Whether it’s the inherent beauty of the valleys, forests and coastline; the amazing food, drink and shopping or the wonderfully mild climate; there are almost too many reasons for loving and living in the Pacific Northwest. I, like everyone else in this region, have my own fanboy list of reasons for being up here, and that list seems to get a little longer everyday. 

Near the top of my list is the street art. I’m just a huge fan of graffiti and street artists and have followed it with a passion for several years now. While Sacramento has its share of graf, it seems to be less art and more traditional throwups and such. There’s not a whole lot in the way of good mural, stencil or sticker work. Not like what I see in Portland everyday.

Now I know that there are many who look down on street art as a form of vandalism, but I feel that it’s beautiful - part and parcel of living in a big city. Graffiti is an urban language; an ongoing and ever changing dialogue / diatribe between the city and it’s inhabitants. What I appreciate the most is that street artists are making art accessible to the public at no cost - something the general public normally looks down on. Granted, it’s many times not in what’s considered the most desirable locations, but hey, that’s just part of the process. Frankly, I find that to also be part of the mystique. I love the fact that I can drive through a neighborhood one day and there will be nothing, but I come back the next day / week / month and it’s like there was a gallery show put up for everyone to see. 

Graffiti speaks against typical art-conventions, and that’s what I love about it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Art, General, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.