Archive for March 19th, 2008
Guerilla Art for the Masses
I’ve begun to cover a story about my good friend, Beau (a.k.a. Optix), a guerrilla aerosol artist whose nom de plume riddles the urban skyline of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He is part of a sub-culture whose art is taboo, in fact illegal, and he prides himself in gaining access to seemingly impossible places and using brick walls, trains, or the underside of a bridge as his canvases.
Walking downtown, Beau says, “Check this one out,” and points to the scrunched and exaggerated letters that tower above a fire escape of an old corporate building that spell out some inside joke or a name. But it’s not the vibrant colors or the detail of the piece that I find fascinating, its how the artist got up there and planted his flag, a piece of art that the whole city can see, like or not. That’s the thing about aerosol art; it’s definitely in your face.
Ironically, instead of being arrested (again) for his craft, he was approached by the executive director of a non for-profit arts program and the director of the Business District Operations to spray paint privately owned, dilapidated downtown buildings in an effort to beautify the city.
I look forward to covering this story, not only because it’s a great chance for local artists to come together and share their talents, but it’s chance that my hometown might look a little more… colorful.
