Pacific Art Collective (PAC) creates live, interactive, music, art and cultural performance programming and events.
PAC is everywhere! You will find us Painting Murals, Dancing, Singing, Exhibiting, Projecting and Performing at Festivals, Art Walks, Hotel Events, Clubs, Schools, Museums, Community Centers and Parks. Basically anywhere there are people, we bring the art.
PAC HIGHLIGHTS
One of the first & largest Art Collectives to spearhead Live Solo, Collaborative & Community Painting through renowned events known as PAC SESSION. Produced over 150 Collaborative Art Events featuring Standup Poets, Bands, Dj's, Ballet, Breakdance, MC's, Taiko, Azteca, Video, Live Canvas/Mural Painters and other Performance Artists Created a Dozen Traveling Art Exhibitions and Events enabling Artists to showcase and perform in other cities outside of their own. (San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Portland & Phoenix) Over 700Global, Multi-DisciplinaryArtists have performed live, painted and/or exhibited
(Partial list includes, Digital Underground, Tiffany Glenn "San Jose Ballet", Damon Soule, David Choong Lee, David Choe, Mike McGee "World Slam Poetry Champion", Bates, Revok, Ewok, Serch, Kacao77, Flipo, Fishbone) Curated, performed and produced events in over 50 Cultural and Entertainment Venues (Partial list includes, San Jose Museum of Art, Metreon Theater SF, Westin St Francis SF, Las Vegas Arts District, San Jose Repertory, Evergreen Valley College, Union Square SF, Music in the Park, Treasure Island) Created and produced the highly acclaimed and innovative, bi-monthly, collaborative art event, Cultural Xposure @ the San Jose Museum of Art, successfully running for 2 years Continually Inspire Others Worldwide to promote Collaborative Arts
Currently in our 8th season, PAC maintains a United Nation for Multi-Disciplinary Artists, highlighting Contemporary, Urban, Hip and Traditional Arts collectively.
Proudly, PAC is applauded and hailed, year after year, for motivating a Collaborative Art way of life.
If your a Writer or Publication interested in an interview, email us: info@pacificartcollective.com
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10.20.2005
Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley
THERE’S NOTHING INFORMAL ABOUT IT Participatory Arts Within The Cultural Ecology Of Silicon Valley
by Maribel Alvarez, Ph.D. with research assistance by Lisa van Diggelen
Visibility and Leadership
The title selected for this report, “There’s Nothing Informal About It,” was spoken by a grassroots arts advocate at a meeting of about 20 nonprofit arts organizations, the majority of which started out as informal/amateur groups, and eventually decided to seek legal nonprofit status as a means of acquiring access to grants and “more stability” for their activities. In expressing his dislike of the term “informal,” this person touched upon one of the key elements that drive people to move from being isolated arts-lovers and avocational artists to come together with other like-minded people to create social participatory opportunities for art-making— the desire for respect and visibility.
Intrinsically connected to this aspect is the need for someone to become a leader, to formally take the initiative and call the group together. Leadership in this context means more than making the logistical arrangements to convene other artists, it also implies becoming, sometimes reluctantly, a sort of public intellectual or “knowledge worker”55 who can speak to the semantics and protocols that the informal arts encompass vis-à-vis the established dominant arts infrastructure. Often, individuals cast in these roles of leadership must act as translators between the language of the community of practitioners and the language of the world of arts, granting, and administration.
Leadership and the kind of wherewithal required to summon an arts experience or creative community out of obscurity toward visibility are premium qualities admired by informal arts practitioners. At the same time, we heard informal arts practitioners repeatedly express a critique of the existing arts delivery systems and bureaucratic exigencies of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit model that fed their own sense of singularity within the arts ecology of the region. Unincorporated practitioners believe themselves to be, and in most cases truly are, carriers of a radical vision: arts programs should not be “for” the community; they should be “by” the community. The amateur and avocational artists who embrace this philosophy beyond their own personal sphere become more than informal artists, they turn into informal cultural agents among circuits of like-minded people, and as such they are called upon to act on that conviction and “make something happen.”
One group that exemplifies the multiple dimensions of these artistically independent and counter-organizational push-and-pull factors is the San José-based Pacific Art Collective, or PAC. Comprised of a group of young, hip-hop-influenced independent artists and producers whose chosen medium of work is what is known as an “event” or “happening,” or, in this case, a “PAC Session.” PAC describes itself as an organization that is “catapulting a contemporary collaborative arts movement.” One of the things that make PAC unique in Silicon Valley is the youth culture in which it is cemented. Hip-hop events and practices have proven resilient in some instances to efforts to discipline them into codified traditional nonprofits while at the same time operating at complex levels of organizational capacity. PAC is especially intriguing. In addition to crafting one of the most sophisticated local public stages for individual informal artists through the idioms of urban, hip, and alternative aesthetics, PAC also makes the audience’s participation interactive and, hence, informally and spontaneously creative in its own right. The very idea that the informal arts can generate specifically animated and participatory audiences—not because the audiences get up and play the instruments necessarily, but because they are charged through the format of the event with an explicit role as suppliers of energy for the artists, and are therefore considered co-creators— opens up a number of promising possibilities for reinvigorating arts communities.
PAC was established in 2002 by local DJ Will Rowan, a former Silicon Valley software and hardware sales manager. More than 50 live events have occurred to date where more than 300 artists—most of them non-professionals (i.e., they do not make a living from their art or they are self-taught, independent, amateurs, or avocational)—have presented their work in a setting that is unlike anything one is likely to have come across before in Silicon Valley. The main characteristic of a PAC Session is the staging of multiple artistic happenings simultaneously under one roof, often at a bar or nightclub. A kind of symbolic excess glues the vision together. A May 2005 PAC Session, for example, included four live music bands, four DJs or Turntableists, two visual artists creating works on site, a spoken word open mic session, and a photography exhibit. PAC boasts about the democratic policy that underwrites their events; according to their website (www.pacificartcollective.com), they highlight “artistic genres equally.” PAC performances have included fashion shows, comedy, light shows, dance performances, and featured interior designers, and video artists, among several others.
According to Will, there is an infinite amount of “great, undiscovered art Silicon Valley is producing,” but from his point of view, “there’s a lack of organization within the arts community” that prevents it from seeing it all for the treasure that it really is. On any given night, a PAC Session might feature an Aztec dance group, a new painter, an unpublished poet, a relatively well-known music band, a dance performance presented by members of the local ballet company, and an amateur comedian bent on political humor who works as an accountant during the day. Whatever the mix, there is always a host who keeps the audience and artists unified on an explicit declaration of what they “are building together” that evening, and beyond. As a collective performance, a PAC Session touches all the raw buttons of being artistic, and at the same time selfconsciously disenfranchised.
Judging from the comments posted on the website by those who attend PAC Sessions in San José, one would almost get the impression that, before PAC, the “Capital of Silicon Valley” was an artistic ghost town. It wasn’t, yet PAC convenes people from such invisible spots within the region’s creative community that it seems as if they all appeared out of nowhere. The range and enthusiasm of the postings are extraordinary: “One of the best things to happen to San José’s cultural scene in the last five years;” “A great service to our creative community;” “I used to think San José had no culture, but now I see that they do;” “What you guys do is a blessing in our current cultural climate that marginalizes artistry and creativity;” “I have lived in San José all my young life and have not, until the past couple of years, seen any movement in the arts.” On the part of artists/participants, the comments express a similar tone of discovery, validation, and social critique: “Thank you for giving us the opportunity…it was a large boost to our confidence;” “I believe in hard work and dedication in what you aspire to have...A PAC Session is the door for that longing in expressing art and talent;” and, “We experienced some really provoking and interesting moments last night in paying witness to the creative process unfolding.”
One of PAC’s co-founding members described this conspicuous mix of art and grassroots democracy as the result of tapping into an unacknowledged reservoir of talented artists and enthusiastic aspiring artists and audiences, and labeled it as a “true subcultural event.” Established arts organizations such as the San Jose Repertory Theatre and the San Jose Museum of Art have sought collaborations with PAC in order to “cultivate more meaningful dialogue with younger lovers of art,” as a Museum press release stated recently. Will Rowan has maximized this interest to the benefit of PAC, as these large organizations often serve as venues for the PAC Sessions. Introducing a deliberately managerial voice into his otherwise casual tone, Will states, “By fostering interactive environments…both artists and venues draw new demographic and economic stimulation.” The assimilation of nonprofit artspeak seems to be an inevitable result of PAC’s huge success over the last several years, thus raising serious questions about the actual sustainability of the arts as an informal experience once it breaks into a more public and more visible terrain than the small communitarian contexts in which these artistic impulses are first cultivated.
As of June 2004, PAC was earning all its income at the events, except for free publicity through the calendar sections and occasional feature articles in the local newspapers. A year later, the need to receive grants and tax-deductible donations to sustain their activities had grown, and PAC has already incorporated as a nonprofit. Will had accumulated a large personal debt subsidizing the events with his personal credit card, and the same success that PAC had enjoyed for months had grown to the point of needing a full-time coordinator. Will also had another concern in mind, “We need to generate income for people, for the artists.” The more Will described his goals about taking traveling ensembles of artists to other regions and wanting to “focus on youth programs, get into school districts, and do assemblies for kids,” the more PAC’s organizational needs began to parallel those of the conventional nonprofit structure. Many venues ask for proof of liability insurance before agreeing to host a PAC Session, and some ask for an advance deposit for food and drinks. Sponsorships have become increasingly important under this scenario. Silent auctions and raffles of work donated by featured artists are used to close the gap in the cost of the productions. Although all these elements are business-as-usual for nonprofit arts organizations, Will still affirms an alternative location within the arts scene: “We are striving for cultural change, in the way people think about art, and the way people interact with each other,” he says.
This excerpt was taken from the book: THERE’S NOTHING INFORMAL ABOUT IT; Participatory Arts Within The Cultural Ecology Of Silicon Valley click hear to read the entire book in PDF format. (This book is a must read for anyone interested in starting an art and/or cultural organization in the Silicon Valley)
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3.14.2006
Silicon Valley Community Newspapers (Image Magazine)
Theres a new art scene downtown and its called Cultural Xposure Cultural Xposure creates a new art scene downtown
by Heather Zimmerman
Most visitors to a museum expect to find carefully displayed paintings or sculpture; they don’t expect to see art being created or performed right before their eyes. But at Cultural Xposure, held Jan. 13 at the San Jose Museum of Art, guests saw paintings in progress, heard different rhymes and rhythms, and saw poetry in motion.
The visual and performing arts have come together in a new way at the quarterly Cultural Xposure events presented by the Pacific Art Collective and the San Jose Museum of Art.
Cultural Xposure blends performance, music and the visual arts into a casual social evening that has quickly become quite popular. January’s event, the fourth outing for Cultural Xposure, was the bestattended yet, with more than 1,200 guests. In April, the event marks its one-year anniversary.
Visitors to the Jan. 13 Cultural Xposure watched painters create solo and collaborative paintings during the event, which were then sold in silent “wet paint” auctions.The evening also featured performances by rock, R&B and hiphop bands.Audiences were treated to a dance performance by a champion breakdancing group and to poetry readings by top slam poets. A variety of DJs spun world, hip-hop and house music.The event also highlighted two current exhibitions at the museum, “Visual Politics:The Art of Engagement” and “Tales From the Kiln: Contemporary Ceramics.”
“The goal is to cross-pollinate art, cultures and audiences,” says William Rowan, art director for the Pacific Art Collective and curator of Cultural Xposure.
The Pacific Art Collective is a San Jose-based organization that specializes in multimedia visual and performance events like Cultural Xposure.The group helps West Coast art groups and cities promote the arts through such events.
About two years ago, Rowan and the collective approached the San Jose Museum of Art about co-presenting Cultural Xposure, with the aim of both attracting a new, younger crowd to the museum, and showcasing new art and artists to museum regulars.
Cultural Xposure has become an important element of an ongoing effort at the San Jose Museum of Art to attract younger audiences. “Cultural institutions across the country are trying to figure out how to reach that audience, not just because they are the members and donors of tomorrow, but because they represent a very real number of visitors for today,” says Doniece Sandoval, director of marketing for the San Jose Museum of Art. “I think everybody is trying to figure out what the equation is and Wil came to us with the perfect formula.”
The event has met its goal of bringing in new audiences, and younger ones. Surveys from the first Cultural Xposure in April 2005, indicated that at least 75 percent of guests were new to the museum. Additionally, Sandoval notes, recent surveys have shown that the largest number of museum visitors from any one age group—about one-third of the museum’s visitors—have come from the 18-24 age group.
Although the most recent Cultural Xposure featured more nontraditional art forms, the event embraces every kind of art. Sandoval recalls a Cultural Xposure event featuring a ballet performance that really seemed to strike a chord with the audience.
And even if Cultural Xposure has aimed for a younger audience, it appeals to a wide range of ages. “It really reaches an incredibly diverse group of people from show to show,” says Sandoval, who notes that although the average guest’s age is about 25, the event has also attracted families with young children, as well as some seniors.
“I think that’s the biggest challenge. In order to build real community, you don’t want to just cater to children; you don’t want to just cater to a 21-and-hip crowd, and you don’t want to just cater to the older members.You want to try to create an event that actuallty appeals to everyone," Rowan says. “And that is what community is all about, is finding that common medium where we can all hang out together, have a good time and maybe learn something.”
San Jose Mercury News
Monday, January 16, 2006
Sal Pizarro
You could feel the creative electricity coming through the walls Friday night during the Pacific Art Collective's "Cultural Xposure'' event at the San Jose Museum of Art.
Lovers of cultural art forms -- painting, poetry, hip-hop and dance -- could find something to enjoy. Poets Jason Bayani and Anthony Miller were big hits. And a lot of people showed up to catch 49ers wide receiver Brandon Lloyd perform live hip-hop. DJs entertained the partygoers, who circled around and filled the lobby at 9 p.m. to watch a crowd-pleasing break dance demo by Machine Gon Funk.
Meanwhile in both the Wendel Center and the museum cafe, guests could watch art in progress, thanks to painters Marissa Arterberry, Michael Foley, Sylvia Liu, Sam Rodriguez, Charlie Alan Kraft, Karen Pike, Jeff Branschreiber, Dylan Kelly and Yoshi. Passersby could watch the paintings take shape as they worked on their canvases throughout the evening.
PAC has been organizing the events for more than three years, and PAC art director William Rowan said this one was the most successful at SJMA, with more than 1,200 people coming through the doors.
``Everybody's getting exposure out of it. Everybody wins,'' he said of the cross-pollination of music, poetry, dance and painting.
Based on the diverse crowd, the evening also exposed the downtown museum to a lot of 20-somethings and families. If you missed it, the next ``Cultural Xposure'' night is April 7.
The Wave Magazine
Weds, September 8, 2004 PAC RATS
Can the Pacific Art Collective turn San Jose into the art capital of the world?
By Scott DeVaney
When South Bay native William Rowan claims that the San Jose art scene should be counted in the same league as New York and Paris, he’s not kidding. Nor is he foaming at the mouth and wearing a little cap with a propeller on it; he’s dead serious. And beyond just talking about all of the great, undiscovered art Silicon Valley is producing, for the past two years Rowan has been working 12-hour days trying to coordinate and promote San Jose’s discombobulated art movement.
“There’s a lack of organization [within the Silicon Valley art community],” says Rowan, the 34-year-old founder, curator and self-described “zookeeper” of the Pacific Art Collective. “[PAC] has pretty much drawn a blueprint for the way art collectives should aggressively approach their goals. With the success that we’ve had, it’s completely exceeded our expectations.”
Since its inception in December of 2002, the PAC has hosted 35 shows and currently averages two or three per month. Since they don’t have a permanent home, the PAC sessions (as they are commonly referred) take place among rotating venues, although Rowan recently inked a deal with Camera 12 Cinemas to do monthly gigs at their theater complex in downtown San Jose.
What kind of art can you expect to find at a PAC session? Well, that depends on what night you show up. PAC shows offer decidedly eclectic works and you’ll find every type of art lover between the ages of 15 and 65. “Each show is different – not one has been the same. The common denominator is it’s all just art,” explains Rowan, sort of. “It doesn’t matter if it’s hip-hop, spoken word, live painting, a dance performance by the San Jose Ballet, or a reading from the National Poetry Slam champion. What we’re doing is a cross-pollination of art.”
Upon closer examination, however, a few trends have emerged from PAC sessions. Even though the visual art consistently varies, the night’s opening musical act is usually a DJ, who’s typically followed by a live band. And inbetween sets an emcee keeps things flowing by introducing dance performances, open-mic comedy or live poetry.
“We’ve blended the business and the art scene, which has been a problem for both [in Silicon Valley] in the past. They haven’t supported each other and we need to find a way… The idea is to get people to come down to San Jose. We’re all about exposure.”
And while San Jose is PAC’s launching pad, you may have taken note of the word “Pacific” in the group’s moniker. The long-term goal is to unite emerging art movements throughout the Western region of the United States and possibly Mexico. Rowan envisions a day when his 300-member art collective will expand to San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and L.A. PAC has already made some progress with its grand plan. Not only have their San Jose shows featured bands from as far as L.A., but they recently put on their first San Francisco show and they’re gearing up for two events this year in Las Vegas (although even Rowan admits that Vegas barely qualifies as a “Pacific” town).
The next PAC session takes place on September 16 at 7pm at the Camera 12 Cinemas (201 South Second St., San Jose), followed by a 6pm show on September 24 at Works Gallery (20 North Third St., San Jose). Admission is $5. All money raised goes into the PAC fund, which pays for PAC artists to travel to Vegas and other out of town gigs. Nobody, including Rowan, gets paid for the immense time and energy put into this project.
For more information, visit www.pacificartcollective.com
San Jose Mercury News via Campbell Reporter
Posted: 04/23/2009 10:27:24 PM PDT
Go out for an ArtWalk, and enjoy the view in Campbell
By Chris Vongsarath
On the corner of Second Street and E. Campbell Avenue, 5-year-old Nikolas Morquecho was doing his best Picasso impression as he made his mark on a community canvas. Using an assortment of colors, Nikolas made his contribution to the mural along with dozens of others at the Downtown Campbell ArtWalk.
"It brings people together and it's a good feeling, just knowing that everyone around you has the same thought in their mind of coming out here to paint and enjoy the art," said Noe Morquecho of Campbell, as he watched his son go to work.
The monthly art walk has been around for quite some time but has recently increased in popularity, thanks in large part to the participation of the Pacific Art Collective, which has been in Campbell for three months now.
The self-guided walk allows art enthusiasts to check out the many galleries downtown Campbell has to offer, as well as the shops and eateries that are open later than usual. But with PAC arriving, there have been more of outdoor exhibits and other activities, including live music and food and the community canvas.
PAC brought out the community canvas, which is about 7 feet tall and wide enough to straddle the corner walls of Sonoma Chicken Coop, to get participants more involved in the art walk. Members from PAC usually get the mural going until others are more comfortable joining in.
"We start a base and break down people's fear level and inhibitions, then let them go for it," said PAC artist Bonnie Rose Parent.
With everyone contributing, the mural has its own unique flavor by the end of every art walk. PAC then paints over the mural and brings out a blank canvas the next time out, starting the process all over again.
PAC artist Mike Kjolhaug of San Jose, who has had his work displayed at the Stone Griffin Gallery, wants PAC out in downtown Campbell every month. He said the art walk used to have a "scattered feel" to it, but that's changed.
"[With] Pacific Art Collective here in Campbell, the whole community gets to come out, and it's just going to keep growing," Kjolhaug said, adding that as the weather starts to warm up, people will begin to look for more outdoor activities.
"We're just trying to revitalize the art walk," said PAC executive director Wil Rowan. "We see a lot of potential in it, but it just needs some nice injection of creativity."
The Downtown Campbell ArtWalk takes place every third Friday of the month. For more information, visit www.downtowncampbell.com. For more information on the Pacific Art Collective, visit www.pacificartcollective.com.
05.22.2007
KQED
Art Review : Pacific Art Collective: Collabo
By Kristin Farr
"Hippies are drifters, bikers are drifters, migratory birds are drifters, jellyfish are drifters, rain clouds are drifters and even words are drifters. Can art drift? Is drifting a style? Yes. Drifters live in the moment, they create from pure instinct without hidden agendas or pretension and if they have a message it's simply 'let go'." This particular philosophy is tied to an exhibit at Grass Hut Gallery in Portland and, though completely unrelated, appropriately fits this month's urban/street/outsider/drifter art exhibit at Space Gallery.
The opening reception was a raucous art party featuring live music and live painters. Rather than hovering near their allocated wall space schmoozing, the exhibiting artists were busy creating live art on canvases set up along the gallery's windowed wall, making for an enthralling experience for those inside the gallery, as well as people smoking cigarettes on the sidewalk outside.
Aligning with the drifter philosophy, all artists involved in this particular Collabo had to remain unpretentious enough to release their work immediately after it was completed for a live "wet paint" auction. You have to respect their creative guts -- painting tends to be a personal, solitary practice that can be hard to realize with another person in the room, let alone a hundred kids getting their drink on while shaking the floor to super sweet reggae beats.
I heard about the exhibit through an artist I met on the Interweb called Mythos (Jeff Meadows), who traded spray cans for brushes and refined his practice, finding success in the world of fine art. His sad sack character drawings often suffer from severed limbs and broken hearts and are endearing, especially when laminated on chunks of dirty old wood marred by rusted hinges and nails. Even the blood squirting from the characters' dismembered stumps is cute and, beyond its charm, the content of the work also appears to be acutely allegorical.
At the opening, Meadows collaborated live with artist Aaron Winters to create an intriguing pink, turquoise, and grey painting that included Meadows' signature characters and made-up words. In this case, variations on the word "footant" were painted in varying styles on the canvas -- a reference to sophomoric surfers in Hawaii who set foot where they don't necessarily belong, akin to how a street artist might feel in the white-walled world of galleries. Also a fan of incorporating text, Winters' side of the canvas had Dr. Seuss-like line work and held a flowing, organic tree-like image that morphed into the words "Friggin' Sweet" written in cursive.
For this fifth Collabo event, curator and Pacific Art Collective (PAC) founder, Wil Rowan moved the collaborative art movement beyond the West Coast by recruiting a global set through PAC's first international call for artists. The downstairs gallery was dedicated to Austrian photographer, Simon Froelich's work, which included candid photos of party scenes and a particularly awesome print of a giant hamburger chasing a lady.
Upstairs, Portland-based Charlie Alan Kraft's amorphous figures were painted in layered ice cream colors over little pencil tests. Similar to Meadows and a few of the other artists in the second floor gallery, Kraft's work had a symbolic sense of internal struggle and autobiography.
Like a well-oiled artistic machine, Pacific Art Collective caters to the wavering attention spans inherent in youth culture and offers support to artists who need it most. Researcher Maribel Alvarez of Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley wrote, "As a collective performance, a PAC session touches all the raw buttons of being artistic, and at the same time self-consciously disenfranchised."
Like the emerging art scene in Oakland, the South Bay's Pacific Art Collective makes art raw, approachable, and all-inclusive. The show at Space Gallery showcased more than 20 artists from six different countries. Though the work was definitely hit or miss, each artist was boosted by their fellow collaborators, like several interesting parts cooperating to make a prolific whole. PAC artists seem like the type that don't even necessarily know they're artists; they are the kids that have an inexplicable creative drive and are in that phase before fame hits -- when they are genuinely honored to be showing work in a gallery.
In PAC's online listings, artists' names attached to singular paintings read like the title of a break-dancing battle -- "Sirron Norris vs. Meph One vs. David Choong Lee" -- the push toward collaboration yields a certain experimental, action-packed excitement. Pacific Art Collective proves that collaboration can be disarming and that art includes more than just painting or sculpture. Chances are, if you like art, you like music. And even more likely, if you like art and music, you like booze. PAC is like a good date who pays attention to your needs, gives you a little bit of everything you like and calls you the next day.
Pacific Art Collective: Collabo is at Space Gallery in San Francisco through May 28, 2007. Check out their upcoming events.
08.22.2007
VIEW FROM A LOFT : OUTSIDE.IN Collabo Tour 07 hits the Graffiti Walls at Garey and 2nd St.
The Graffiti walls of the Arts District have been an on-going topic for local residents and community groups trying to confirm agreements between graf artists and property owners. The wall space is a few feet short of circling the block and has an array of names and images "thrown up", always painting over previous work as art crews compete for wall space. VFaL has learned the wall is under a form of street rule protocol with some graf crews in direct contact with owners, and through time have assigned themselves as the contact point for others to paint on the space. This project was being worked on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon as part of a four- city collaboration with Pacific Arts Collective and 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco and was considered "official" after a complicated process to confirm it. Most of the time residents find out that graf artists, even if established , don't like to be asked who gave permission to write on a wall.
First, graf artists are often clumped together, so here's a very simplified hierarchy. First are taggers that mark turf, mostly to communicate to other gangs to stay away. Second are graffiti artists making real aesthetic effort, mostly through large broad statements of a name that have an added value if seen as innovative street art. Third, and at the higher end, are graf artists who receive commissioned pieces, own their own studio or gallery, or collaborate with others under corporate sponsorships. Those identities can overlap.
Rebellious behavior by "graffers" is often displayed to add more edge in a competitive field of the proudly notorious and that image is not only a sense of self, but an underground marketing strategy to advance branding placement on behalf of themselves and sponsoring galleries. Plus it helps to secure territorial ownership of the valued space that has high visibility and room for scaffolding.
Like most artists, graffiti artists consider any resistance to their work a nuisance. The thieves of thought are those who dare question the artistic integrity of graf or worse, asking if permission was granted by the owner of the actual property and it's felt you can easily scare away unwanted inquiries with a look or a threat.
Being part of a group with a notorious reputation has it's privileges.
In the neighborhood filled with empathy for the misunderstood, residents watch official and unofficial crews tagging and painting over work. A few months ago, a 30-something graf artist working at gaining legitimacy was being interviewed by a film crew who followed him as he gave the story of the wall. Later in the week, he returned to the site to prep a spot for a future piece, while all during the week Arts District Neighborhood watch was active in reporting tagging occurring in random hours of the night and day. One local resident was working out of his ground floor space saw the prep work and went to ask the artist if he had permission. Rather than answer, the graf artist postured defiance.
The resident was defiant as well, but retreated. Later in e-mails, the neighborhood-at-large was instructed by Neighborhood Watch and LAPD not to confront someone who poses a threat, but encouraged reporting it.
This particular set of walls in the Arts District needs some kind of system to confirm consent since there is nothing in place to clarify permissions. When it was learned that at one owner did commission work a few years back as part of an art collective, and that consent has since passed on to a new owner of the building, it has since gone forth as an urban "gentleman's agreement", aka street rules.
Just last month, a gallery invited 22 European artists to use the wall as a sign of international street art solidarity. Ironically, portions of it were painted over within 48 hours by those in charge of the wall.
Tuesday afternoon, an organized group with scaffolding were early in new graffiti art at 2nd and Garey and the crew leader bristled when asked what the process of permission was to paint on this section of wall.
"I own the wall." he says, when in fact that corner has an off-site property owner.
Explaining that there are neighborhood questions how permission is granted, he repeatedly insisted that he owned the wall and has so for seven years.
Then it got ugly.
One can wonder if street rules dictating the use of graf space is similar to film crews or homeless claiming ownership of the streets due to a previous abandonment of urban space. In this case, the resistance had an offer to be introduced to a more traditional street negotiation that included, and it's a quote, "I'll <blank> you over, right here."
With the changes in the neighborhood, maybe the cooperation between the actual owners of the buildings and graf artists should extend to Arts District residences and businesses. It is a neighborhood that has some who appreciate the art form and live vicariously through the subversive art party.
More importantly, in today's climate, no threat should be considered just a baring of teeth.
