Been following the the whole sony thing and
Dixon’s comment got my response reflex going,

“KEEP YOUR DESPERATE CORPORATE LONG ARM OUT OF A MOVEMENT THAT IS
THE ONLY THING THAT IS OURS!!!!!”

While I share those
feelings, I am well aware that everything held sacred by one tribe or another is
ingested, digested, and shit right back out the corporate machine down onto the
flock. From their prospective why not, expose this aspect of culture, profit,
and convert or kill that wing of the culture (more often than not counter
culture). They don’t try to beat you any more they invite one of the “leaders”
in to join up. Everybody has to eat, but we don’t need to eat on corporate jets
@30,000 feet. We don’t need to eat at the NIKE Campus. And we don’t need to eat
while peeping the new PSP prior to its release. But some folks do.

/>Duncan Phillips opened America’s first Modern Art Museum in the Washington DC
about 100 years ago. He said in 1931:

“The true Artist
needs a friend and the true patron of the arts has nothing better to give the
world then the helping hand he extends to any lonely, lofty life made perilous
because a free spirit cannot or will not see eye to eye with crowd.”
/>

A quick run through art history from a content issue will
tell you who the patrons of any given era were. Today’s Patron for today’s
“Modern” artist is Big Business. Personally I think this is for 2 reasons, one
of which is the trickle down result of maplethorpe and his whip, The Arts lost
Government funding. Which goes to speak about the responsibility we have to
shock but not make them flee forever. Secondly I think the Uber Rich who could
be patrons individually are too caught up in what they know, which is what
everyone knows of art the basic, safe, classic.

To me being an artist
is not as simple as painting something, singing something etc. There is an
element which i think the Duncan Phillips quote hits on, this element makes its
way into the art that is recognized amongst the artists themselves, collectively
as worthy. He could have said:

The true Artist needs a
friend and the true patron of the arts has nothing better to give the world then
the helping hand he extends to any Artist. but he did not. he used “lonely,
lofty life made perilous because a free spirit cannot or will not see eye to eye
with crowd.”

(Being married to an artist I would imagine
he knew a thing or two about the artists whims.)

That element is the
same thing which draws your attention to the Fakeness of fake tits or teeth.
Fake art has the element of non honesty no matter how well executed. The Eye can
not be lied to. You guys ran a picture of a sticker saying ” real eyes realize
real lies” and basically that is it 100% sony was a lie and we recognized it.
some of us profited off it. some of us exposed it, buffed it, etc.

/>Now street art is nothing new, we did not invent it with the web sites, we
just exposed it’s reach. It is silly to think that Dubai is not gonna have Graf
or street art somewhere, there are people there after all and that is where art
comes from.
There are many reasons why this art is hitting the streets with
the magnitude with which it is now, but mostly I think what is hitting the
streets is not art, it is arts response to a corp. politico environment that can
not be left blank, because “free spirits can not or will not see eye to eye with
the crowd”

You mentioned meeting an artist in B.A. that was 100%
political, and the streets art should be nothing more as far as i am concerned.
the true artist have said no to corp. patronage and the gallery scene that is
not interested in truly new, unknown so you take your art to the people where
they are. you break down the unknown barrier and many of you walk right in the
galleries that turned you away previously. sell out? that is a person by person
case by case type thing. one mans red is another woman’s Pantone 187.

/>So SONY was just the First one to take it on at that scale, and why not? who
else has the budget??? Well collectively we do. so that leads to…

I
have been trying to get a project rolling for a while and this seems like maybe
a good chance/place/time to bring it up, as I have been following your posts for
a very long time now getting the 2 of involved has been in my head. The Project
idea stems from the simple little bit of text i started playing with in my
sketch book.

DO IT WrIghTE.  the double meaning should be clear,
spray/correctly. It was a response to an attack i took from an angry neighbor
who had their car tagged, and who had seen me spray painting canvases in my
parking cove. I live in Belgium and I don’t speak either of the languages so
this was odd situation and took some time to clear up after a local police and
english speaking third party became involved.

Now there are loads of
ideas on what is what red vs Pantone 187.  not all grafers want art thrown in
their face, bob ross probably did not want to hear people who were gonna tell
him happy little trees are not art, but millions of the crowd paint happy little
trees in thier kitchen, ART?

SO What is the Right way to Write? I
thought the car tag was funny, (often think about tagging hummers and escalates
with some relevant stencil to Excessive size,myself). My laughing was what
escalated the situation. My mother in laws car was tagged recently too. Laughed
but it just one kid with a red can spraying 5 cars as he runs by. pure
vandalism, he cops the art urge plea? so what is right. and who decides?  artist
versus vandal versus corporate whore, skill wielding, mac drivers. This much I
can say if my town were one of the real anti street art towns and talking about
fining the companies who stickers were found etc. I would be cutting SONY
stencils and waiting for night fall…. tryin to DoIT wRIGHTe

marc
sara you rock! Thanks so much.

J.P