Although I have lived in L.A. my entire life I had never visited Venice Beach. So when I heard about this assignment I decided to make it an adventure and go exploring. I had also never owned a can of spray paint but luckily my best friend had 2 cans she let me have, so I could do my assignment and write on some walls. I decided to visit the graffiti walls this past Saturday, February 5th. I headed to Venice with my friend Alexis and my brother. After getting lost and looking for free parking (because I was not about to pay $$ to park) We finally parked and headed towards the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day and surprisingly there wasn't many people at the beach or at the graffiti walls.
As we walked towards the beach we saw some graffiti artists at work, painting on one of the walls.On one side there was a table set up and we asked the guy at the table where we could get a permit to graffiti. He was very helpful and told us all we needed was to do was fill out a form and give him an id to hold while we did the graffiti painting. After handing us our lanyards and directing us to a designated area to paint I took out my spray paint from my purse and stared at the wall. Then I stared some more...... a couple minutes later I saw my friend Alexis was already working on her art. For some reason I couldn't decide what to paint or write. Then my brother told me to just do something Coldplay related. Hahaha yes! when all else fails, use Coldplay as inspiration! I had never used a spray can to paint and it was harder than I thought. Looking around I wondered how these people around me did it so nicely and easily.
I know my art wasn't very creative but at least I can say I tried graffiti writing. The other surrounding walls were completely covered in giant letters and behind one of the walls I could see some people had started painting on the small palm trees in the area. Some people were working on a whole wall mural dedicated to the Raiders!!?? this was kinda weird since the Super Bowl was the next day and the Raiders were obviously not gonna be a part of it. I decided to be nice and not give them the bad news! After walking around a bit I saw what a nice place Venice was, very calm and laid back. A couple of people were in the water and others were riding their beach cruisers around the area.
Personally, I'm not a graffiti art fan. Even tho my artist research project was on Neck Face a somewhat famous graffiti artist I still don't approve of people writing on public property even if they call it art. Some of the people that graffiti are quite talented and I think if they did their art on canvas or other material it would be better.
I really enjoyed reading about your experience on Venice Beach. I feel like our trips were kind of the same. It was my first time using spray paint as well. I enjoyed the part when you said "when all else fails, use Coldplay". I also saw the Raider picture on one of the walls and was confused when I saw it! Haha. Overall good write up!
ReplyDeleteYes, I agreed with you that we were not a graffiti art fan, but they do really good and talented.
ReplyDeleteI went to the Venice Beach on last Sunday. It was my first time using painting on the wall. It was really fun, and I really enjoy about it.