Graffiti art, especially murals, have been a part of my life ever since I can remember. As a kid, we would drive through the barrio to visit family, and the site of murals caught my eyes as we cruised slowly to avoid the kids playing in the streets. The artwork helped to give me comfort in knowing that this is where I grew up, my community, my sense of place. Growing up in the ‘80s the art was a mixture of faded Chicano murals, religious influenced murals, and the ones we see today which are characters , pieces , and even tags . I never heard any negative connotation towards it; it was just a normal form of expression in the community. These murals, and graffiti, which were commissioned and non-commissioned, gave me a sense of place within …show more content…
Chicano murals and graffiti art has been forever associated with communities that are associated with violence, crime, and the lower class society. Although the artists see their work as being much a part of the “place” in their communities, the outsiders see it as taking up “space” on a random building. Without understanding “whose wall it is?” or “why it is on the wall?” these outsiders see it as defacing property that they have no association with. By referring to these people as outsiders, I am referring to those who are accustomed to, or associated with communities that less frequently experience street art on walls. Space and place comes into question and the thin line of distinguishing between the two are in the hands of who is perceiving this genre of art. A majority of street artist are not doing what they are doing to destroy their communities; they are expressing their ideals through different forms of …show more content…
I will question their take on the Chicano Mural Movement of the ‘60s artwork, and try to tie the graffiti murals of today as being genre of community art. I will also question how they see their own artwork perceived in their communities and how they continue to use artwork to bring a positive place to the communities in which they reside or if they are just out to make a name for themselves amongst those submerged in graffiti culture. With primary and secondary sources, I will distinguish between “places vs spaces” throughout my research and focusing on the many decades of street art, commissioned and un-commissioned, and give some insight from different artists and authors on their takes of this ideology. Over the years these artists art work represents a sense of “space” in which is multi-layered and subjective, and not just a “place” as others would view as one dimensional, and only pertains to a physical location in their