and illegal activity when not in private galleries shows that there’s an automatic stigma [around street art]

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because it’s so closely associated with Black and Brown communities. Passersby repeatedly call the cops on street artists, immediately racial profiling and assuming the worst. This kind of racism is common in every aspect of life for people of color, especially in wealthier neighborhoods with White residents. Such prejudice extends to street art to such an extent that the act of creating graffiti itself has become an act of resistance against those who wish to suppress and police these diverse voices that are fighting to be heard. For activists like Nancypili Hernandez, street art is a crucial tool in telling marganalized stories. In the past 10 years, Hernandez has created and directed many different murals, working in San Francisco’s Latinx community to “document people’s history that isn’t told in the history books.” Her work in the Mission District, a historically gentrified neighborhood, highlights the struggles of the Latinx residents, amplifying the stories of a native community passed over by San Francisco’s tour guides. Street art is doing the generational lifting that history failed to carry.

Black Lives Matter Movement: Recently, in response to police brutality and the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and many others, artists worldwide have been ignited, taking to streets to express themselves. As Black Lives Matter movement has gained momentum and protests occur internationally, graffiti has increasingly been used to spread the message. The inherently political medium’s storytelling powers have become a way for communities to raise awareness and educate the public. During the summer last year, most of Downtown D.C has been boarded up. Plywood covering any reachable glass surface. Most businesses had covered their property in efforts to remain safe during the protests. Many of which were covered in graffiti writings such as “Black Lives Matter”, “I can’t breathe”, and other chants that were echoing through the crowd of protesters.

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DC WALLS The outdoor art festival called DC Walls runs for ten days all around the NoMA area in Northeast Washington D.C. Since 2016, a handful of artists participate in painting murals around the city. DC Walls are beautifying the city, sharing ideas, educating the community, and inspiring the youth through the art of murals. This year’s DC Walls event was from September 8th until September 18th, 18 total artists created over 20 murals all over Washingtion D.C. DC Walls provides a space for artists to come together and share ideas and the love of art to their community. By creating a more vibrant place and color to the city, they are inspiring more creatives. Additionally providing tours and festival events they can educate the community! There are over 10 different locations of murals around the NoMa area that celebrate the colorful stories a variety of artists must tell.

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POWWOW: DC WALLS used to be called POWWOW, taking inspiration from Native/Indigenous culture to gather and celebrate. Due to its appropriation origins the international festival decided to change its name from POWWOW to DC WALLS. The new name brings more focus to the future and vision that allows art to strengthen community.

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Sponsor Interview Creative Director of Atlas: Douglas E. Yeuell IV: What is Atlas and how did you partner with DC Walls? DY: My name is Douglas Yeuell and I’m the executive director here at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. So the Atlas performing arts center was originally the Atlas theater built in 1938 and throughout the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, it served the community with the riots of 1968. After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther king H street was decimated. Then Atlas reopened in 2005 and since then has continued to serve the community and certainly been witnessed to an amazing change on H street over the last 15 years, Atlas is celebrating its 50th anniversary because actually it fully reopened in 2006 to be clear. Uh, so, but it was serving south its 15th anniversary. And then, uh, so we now have taken a picture of us. Oh, Uh, so now we, um, you know, hosts, year-round a performance schedule of theater, dance and music, and again, welcome the community. And every year we have about 60,000 people coming through our doors in July and the

performing arts on H street. What you’re seeing here on the sidewall here are our murals and we partnered, we do see murals and we’re relative to DC, 51 for DC as the 51st state. So these are up to eight different murals by selected graffiti artists. Here are the district Columbia, uh, expressing, and we’re all formed just the need and the one and the desire for supportive DC, 51 and all of the mural artists contact information can be found. You’re going to see it on the subsequent to the other murals that they think, but it was really just a wonderful, wonderful outdoor gallery of really great mural art. It’s been really been excited to be a part of the Atlas because there’s just always something new and different and DC is such a vibrant city and has so many great artists. And it’s just really great for us to be able to welcome those artists to the stage, plus many other more out of town groups that we have coming in. So it’s all here to again, use the arts as a means to impact our community and certainly all individuals here in the DC area while the DC in general and of the area beyond. Street Art

s w e i v r e t n I Artist 26

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Artist Interview

Blake Jones @blake_jones

My morning had been going quite peaceful, I had walked already about two miles all over the district with headphones in and camera in hand. I had just put in direction on my maps to find a specific spot on the map provided by DC Walls. Little did I know there was someone there on a large mechanical lift. Through the gate I started to take some photos of the scene in front of me. There were cartoon like characters and bright colors like pinks and yellows and blues. The person on the lift yelled down to me that the gate was unlocked if I wanted to come in. Of course I jumped at the opportunity! I ran to the other side of the lot and went through the gate and started taking as many pictures from as many different angles as I could. Eventually Blake came down and handed me a mini flyer of his work and his contact info. From there we sparked up a conversation and the interview is below:

IV: How did you become an artist? BJ: I had always kind of done art, but I was honestly like too scared to do like fine art work and stuff. So I just hope that the design and went there got the bachelor’s degree in graphic design. And then I spent, you know, like the next five or six years doing design work, everything from like band posters for bands or doing Gilbert flyers for like local businesses. It was really just like anything and everything I could, I worked for music festival for a few years, doing the graphic design. It’s all kinds of stuff. And then I actually moved to Chicago, with a girl I was dating when I got there, I was just starting. I really don’t want to be there the whole time. I just wasn’t enjoying to go work as much. So I kind of started getting back into painting and everything. And then Chicago has such an accepting community, especially for like free to work. I lived in Houston originally for

Artist Interview

twenty-five years and never could never get a old job and never get gallery words and never do anything. And as soon as I moved to Chicago, I lived in the weekend. Had people actually invited me to come through stuff and galleries reaching out to me. And then, and I’ve been doing that for the past years and then like two weeks ago they’re like, Hey, can you fly out here in like a week? I was like, hell yeah. IV: Can you tell me about this piece? BJ: So this piece, actually I did a gallery show back in July in Chicago, and that whole idea was supposed to be very like, kind of trippy and surreal stuff about different characters that I draw kind of learning to become accommodated with new environments. So they’re all very an attributed to real environments. My characters are very anxious and you could tell they kind of thrive in the chaos of things. And that was kind of, I guess, like a response to just how human beings kind of adapt to chaos. Weather. Weather is like

Artist Interview

some of the protests happened the last year or the pandemic or this and that. How there’s some people that kind of saw that and hit the ground running and like blew up in their careers, got big and other people who kind of went into seclusion and like, you know, hide themselves off in the world for the past year. And so this was actually originally a piece of a gallery show. Uh, I, I did like 10 pieces for the gallery, but I had like 20 or 30 sketches and there’s some fundamental out there, but I ended up not being doing anything because this was such a time crunch to get out here. I just sent them this originally. It was like a turning circle and an alternative other stuff happening. I just kind of cropped it and blew it up, put this. IV: Do you have any background in any other kind of art? BJ: Yeah design only because I thought I wouldn’t be able to, I thought I wouldn’t be able to be like, finally, I thought I wasn’t that great painter I bought, I didn’t have no, not like amazing, but I

bought, it’s just such a, it seems like such a harder road, like graphic design. It’s not that it’s easy, but it’s like, it’s such a rounded way to make money. Like anyone can go to design school and learn design elements and get a job mean. Um, fine arts is a whole different, but there are people that look at your work and think it’s terrible. And some people think it’s amazing. And it’s like, I mean, you probably see like some of these giant art pieces that self-employed that. Yeah. You know, it’s just a, such an objective compared to like graphic design where you just have a client in this. IV: Is this the biggest work you have ever done? BJ: This is the biggest I’ve done by myself. I’ve done like bigger spots, but with other people and like some friends of mine, but I came with and everything. But, uh, yeah, this is the biggest that I’ve done. This people Saw me, they pulled me in, they got me a hotel room. They, I got here, the wall was crying, but he was ready. Everything was ready to go to check, you know, put the food babe

and gave us like, like a little Uber card. So I get around town and everything. Yeah. They they’re treating us.But I will say, I think going to design school help my fine art work, as far as pardon contrast and the balance and everything like, cause there’s a lot of other social excrete artists, people that I know that their work is phenomenal, but they’re like design elements leave a little too. It could be a little stronger, you know? There’s, I feel like you can kind of look at a lot of people’s work and be like, oh, they have like a type of design. I mean just doing stuff like this is if I could go and tell myself at like 50, like, Hey, we’re going to be going across the country and stuff. Like, I, I wouldn’t, you know, stuff like this is amazing. The third goal is this stuff like I’ve got a gallery coming out next year, few other little products, brands, other art shows I’ve got like, three-year-olds I go back and Friday I’ve got about four or five.I did a, like a little gallery show in San Francisco last year. I did a mural a few years ago, which that was like a spark. A bunch of the other artists kind of went

Artist Interview

out of to party today and the rest of the week is like to work work last night. I had a project due tomorrow. I stayed in the hotel set on my iPad for like five hours. IV: How are you enjoying yourself? BJ: The joke answer is finishing and then going to bed, honestly, like this spot right here is so perfect for me. I’m by myself. There’s a lot of room. No one is bothering me. I just enjoy doing it. I mean, I

Artist Interview

will come out here really, really ahead of schedule. I thought I wouldn’t even be able to, I thought I wouldn’t be able to put me down for like framed it for me, like 45 minutes. I did a little rainbow thing with this big take down or just phrase it like a fire. Yeah. It’s like a fire extinguisher could be like another hour to do like orange and yellow. I just, yesterday I came out here like 10 30 and grabbed coffee on Saturday until like five or six. And then I was in this very meditative space and being alone.

IV: How did you get into spray paint? BJ: It was something I was always like And as a teenager, I was just like, it’s not too hard. Once it kind of clicked. And then I started understanding different pressures or different tabs. So then, I really started like using it as like an everyday tool. IV: What has been the best part? BJ: Probably about last, last summer, whenever all the, like the BLM protests started happening.

Cause Chicago like shut down. And a lot of the businesses, especially in the area, you know, boards up the windows. And so friends of mine and I, we just went around and were like, Hey, do you mind spraying something kind of inspirational for the neighborhood? And I mean, we did everything on a topic of like writing black lives matter, we got a gig from the little taco shop. And they’re like, oh, we just want you to tell people that we’re open. So like you were there talking

Artist Interview

character that says we’re open nine to five. Like I was just everyday out there. Being out doing stuff like this. IV: Is there a different between graffifti and street art culture? BJ: Yeah. I mean, from my typical understanding of it is like, you know, people, there are people that get paid. They’re people that get hired just to do stuff. And then, you know, they’re all, don’t always be, you know, just graffiti heads that they’re like, they just want to kind of disrupt the environment or they’re just hungry to put their name out there. Like, I mean, I, I sat there. This was like last summer, maybe like half the size of this wide, I used all my own money and bought all the pens and did it. And then like two days later, some probably like 17 year old blasted it. I mean, that’s just kind of the, you know, the little badge of honor you get when you’re doing public work. IV: Any crazy stories doing public work? BJ: I do get the weirdos that talk to me, you know, I mean earlier today, honestly, I was like saying

Artist Interview

that this guy just was like, Hey, here’s a studio thing I’ve ever seen. I was like, all right, cool, thanks, man. Let me just step up. Um, but I mean, 90% of people, 95, 95, it’s all thumbs up and good job and everything like that. A lot of people really like and appreciate, but there’s also people that walk by. No, they’re just looking down and there’s probably there’s people in Chicago that I drove by read a hundred times on other than the studio never noticed. I know when I met them, I started some real sweet eats and you get a drop at the vendor and go blast everything. IV: Is there anything else I should know about you as an artist? BJ: Is there anything else I should know? I mean, I’m not like a super, I don’t think I personally, I just do stuff that looks good and hopefully other people like it. And I kind of, I just hope everyone that’s like doing stuff like this gets to have fun with it. And that’s what I’m trying to be. I don’t think we need to be any battle controversy every single day. Cause it’s, it’s exhausting, but I hope everyone that makes work as fun. Awesome.

Artist Interview

Kathrine Campagna @nokittenheels

Kathrine’s work caught my eye because it just said, “tired yet wired” in a dainty script type. It was just a very large outline and nothing much else, but the line was short and to the point and I enjoyed that. I found her on the latter with earbuds in looking very much in the zone and focused on her work, I was too hesitant to bother her at that moment. Hours later I found her kneeling on the ground changing paint colors and I stopped and asked if she had a moment. This is how our conversation went: IV: Is there any way that I could ask you a few questions? Okay. Great! Can you tell me about you and your work? KC: I live in DC. You know, I like a lot of like art stuff. It definitely spills over into my work. Um, I worked full-time before this group called new Kings. I do a lot of y’all work anyway, cause they got their awesome murals all over the city. Um, but yeah, this is my first time doing a DC walls, which is already awesome. And it’s like, I don’t,

I rarely get to do like my own work. It’s usually under some constraint of like a branding book for a company or something like there’s always guidelines for like okay. You know, so it’s cool to be able to do something that like I want to do just for the sake of doing it rather than like to sell something. You know what I mean? IV: Is most of your work like commissioned KC: Its a lot of commisioned stuff. Which is cool, you know, different challenges. It’s like a lot of problem solving and stuff like that, you know, got to think outside of like your own comfort zone. It’s also a great middle learning, you know, it’s like each project is different, so I’m going to take something away from structure. IV: How did you start? KC: As an artist? I was always in art and like high school. I did like international baccalaureate or through high school and like stage craft and stuff like that. I had a really great photo teacher told Artist Interview

me about corporate, so I ended up going to four before GW bought it, but it was still like school. Sarah Jamison, just down there, the one wearing the straw hat, we went to college together. I mean, kind of a typical artist story where it’s like, I was also like waiting tables before attending for a long time while doing art, because it’s hard to get into, it’s kind of a cool guys crew, you know, it’s changing, which is really cool.

Artist Interview

IV: How did you start with spray paint? KC: I do spray paint. But mostly deal with bucket paint just for like right now. Spray paint it is hard to get right now. IV: Because of COVID? KC: I think so, I’m assuming, so it’s like getting aerosol for like a wall this size wouldn’t have happened in reality, so it’s like just easier to go

with bucket. It’s like also where I started. So it was just kind of like, I know I can get this done fast and efficiently. IV: What do you think are the most dominant themes in your work? KC: I would say definitely color. Like, I definitely like ugly, pretty colors, you know what I mean? It’s definitely color and definitely, I do a lot of like sign painting, sort of things like a lot of typography, a

lot of tongue in cheek kind of stuff. Like one liners, you know. IV: What’s your dream project? KC: There’s like so many different things. I want to try. I want to do something with video, like smart directions. Like if I could like art direct, that would be like, that’d be the top until I found something else to do.

Artist Interview

IV: How do you make time to create? KC: It’s hard. It’s, it’s something that I’m still figuring out. Basically I kind of just, I, myself personally, I work best on like lists and stuff like that. I need structure or I’m going to just like screw off, you know, and just like organize my treasures rather than have like an end goal. So it’s really about like, making sure that I make work for myself and stuff like that. It’s like little goals, so things to fill off of. So like, you know, maybe I just like figure out a color and then like, I’ll do the line word today, you know, stuff like that to then, because I also very much, I have like a basic idea and when I do stuff, but my work really like grows as I make it where like a lot of my stuff is like detailed stuff as well. So it’s something you can just kind of like hang out with, let it kind of grow on itself. IV: How has your art changed over time? KC: It’s just developed just with more experience and stuff like that. Um, just making, growing, learning, like what it is I want to do. And then just

like learning things with weird projects that show challenges, I guess, you know, and then that kind of develops into like bigger, bigger pictures. IV: What is something that you love and hate about the art world? KC: Something that I love? It’s kind of like high school. It’s a good, but sometimes it can be, it can be difficult. It’s kind of like a lot of who, you know, definitely. I don’t know. There’s a lot depends on like where you are and what you’re doing, but I think overall it can be kind of clique-ish, you know, but I mean, I feel like that’s like anything I’m like, I don’t know. What I love right now is that I think like women in New York scene are definitely growing. You know, something that I hate about the DMV is that it’s like only now are we really being represented, you know? Like it’s amazing how many women are on the wall. It’s like really insane because it’s like the most that they’ve ever had, which is like, really, it feels really good. It makes me like, feel motivated to feel like creatively open, you know, because it’s like so rarely good to have, you know, it’s very often, I’m like one of three women in this kind of job. IV: Thank you so much for your time!

Artist Interview

Jereimiah Edwards @jeremiahsketchbook Being that it’s the first day of the DC Walls event there were so many artists hanging out and doing what they enjoy the most. As I was walking down the long row of artists covering the work before them, something was drawing my eye to the bright yellow and purple combination of colors. Jeremiah and his fiancé and assistant, Mina were spraying some outlines of characters. I sparked up a conversation with Mina first and realized we were all from the same town in Northern Virginia, Woodbridge to be exact. From their the conversation was very easy and smooth, below is the interview I had with Jeremiah:

murals, I come from a background of animation and illustration. So my work is a bit more like comic book style.

IV: Can you tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do?

IV: Can you tell me the difference between graffiti and like street art?

JE: Yes. So I’m Jeremiah. I am an artist from Northern Virginia and basically what I do is make murals and public art. And a lot of it’s in Washington, DC. I haven’t really gotten a chance to do anything in Virginia yet, which is my goals. So yeah, that’s pretty much what I do. I just make

JE: Well, like graffiti is not. If you ask any graffiti writer, they’re not going to save the 3d artist. They’re saying I’m a graffiti writer. I don’t draw graffiti. I write graffiti. So a lot of, yeah. I feel as though a lot of graffiti people hate on street artists because they’re like, oh, you’re a sellout.

IV: How did you get into spray paint as a choice of medium? JE: Well, it all started back in the days of when I was a teenager spray, painting the walls and writing graffiti. But that my dad is actually the old G in the street art in the DC community. So I can kind of grew up around a lot of DC graffiti guys. So from a young age, I did scrape painting. Now I do it legally.

Artist Interview

You know what I’m saying? But there’s not like milk porches to be made doing this. And then vice versa. A lot of these people I say are not, you can kind of, if you’re from the culture you can tell, are you a writer? Did you start off building this? Or did you start off with painting? But I don’t know. At the end of the day, like the graffiti writers are saying we’re taking, we’re taking away space from their walls. So there’s like a little battle. I feel as though it’s nice to have a base in the graffiti culture because I have a respect for, you know, I don’t, I don’t do certain things that go over certain people. And I know the culture, you know, I used to write that I don’t anymore. I just feel like if you can have a, if you can have a chance to make a career out of doing what you love, then let’s do it. Like, I don’t care if you’re going to say y’all sell out or I’m just doing what I love you came to. IV: Do you think there’s a big difference in culture with street art and graffiti writers? JE: Yes. I mean, graffiti is crazy. Like there’s graffiti

Artist Interview

crews will actually like fight and kill and shoot people. If you go, if you tag over me, that’s going to be like a gang fight sometimes, unfortunately. But, um, St. Argues, uh, I don’t know some, I guess it’s like Instagrammy aesthetic, but I feel like graffiti shouldn’t be that gang thing, you know, it’s sometimes gets that it’s that way. So, yeah. I don’t know. I’m not cool with all that violence.

Artist Interview

IV: What is your role as an artist? How do you put yourself out there as an artist? JE: I’ve been working in Logan circle on 14th street. I was an art director for this project called let’s pick the streets, put final reps along the electric boxes on 14, but all the, of all this art. And I designed a couple of them too. So over the past year I was working on that with a company called radical empathy. So I’ve been meeting a lot of

people in the scene, like in the mural scene, just getting plugged in, you know, thanks to that opportunity. IV: How’s your experience in this like DC walls? JE: The environment is awesome big. They there’s gotta kill people like everyone on my wall, buddies that are next to me. They’re really nice. And they’re willing to share information or tricks

of the trade. Hey, if you’re doing, if you’re coming from fine arts world or a defeating world, maybe you don’t know about this technique on how to put your mural up. So it’s nice to get an exchange from different all the other artists that are the different levels in their careers. And we’ve got some people that are very well, uh, well into their careers and people like me who are really just kind of getting started out.

Artist Interview

IV: Are they commissioning you? JE: I don’t think they’re paying us any stipend they’re covering paints and whatnot. So this is, this is one of those things that’s like a chance to get, like, I guess it’s more for the publicity because it’s, I mean, it used to be called powwow. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that, but powwow was like a pretty big mural festival, it’s an international festival. So that’s the thing about like being an artist. You’re not, you know, a lot, not everyone is going to pay you every time, which is unfortunate. I’ve been blessed to have doing other gigs where I’m getting paid and I can take the time to do this, but I didn’t catch any of that with the train. IV: What do you dislike about the art world? JE: What I dislike is what I also dislike about my area in the DMV area, which is there is a lot of gatekeeping. There’s, uh, there’s not a lot of room for everyone to get in new people, new ideas, because a certain group of people might want to

Artist Interview

be the only ones on top. I also don’t like that and I might get canceled for this, but we live in a very, a place that’s progressive, you know, on the surface, very progressive. However, a lot of times there’s a lot of intolerance in that hyper progressive is so a lot of people are intolerant to seeing new things, new styles, or like my work isn’t political, you know, I don’t want to be political because I’m not a politician and I’m not a scientist, I’m an artist. And a lot of people think that that’s their role as an artist to be a politician, which is that’s their, that’s their bag…That’s cool. But I don’t feel the need to do that. I just want to make my pieces mean what I want them to mean, not necessarily political or there’s a pressure to be on that pile. Um, you know, be in us art, an art to this, but why do I need to, I don’t, I don’t want to be that. I want to be an artists creating, you know, I want to share my message and have meaning behind it, but I don’t need to feel the need to be pressured to follow, uh, uh, bandwagon for each cause of my art, art, art piece. Doesn’t have to be whatever current, a

Artist Interview

bit more, whatever hashtag is going on this week, you know, that seems disingenuous to me. But yeah, that’s, that’s kinda like my beef or gripe with the DMV art scene in a way that Southern Virginia is not limited in that way. A lot of Southern, I don’t feel that way like Richmond and Norfolk there. If you go down there, you see the art or even Miami, I was down in Miami, in Wynwood. There’s a whole neighborhood. No political slogans, DC. Every, if it’s, if it’s art, it’s a political slogan and I’m like, that’s cool. We need that. But it’s draining after a while. Sometimes I want art to be an escape from a hyper political area. You know what I’m saying? I don’t, I want my word to be my art, to be a fantasy world that I can go to where I’m not being like, oh, are you Republican Democrat, socialist, communist capitalist. I’m like, man, I don’t care, man. I just want to make the sleep. You know, I don’t want to be the spokesman for such and such. I still want to represent my ideals and you know what I want to put out there.

IV: What are the themes in your work? JE: Themes in my work at the moment are a lot of self-examination. Um, you can see on this or my pieces on 14, um, is always a person who could be the same person or a different side of that same person looking at themselves, seeing themselves embracing themselves or classmen hands, tapping it up. Basically, you know, this is the side with the Ravens. This is the side with the spiritual birds. Like they’re very spiritual birds in mythology. This is a side of kind of these goofy blockhead dudes that are cartoons. And maybe this is the lighthearted side. Maybe this is a more serious tone. And this is somebody that needs to look at themselves and embrace both sides of that. So maybe not necessarily rejecting, oh, that’s the dark side. Or maybe how can I address that? How can I, yes, I have this toxic trait. How can I fix that? Or how can I shine light on that? You know what I’m saying? Instead of just ignoring it and keeping it in the shadow, how can I address and grow from that? That’s basically what I try to put in

my work. But also I like to make it silly and goofy because you can’t just have preachy, preachy, preachy, you know, it has to be easy on the eyes, fun, engaging, and it, and it has to leave a little hint of a real serious idea, you know? Not, not all serious, you know, that’s, I’m trying to mess with the ratios. IV: I appreciate it. Like this is like genuine conversations with artists is like, I’m going to school for graphic design. So like it’s a very different world, but I do like really do appreciate like street art, which is why I am doing this book. JE: Before I was doing this, I quit my job as a designer. I was a graphic designer in Lorton. That was like, not for me, but that was like, that was like a real boring, that wasn’t cool graphic because it was like, uh, Ryan homes now selling, like, $300,000 town. IV: So is that how you started? JE: Yeah. Well I studied animation and then it’s

Artist Interview

been a whole journey. I moved to Cali. Didn’t do anything, came back working, all these menial jobs finally got into the graphic design world, which you’re a designer. I’m not, I can fake it to people that aren’t designers that don’t know typography. I don’t, I just know sand Sarah, Sarah, I know illustrator, but I don’t know how big to make my title versus my subscript or I don’t know that, but you know, I don’t know. It’s not really. I got gotta, I gotta do this, but design is so essential as a fundamental to doing anything. Like I was telling my fiance over here. Yeah. That’s dope. You should give me, I want to see that book when you print it out.

IV: What’s your dream project? JE: Honestly, I don’t know. I, I didn’t even know I was going to get this far. This is the powwow has been a dream since I was like, since I found out about it as a team, like that’s how is what got me interested in doing illustration? And now I’m in

Artist Interview

how, wow. This is DC walls wishes, a DC chapter of powwow. And that to me is like already, like, I don’t know. I feel like anything I get to do that I’m doing art is my dream job. I don’t know. IV: No, no. I love that answer though. That’s awesome. That is great. Thank you so much for your time.

Artist Interview

Sarah Jamison @sarahjanejamison

It was the final day of the DC Walls event and I finally mustered up the courage to approach Sarah. I completely caught her off guard as she was getting ready to wrap up for the day picking up her trash from her dinner delivery. I had been watching her work on this beautiful piece all week. The contrast of such a classical statuesque silhouette with a splash of a bright ombre rainbow is stunning. Sarah’s energy was calm, cheerful, and kind. She was more than happy to hear about this book and spared a few minutes of her time. Below is the interview we had: IV: Hi, nice to meet you. So just tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do. SJ: Okay. Um, my name is Sarah Jamison and I’m a visual artist in Washington DC. Um, my primary practice is working in my studio on 2d, visual artwork, mostly colored pencil, but, um, it includes some mixed media as well. And, um, I participated in DC Wells this year, which I was excited to do so, but it’s like a challenge for me to take a drawing that’s 16 by 20 originally and blow it up really big.

IV: Why do you do what you do? SJ: Yeah, I’ve always wanted to do it. There has been nothing else ever, um, in my life, I don’t even know it’s part of my identity in a way that’s like hard to define it’s all I’ve ever wanted. IV: What is that like where you identify the most of your work? SJ: Yes, yes. The primary medium is colored pencil and this is a pretty it’s based off a drawing. So it’s a pretty good reflection of what it is, but the work that I’m making deals with, um, examining our culture kind of past present digitally, um, and it’s mixing imagery that kind of parses apart, how we experience things through the, through the lens culturally of digital devices. Um, so all that to say, yes, it’s happening in traditional fine arts material drawings on paper, mostly colored pencil. IV: How did you approach this since it’s so different? SJ: I projected the drawing onto the wall, and then Artist Interview

Street Art

Artist Interview

just got to it. It’s quite a bit more impressionistic than most of the work I do. Um, but that helped get through it quickly. And then also, I mean, we’re talking about things you can’t scan, I guess, but the wall is really textured, so it was the best way I think, to kind of leverage what was already on the wall to help, um, get the effect I was looking for. IV: Could you tell me about this work in particular? SJ: Sure. This piece is, was created earlier in the year for an exhibition at a hundred gallery in Albuquerque called what a weird time to be alive. And it was meant to be reflecting on the last, you know, year plus, um, kind of the Corona virus. And so for me creating the piece, I was thinking about, you know, the work that I create unprompted, um, dealing with culture past, present, and all kind of historical plagues and things that come and go and things that are like this full anxiety written, but there’s always sort of the rebirth and light at the end of the rainbow. Um, the buses from the metropolitan museum of arts open source

collection. So it’s an unknown person. Um, but I added the, the gradient and sort of thinking of like to cut off your nose to spite your face sort of as a metaphor for this time, this piece. So I chose to blow it up to the wall. IV: What is your dream project? SJ: Oh, what’s my dream project. That’s really hard. Ideally, and I think every artist loves, you know, you, you, you want a big project with like a marquee name or a marquee museum, but you want that thing or person, whether it’s like the met or Coca-Cola or whoever to be like, we want you to do whatever you want for us. You know? So I guess it, the ideal project is like, I don’t know. I think it would be really cool to work with a musician to create. And this is just on the spot, so that’s my answer, but you know, I have a lot of music that I listen to, you know, what I’m creating work in the studio and I would think it’d be really cool to create, you know, the image that defines an album or like a suite of their stuff. So maybe that would be the thing.

Artist Interview

IV: What artists are you listening to right now? SJ: Well I’m a big fan of black pink. K-pop I have been listening to Lil NAS X, his new album. Um, but I’m always mixing it up. I mean, sometimes like my forever love is blink 180 2, but sometimes it’s Dead Kennedys sometimes it’s Megan, the stallion. I don’t know. It’s like, an eclectic mix. IV: What do you dislike about the art world? SJ: That’s a hard one and you always have to be kind of judicious, um, you know, something that’s kind of a bummer for artists, I think, um, is you generally, unless you license something, you really only make money on it. Once, you know, like that secondary art market doesn’t really exist to benefit artists in any way. Like you’re, um, in a very dream scenario, your art appreciates to the level of like a Jeff Koons and it’s worth a million dollars and it sold at Christie’s. But if it’s from someone who’s already collected it, you never see that money. Um, or someone who’s collected your work resells. It there’s nothing for you in that. And so you, it, um, so let’s have a business model

Artist Interview

where you have to be hyper productive. Um, so that can be a tricky thing to navigate. IV: How do you think that that has been affected in like recent years as like social media and the internet? SJ: You definitely hear artists talking about it more or at least maybe, um, there’s a broader conversation about it. Like, I think artists are probably always talked about it, but now it exists in a way that’s like online and, um, it’s not happening yet, but I think there’s for all the things social media does, there is a democracy, little T democratizing, um, effect of like, you can steer your ship in a different way. You don’t have to be so, um, reliant on it’s right. Take that a hundred dollar lot or I’ll kill ya. Um, what was I saying? Just, uh, nothing has changed about that per se yet, but I think that conversation is happening and, and having it on social media gives it that momentum that one day that could be something that changes.

IV: What is the best pieces of advice you’ve ever been given? SJ: Oh, you know, I don’t know if anyone ever said it to me, but, my mom, like was a really good demonstrator of like, you are empowered to get it. You can do it. You have to work hard to get like nothing. Um, no one owes you their attention or interests or care or, uh, investment. And so your dreams or work as hard as you do. So that’s kind of my take on it.

been really a tremendous experience. Funny you pick up on that, it’s been the best. It’s great to see the representation.

IV: I love seeing like the women artists, like up here And that is like, awesome. I talked to Kathrine last week and like, she was also saying like, there’s so many women here and like that, it’s just like, I love to see representation. SJ: Honestly, I mean, I’m not involved in the street art scene in a way, some of the folks are, since my practice is more studio, but like it’s a boys club. And like that does change the experience in many ways, very ways. That’s not a commentary on battle, but like to have all the women here has

Artist Interview

Bibliography DAICHENDT, G. JAMES. “ARTIST-DRIVEN Initiatives for Art Education: What We Can Learn From Street Art.” Art Education, vol. 66, no. 5, National Art Education Association, 2013, pp. 6–12, http:// www.jstor.org/stable/24765942. Choi, Caroline, et al. “Street Art Activism: What White People Call Vandalism.” Harvard Political Review, Harvard Political Review, 21 Oct. 2020, https://harvardpolitics.com/street-art-activism/. Editorial, Artsy, and Rani Boyer. “How Graffiti Artists Are Propelling the Vision of the Black Lives Matter Movement.” Artsy, 20 July 2020, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-graffiti-artists-propel ling-vision-black-lives-matter-movement. “Graffiti vs Street Art: What Are the Differences?” Eden Gallery, Eden Gallery, May 2021, https://www. eden-gallery.com/news/graffiti-vs-street-art. McAvera, Brian. “Wall Power.” Irish Arts Review (2002-), vol. 31, no. 1, Irish Arts Review, 2014, pp. 88–91, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24366345. Mettler, Margaret L. “Graffiti Museum: A First Amendment Argument for Protecting Uncommissioned Art on Private Property.” Michigan Law Review, vol. 111, no. 2, Michigan Law Review Association, 2012, pp. 249–81, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41703441. McQueen, Jessica. “Art History 101: The Birth of Street Art.” CANVAS, SaatchiArt, 30 Apr. 2018, https:// canvas.saatchiart.com/art/art-history-101/the-birth-of-street-art. Stephanie. “The History of Street Art.” Let’s Roam Explorer, 18 May 2021, https://www.letsroam.com/ explorer/history-of-street-art/. Visconti, Luca M., et al. “Street Art, Sweet Art? Reclaiming the ‘Public’ in Public Place.” Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 37, no. 3, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 511–29, https://doi. org/10.1086/652731. Wang, Alexa. “A Brief History of Graffiti Art.” Flux Magazine, 28 Mar. 2013, https://www.fluxmagazine. com/a-brief-history-of-graffiti-art/.

Street Art

“My characters are a response to just how human beings kind of adapt to chaos. Weather is like some of the protests happened the last year or the pandemic or this and that...” -Blake Jones, read his full interview inside!