Throughout this semester of art I had a student teacher.
Her name was Mrs. Cook. She’s from California, likes the musical Hamilton, taught us about stippling and cross-hatching, watched The Cat in the Hat with us, and thinks of rollercoasters and dogs when she thinks of me.
As her last lesson with us she taught us about street art (which came at an interesting time as I had just read an article about street art whilst taking the school day SAT).
People seem to constantly confuse street art with graffiti. Whilst graffiti generally consists of tags, street art is a type of art that is carefully placed in the public view for some reason. Street art can bring attention to issues, spread messages, and even beautify an area (like an example Mrs. Cook showed us where artists painted on garbage trucks and cans so there would be less of a negative connotation towards garbage men and their jobs). No matter what it is, street art has some purpose and doesn’t deserve the hate that it gets due to people not understanding what it is.
This lesson led me to create some street art of my own.
There had to be a challenge with this, so I got a tag and a brown sac that had random materials in it. Some of my materials seemed less useful than others, but I still worked with what I had.
My first idea was to paint the tag and then add random materials, however, I didn’t exactly like the way it looked, so I decided to change it. Since I had used paint I couldn’t really erase my work, so instead I decided to use the paper bag my materials came in. I ripped it up and pasted it over my tag. From there I decided to make the tag look like a package of some sort with the words, “What’s inside?” written on it.
The meaning is honestly up to the viewer, but when I was making it I felt a sense of curiosity about the world and a feeling of excitement.
I thought for a moment about where to put my tag, as with street art the place it is put is just as important as the art itself. I ended up putting it in the display case for the school to see.
From this I learned about what street art actually is and what it can do. I grew my appreciation for the power held by art in its ability to spread messages and make changes in the world. I also technically grew my skill in art and problem solving (after fixing my initial mess up).
I’m appreciate towards Mrs. Cook for her lesson and I’m happy I tried street art!
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