Metaboston

Abraham Obama Street Art: Legal and Illegal

Ron English's Abraham Obama mural went up on a wall outside Gallery XIV in Boston and fans of the artist papered the neighborhood with posters.

"The next morning, Gallery XIV's phone was ringing with residents and business owners in the South End complaining about the vandalism. The posters had popped up on utility boxes, on the sides of private homes, and outside law offices and restaurants. [Gallery XIV' director] Kerr estimated that dozens of the unauthorized posters were plastered around the South End and that he personally received about four or five phone calls from angry property owners."

English, known for his illegal billboards, approves of the fan action.  One person's street art is another's graffiti.

Graffiti Stenciling Workshop in Davis

Annelies Kamen will be teaching a course on graffiti stenciling at Willoughby and Baltic in Davis Square.

"The immediacy and poignancy of stencil art has made it a prominent tool in DIY political, social and artistic movements. Stencils are a creative and easy way to express opinions, spread messages and expand the boundaries of your artistic language.

This workshop will teach you how to make your own stencil from a found or original image for use on clothing, in fine arts, as wall decoration, or for any purpose you choose. Among the topics covered will be altering images to translate to stencil format, single and multi-layered techniques, large scale and portable stencils, types of paint and stencil frames to use, and how best to use your stencils on different surfaces.

All materials are included in this workshop. Please bring an image or two you would like to use in a digital format (thumbdrive or CD). If you do not provide an image, we will provide one to you for the class. Letter stencils will also be provided if you would like your stencil to have text elements."

Info: 
July 9th 6:30pm - 9:30pm (Reserve by July 7th)

"Price:
Members: $20 plus $15 materials
Non-Members: $40 plus $15 materials
(Sign up for Willoughby and Baltic membership at the same time and save $5!)"

What Does Tagging Mean in Cambridge?

Mostly just innocent and often done by surprisingly young kids.

"In April, police reported an increase in the incidence of graffiti in North Cambridge, but Police Commissioner Robert Haas told the city council the problem is not concentrated in any one section of the city. “Clearly vacant properties” are a target, he said, but “it really doesn’t follow a regular trend or pattern.”

In the recent upsurge, he said his officers quickly arrested four adolescents, which seems to have reduced new cases, at least in the short run. “We’ve spoken to the parents” and the youngsters are going through the judicial process, Haas said.

Those alleged culprits were in their early teens, but at a community meeting with North Cambridge residents May 28, the commissioner said the police had just stopped four suspected taggers who were even younger—two were 12 years old and the other two 11 years old.

In some urban areas graffiti is used by gangs as territorial markers, but Haas said in Cambridge “the vast majority is just vandalism.”

Pro-Bacow Students Tag Tufts

While former Harvard president Lawrence Summers became notorious, even at Tufts, Tufts president Lawrence Bacow (left) has become popular enough with his students that they've been tagging the Tufts campus with stenciled images of Bacow's face.

Back Bay's Graffiti War

A funny story from the Globe about Back Bay residents infuriated by graffiti and their syssiphean struggles against its presence.  "Almost every day, John Wadlington, an anesthesiologist who lives on Commonwealth Avenue, totes a bucket and scrub brush around his street and cleans off smaller markings he finds on lightposts and walls." Working against them, notes the Globe, the fact that Back Bay "attracts thousands of tourists and shoppers, which makes it attractive to taggers, who want people to see their tags. Unfortunately, the aesthetic inclinations of the photographer resulted in a picture of quite a nice-looking work.  The residents might have come off better with a photo of magic marker squiggles or a scratched window.