Thursday, May 22, 2008

The Anomaly

On a brick wall facing an abandoned home just west of the Santiago Street Lofts is where I first spotted this rare find several months ago.

Normally, this abandoned lot is highly inaccessible to foot traffic due to multiple layers of chain link fences. But with the "mini-circus" that came to town during Cinco de Mayo weekend and used an empty adjacent lot for vehicle storage, I had one less fence to jump and was able to snap this photo.

Oh my goodness! Did someone actually take the time to plan a mini-mural in Santa Ana? Bravo!

This piece is an anomaly for the city of Santa Ana being that it is a strong departure from the mundane chicken scratch that can be seen all over town. Granted, it doesn't hold a candle to the work done in Los Angeles, or even Vancouver for that matter, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

14 comments :

Anonymous said...

my eyes say it tastes good to look at urban art.

Anonymous said...

I highly disagree. How are we to support one’s "artistic expression" versus another’s "defacement of property"?
Who's to draw the line at what's "artistic" and "appropriate" versus what's "disrespectful" and "causing the community to remain a ‘ghetto’"?
I personally feel that there should be no graffiti on any piece of property that doesn't belong to that person.
We can't praise the work of a "graffiti artist" and mace the others in their face.
It's hypocritical and I personally will not support it.

Ben Dayhoe said...

We can't praise the work of a "graffiti artist" and mace the others in their face.

I can and I will. I never asked for your support, just offering a different POV of graffiti since this city is covered with craptastic chicken-scratch tagging.

Man has been writing on walls since he first discovered fire to light his cave. Graffiti will never go away and I'm willing to accept that.

But I'm not willing to accept someone spray painting the front of my house or etching my windows just to mark their territory like an animal.

Graffiti artist have talent and respect; taggers have neither.

That parcel where I snapped this photo is more a blight to our neighborhood than the green paint that sits on those walls.

And for the record, it was pepper spray, not mace. Plus, I thought he had a weapon ;)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous: I think the distinction is clear, one takes skill, and whilst not done with formal consent is truly a form of art. The other is the human equivalent of an un-neutered male dog peeing on a fire hydrant. It's owner [parents] never put the dog on a leash or taught it how to respect others property or themselves.

Unknown said...

I would pay good money to have a true artist do a true street art piece on the side of my building.

Santa Ana Slim said...

I'm torn... I have to somewhat agree with anonymous (you can give me a noogy later). When all is said and done, without permission it's still vandalism, regardless of how well done it is. It could be the Mona Lisa and, while it would certainly look nicer than an empty lot, if it was done without permission it's still vandalism. To deem this acceptable sets a bad precedent here. If someone airbrushed the side of your car with a beautifully crafted wizard, a lady with big boobies or perhaps a nice native american scene, regardless of how "well done" it was, you wouldn't be too happy. If this particular work was done on the side of any one of our buildings it would be gone in a day. I happen to think this particular piece is well done by SA standards and certainly took some time and effort. I even think it's quite pleasing to the eye, but we can't just let it go, and while it would pain me to see if painted over, it's the right thing to do. We can't discriminate based on our perception of artistic merit. Can't just allow people to go around killing other people even if we don't like them. (Even though that conflicts with my reality show idea of "Gangbanger Island" ... and not the good kind)

I will leave you all with this. For all of you that missed out on the 70s ... this guy is bringing sexy back... with an airbrush:
http://www.imaginistix.com/details.cfm?Id=101

Ben Dayhoe said...

If someone wanted to airbrush a sexy woman riding a phallic silver shark on the hood of my car and it would look that bitchin', I say go for it.
Hell, paint me riding it!

Anonymous said...

So Ben, I guess if the graffiti artist etched something more artistic on your windows, or sprayed this particular piece on our building, it would be okay?

While I'm all for supporting artistic talent, the point is having "permission" by the owner to put it up.

Anonymous said...

by the way, "graffiti artists have respect" ??? If they don't have permission, they don't have respect.

Anonymous said...

I've learned the difference between tagging and graffiti, this is graffiti which in my eyes is closet to art as you can get. I wouldn't mind seeing some tasteful graffiti on some of the run down walls in our city. Personally if I owned a company and wanted to advertise I would do it with graffiti because my attention gets drawn to artwork like this. It would be great if they had the right permission and a positive message but I agree with ben chicken-scratch is crap and more a trade of gangsters.

Anonymous said...

Ben, you know you my nig
but dude.

This aint cool either.
Its better... I'll grant you that.
but a gangster with talent is still a gangster. If the city wants to allow piecers to throw up some bombs in some alloted space...I'm OK with that. But even that would get mucho territorial mucho fast.
People that do this are criminals first and artists second... even the good ones. I say let them all rot. I like that you took a stand though. Don't take shit from nobody Ben! I like it when folks take stands even when I disagree- keeps things fun.

Slaymetender said...

If that graffiti was on a wall that was stand-alone and framed, in an area that was specifically set aside for graffiti art, I'd agree.

However, it's not. It's defacing property, and no matter how artistic it is, it's still should be cleaned up, removed, and the person that did it, should be charged.

Even if the artwork was a Rembrandt, I'd feel the same way. Like you've said before, one piece of graffiti, or broken window, if left alone, will only invite more.

DG said...

I can see why some might still feel this is mere vandalism, but I would have to disagree.

Ben, im glad you seem to "get" it (or at least, appreciate it).

If I saw just ONE mural like that for every 10 shit tags I saw on the regular, it would do wonders for my road rage!!

Thanks for sharing the pic...

Anonymous said...

Santa Ana is a gang infested city. The Are where the Santiago Lofts where built is actually the area where 3 major gang territories divide.

I think thats the reason the garffiti seen by most is "chicken scratch"

there are many places in santa ana where you can find good urban art. however these places are reserved for the ones true to the culture. So chances are most will never see these unless they go on a good hunt.

here is some Real Santa Ana Graffiti

http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c321/sinis1/?action=view¤t=P1080224.jpg
http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c321/sinis1/?action=view¤t=P1070221.jpg
http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c321/sinis1/?action=view¤t=siniswsm.jpg\
http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c321/sinis1/?action=view¤t=sinisbrwn.jpg
http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c321/sinis1/?action=view¤t=rivsinis.jpg
http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c321/sinis1/?action=view¤t=ancyardblkwht.jpg
http://photobucket.com/image/kuse/Twinks714/bigkuser.jpg
http://50mmlosangeles.com/viewPhoto.php?galleryId=82962&artistId=2772&pgnum=1
http://50mmlosangeles.com/viewPhoto.php?artistId=2772&galleryId=74923&pgnum=1
heber_187@yahoo.com