STREET ART UTOPIA » We declare the world as our canvas106 of the most beloved Street Art Photos - Year 2012 » STREET ART UTOPIA

STREET ART UTOPIA » We declare the world as our canvas106 of the most beloved Street Art Photos - Year 2012 » STREET ART UTOPIA:

I really love this photo blog.  It makes me feel a lot of things whenever I experience street art.

The first thing I feel with great outdoor painting is...why do I rarely see it in the wild in the U.S.?  I've seen a few gorgeous murals; one in Baltimore and another in Philadelphia. But as I ride Metro North to Manhattan, I see a lot of tagging but not great street art.  Nothing like in these 106 photos.

The next thing I feel is envy.  I'm not a painter or a sketch artist and never will be.  First? I can't make anything look like what I would want it to with a brush, spray can or pencil.  Yes, I can create digital and collage art but that only requires manipulating materials and images that already exist.  Second? Inspiration.  Go through these photos.  I've never looked at a crack in a wall or a sidewalk, a bit of rust on a railroad overpass or dilapidated building and seen the images hiding there that needed someone with a spray can or a paintbrush or a big piece of chalk to make it visible to the rest of the world.  My inspirations tend to come from people.  Most of my collages are gifts or representations of moments that will go into a scrapbook and tell the story better of the people in the photos on that page. Even when I paint with words, like now, my muses are people's hearts and their souls.  I could write about a landscape element but it would be very different than what many of these images say.  These artists actually transform the building, sidewalk or staircase into something new.

The other thing I've learned about street artists is that they usually have a message. I'm not saying I don't love classic art.  But there are so many soulless portraits hanging in museums.  One can tell the artist was doing it to pay the rent.  But then there are Degas' ballerinas or Claude Monet's landscapes.  These are paintings from the heart.  I now know three street artists who have moved off the street and into studios yet the heart is still on the wall, the board or the canvas.  The paintings make you feel.  There is a message whether peaceful, angry or philosophical.

So spend some time at Street Art Utopia and feel.  Remember: "The Earth without art is just 'eh."


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