It’s hard to imagine walking the streets of Philadelphia without noticing the painted images that scatter the walls, bridges, trains and trucks. Some of these images etch themselves into our memories, inspiring wonder as to who these silent writers are.
Modern graffiti had its dawn in Philadelphia and the first documented ‘graffiti’ writing is accredited to a Philly native, an artist by the name of Cornbread. Despite the well-organized efforts of the PAGN (Pennsylvania Anti-Graffiti Network), Philly has some of the most colorful streets in the country. On a stroll through Fairmount Park on any day of the week, one can look up, and bask in the splendor of the countless tags and characters on the rock walls that line Kelly Drive. Entering West Philly via 76, one can count the dedications and fill-ins that amass the hillsides.
The definition of graffiti is as follows: a deliberately inscribed marking made by humans on surfaces, both private and public. It can take the form of art, drawings or words. The term itself was born from the Greek word ‘graphein’ meaning “to write”. Basically, what this means is that ‘graffiti’ as an art form has been around longer than this country and organized religion as we know it. Dating back to the cave art that uncovered the beliefs of ancient civilizations, human beings leaving their mark was what constituted our history.
Beginning in the late 1960’s, spray can graffiti by Cornbread appeared all over the city virtually overnight. “Tagging” his name everywhere to gain attention from the local community and media, Cornbread had little idea at the time that he was to be one of the founders of a national movement. His innovative style and use of cityscapes as a canvas inspired fellow artists in Philly to evolve their form.
Tagging spread like wildfire. Soon, New York City was covered with street tags by Philadelphia writers and new names from New York who had adopted the art. At this point, the works had reached the masses and, while many were attempting to progress the movement as a whole, many were also in it for the ‘race.’ Writing became a competition as to how many tags an artist could put up and how dangerous of a spot he/she could hit, or “bomb”. Artists began climbing bridges, scaling walls and breaking into rail yards to leave marks that were hard to remove and impossible to miss.
Graffiti has influenced virtually every artistic field to date, from advertising to fashion apparel and even fine art. Check out the new Aesop Rock video. The prominent imagery in the video is of bombed trains, brick walls and overpasses. Shepard Fairey takes street art images to the bank with his successful OBEY clothing line, urban gear that is directly targeted to the people. MARS-1, Dalek, Stash and Dan Witz are rocking the gallery scene with everything from oil paintings to mixed medias, selling out for thousands. New magazines, blogs and websites dedicated to the appreciation and campaigning of street art and artists are appearing daily.
Graffiti, urban born, and nationally nurtured, has become an internationally embraced artistic phenomenon. Today, there are several types of graffiti we observe in the streets. First, there is the classic street tag, where an artist adopts a name, similar to a screen name, which represents their work, for example: Chase, Doze or Fantom. Next, there is the character art that typically is a single image or a series of images that also represents the artist. This is mostly the type of work we see of PERRO. There is also sticker art, probably the fastest growing of all the street art forms because the simplicity of its nature minimizes the chance of being caught or arrested. Street signs and newspaper vending machines are common hotspots for these pieces. BOB is infamous for this method of street art. Finally, one of my favorite forms of street art because of the aesthetic appeal it has for me, is stenciling and wheat pasting. Stenciling involves an artist either creating or copying an image, converting it into a stencil and spraying it onto objects as they please. Wheat pasting refers to the method of creating a paste with wheat and flour that is used to adhere posters and images to a wall. Both tactics are cheap and easy to make and many politically charged street artists focus their efforts into poster campaigns using the wheat paste method or stencil messages because of their ability to be duplicated and applied.
Below is an interview I had with BOB and PERRO. Enjoy…
HF: When did you start writing and why? Was there a particular artist, work or book that may have inspired you?
BOB: I started writing about six or seven years ago with the name EMOS. I was in Jersey so I didn’t have a lot of exposure, I just kind of evolved on my own. I didn’t start expanding my work until I came to Philly. The whole Philly scene influenced my work the most. The ‘BOB’ thing started about three years ago.
PERRO: I started writing in ’86. There wasn’t any particular artist that influenced me, but rather I was constantly seeing images in my hometown of Union City and all over NYC. Lots of fill-ins and names. I guess it started because I was always drawing and making art. It was just an evolution for me. ‘PERRO’ came to be around the same time as ‘BOB’.
HF: What was your first piece like… where was it?
BOB: It was horrible. It was under a bridge in Jersey. I didn’t know what I was doing, the colors were totally wrong. I think it’s still there actually.
PERRO: It was in Union City, New Jersey. When I did it I thought it was awesome but in hindsight it was really bad. It was a character of a snake. I did it on the side of my house.
HF: What is it about graffiti that you believe is worth noting/what separates graffiti from other forms of art?
BOB: People risk their freedom to write.
PERRO: I’m gonna have to agree with Bob. It’s totally free, everyone can see it, do it and appreciate it.
HF: Both of you went/ are going to school for art… is it safe to assume we may see a shift in your works in the near future to more gallery pieces/fine art?
BOB: I’m always open to do that, but I have way to much fun doing street art. It’s mostly for me so I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing that. But as far trying new things, I’m always down.
PERRO: I’ve always painted and kept that separate from my street art.
HF: What is the message/ story behind the characters you each paint respectively?
BOB: ‘BOB’ started as an original character. Everyone was pretty much doing the same thing. I wanted to do something different. It was just a face, something simple, like a logo that people would recognize. It’s more of a logo than a tag. It’s like advertising.
PERRO: The dog or ‘PERRO’ started out because of my love of pit bulls. I read a lot about the abuses and the misconceptions that people have of them. When I first began I did a lot of dogs with the cross-eyes symbolizing the killing of those animals.
HF: Finally, are there some artists that you are really into that maybe we could get into. This is your opportunity to plug some work that you appreciate to the FRESHOUT READERS.
BOB: No one really in particular, there’s so many people I like, I’m kind of open minded to everything.
PERRO: Ray Caesar, Jeff Soto, Jonathan Weiner and Camille Rose Garcia to name a few.
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March 30th, 2006 at 9:17 am
Props goes to the author, this piece is excellent. So many people will appreciate this essay because its upholds the street ART of Graffiti and it is certainly composed with a smooth writing style. This essay is like a little book, cool, clever and comprehensive, no less. Plus I like the fact that you represented Fresoutmedia by mentioning the Freshout Readers,thats almost prophetic, as if we have an audience like allhiphop, or hiphopgame or some other wack hiphop website. You did it baby, this will certain help put us on the map, well mothafuckin done. Have a nice day.
March 30th, 2006 at 2:22 pm
thank you
March 31st, 2006 at 10:42 am
Nice work!! Very interesting, and I’m glad to see some local writers are gettin some shine on here… I loved the write-up, and would like to see more Philly writers covered in the future…How about a piece on Cornbread next?
Peace
March 31st, 2006 at 12:20 pm
April 2nd, 2006 at 6:15 pm
“bob” once painted a rock for me and hid it in the steets for me to pick up. thank you “bob.”
July 25th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Great interview.