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Abstract Expressionism Anti-Graffiti Paint Gun

Use the power of Jackson Pollock to combat graffiti
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(+11, -6)
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One of the remarkable things about the abstract expressionist paintings of Jackson Pollock (the ones with lots of splashes of paint) is that they have a fairly constant fractal dimension (Honestly, I read it in "Physics World" - broadly speaking, they have a even mix of big and little paint splashes). This gives them a similarity with natural forms such as trees, coastlines, etc. which are also self-similar at a range of scales.
Anyway, I digress. I would suggest that because of the mixture of big and small splashes of paint in a range of colours, it would have to be a fairly dedicated graffiti "artist" who would paint something which could show up over the top of it. My idea then is for a paint gun which would use flailing robot arms to flick say, four different paint colours at a graffiti-covered wall to create an attractive (if you like Jackson Pollock) but non-graffiti-friendly paint covering
hippo, Jul 23 2002

Jackson Pollock > Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950 http://www.ibiblio....lock/lavender-mist/
In the unlikely event that you don't know Jackson Pollock's painting style, here's a pretty good short introduction. [jutta, Jul 27 2002]

Jackson Pollock > Number 28 http://www.utexas.e.../CD%2030/30-040.JPG
As mentioned by [thcgenius] [jutta, Jul 27 2002]

Some works by Jean-Michel Basquiat http://www.artseens...iat98/basquiat.html
Graffity artist, 1961-1988, became famous working with Warhol in the 80ies. [jutta, Jul 27 2002]

Frances Saunders: The Cultural Cold War http://www.amazon.c...6584596X/halfbakery
Guy Fox sounds like a raving loony, but he's not making this up. Here's one of two books by the same author that detail the connection between CIA and abstract expressionism. [jutta, Jul 27 2002]

Kandinsky http://www.ibiblio....int/auth/kandinsky/
As mentioned by [madradish]. [jutta, Jul 27 2002]

Robert Dickerson http://www.art-gall...ert_Dickerson_1.htm
Not an abstract expressionist, but [UnaBubba] likes him. [jutta, Jul 27 2002]

Arthur Boyd http://www.fallsgal...u/display_aboyd.asp
Landscapes. [madradish] doesn't like them, but [UnaBubba] does. [jutta, Jul 27 2002]

Keith Haring http://www.haring.com/
Graffiti artist and painter, 1958-1990. No "graffiti - art or menace?" debate would be complete without him. I had a great time in the big Keith Haring exhibition that has his old 'zine letters. [jutta, Jul 27 2002]

[link]






       good morning hippo. I like this - croissant for you with your tuesday morning coffee.
sappho, Jul 23 2002
  

       You can use Splatter Paints which are spray cans for automotive trunk use. <Digress>I way dig Jackson Pollock. I got to talk to Ed Norton in-depth about *Pollock* - the film he made - when the Screenplay was still going on paper. I'd previously met him courtesy of a dear friend who eventually played Jackson's (Ed's) brother in the film. Read the biography. It's voluminous but can be tanked inside a week. As it happens - I saw remake of 'Sabrina' last night, fave part of the flick was the number of Pollock (OK, they were fakes) paintings the Office had. Audrey Hepburn was still a prettier Sabrina though.</Digress>
thumbwax, Jul 23 2002
  

       Gun. What happened to the Gun? Does the robot with flailing arms have six-shooters?
dag, Jul 23 2002
  

       Any unsolicited marking of private or public property is considered graffiti, regardless of the quality of the work or artistic intent, and regardless of the artist.   

       Technically, this wouldn't be anti-graffiti- you're replacing graffiti with different graffiti.   

       I'm all for having the big "Legelise it!"(sic) pot leaf under the Hines Park bridge repainted with a large scale replica of Number 28. It makes the rest of us 'heads that know how to spell look bad.
Mr Burns, Jul 23 2002
  

       thc: my reading is that hippo intends this for use by the building owner to deter (or even disable) graffiti.
DrCurry, Jul 23 2002
  

       After posting, I did reread, and "early AM coffee has not kicked in yet fuzzy brain logic" must have clouded my interpretation..   

       How beautiful this town could be when coated with abstract art, instead of the soul sucking acid rain etched brick and mortar theme it has now.   

       Have some Baked Alaska Pollock on a Croissant, my treat.
Mr Burns, Jul 23 2002
  

       Can it at least lose control once and coat some passers-by in new Jackson Pollock designed suits?
dag, Jul 23 2002
  

       Hmm. Never a big fan of Pollock (funded, as he was, by the CIA in a bizarre cold-war attempt to shift the centre of the art world from Paris to New York (even more bizarrely, it worked)) I'd rather hire someone to paint over the graffiti with a Basquiat reproduction - //replacing graffiti with different graffiti// indeed.   

       Nice idea, though.
Guy Fox, Jul 23 2002
  

       In East L.A. some have simply painted vines on the walls. This deters the homies from tagging up because their efforts blend in with the vines. Nevertheless, I think tags are weak, but I like murals.
iuvare, Jul 24 2002
  

       I'll give you a croissant for the name alone! I like the idea as well, some Australian buses have new seat fabrics intended to have the same effect. They are mainly dark in colour with scribbly bits and graffiti doesn't show up on them.   

       Could we have a Kandinsky paint gun also?
madradish, Jul 24 2002
  

       madradish: read "Thinks..." by David Lodge - new novel. About a cognitive scientist and a novelist. He's a mysoginist (sp.?) bastard, but a clever one.
sappho, Jul 24 2002
  

       iuvare, long time no see - where the heck have you been?
I've seen those murals - they serve their porpoise, and serve it well. It's interesting that such a simple design as the "ivy" is a deterrent - even on walls where the "ivy" is barely covering any of the surface area. For a few years in L.A. from Silverlake/Echo Park on Eastward, The "Virgen de Guadalupe" was the sacred wallcovering here and there - but even those got defaced in the <unholiest of places>unholiest of places<unholiest of places> after a while. Really wish I'd painted the Sunflower Blossoms The Size Of Cars I had in mind on the back of the Los Feliz Post Office though, woulda been nice instead of that damned beige wall that *still* is freshly tagged half the time I drive by it - might've helped.
thumbwax, Jul 24 2002
  

       Although some graffiti is just awful, a lot of it is quite amazing. I wonder whether Pollock would disapprove of the idea saying that graffiti is just a logical extension of abstract expressionism. After all Basquiat was just a graffiti artist, really.
jfromm, Jul 24 2002
  

       sappho: ok, I'll give it a go if I happen across it at the library. Why do you think I would like it?
madradish, Jul 25 2002
  

       Although I appreciate the sentiment behind this idea and believe it would be fun to behold in a few select areas, I've gotta got use the fishbone that's been stagnating in my pocket so I can make room for my can of spray paint. Graffiti artists go to suburbs and inner-city areas alike, finding peaceful blank walls and spreading their foulies around. There is graffiti in my area. I don't want it painted over with splattered paint drops, I want it gone. I want those blank walls back again, and I want to leave no trace that graffiti was ever there.
polartomato, Jul 25 2002
  

       madradish, it was just the Kandinsky reference. In the book, there is a university department which has a mural along a wall in the basement (if I remember rightly) which expresses numerous significant theories in cognitive science (e.g. Schrodinger's cat, Searle's Chinese Room, ..) through art. What makes me an idiot is that I remembered the name wrong - the artist was Karinthy. Not Kandinsky. The book is still worth reading though!
sappho, Jul 25 2002
  

       ...and sh*tty ads unsettle me, but I don’t see the world getting any simpler or less polluted by them.
What’s worse, ads are legal.

“Bad” art is relative thing and depends entirely on whether you like it, legal or not. I’d rather see a city filled with murals hand-painted illegally than one with 90% of the legal ads I see posted in the sky (or one filled with white walls.) I guess that's why we live in different neighborhoods. >> 'sup thumbwax! <<
iuvare, Jul 25 2002
  

       It's art Jim, but not as we know it? where yer bin?
po, Jul 25 2002
  

       I still don't see the gun in the idea. A whip like device maybe, but no gun. hippo, I think you are just teasing me with the word 'gun' in the title to get a croissant.
dag, Jul 25 2002
  

       Doesn't the use of the word 'gun' in the last sentence count? (OK, I suppose I'm using 'gun' in a fairly loose sense here...)
hippo, Jul 25 2002
  

       Blank walls <shudder> I don't know how polartomato, UnaBubba and ravenswood can possibly like blank walls. Large empty expanses of wall (particularly white or cream coloured) just scream at me to paint them. As yet I have not succumbed to the urge, but I try to avoid hospitals.
madradish, Jul 26 2002
  

       Don't misunderstand me, by 'blank walls' I just mean that I want things to look the way they were meant to look. I don't think that splattering paint all over a wall is a good solution for grafitti. So sue me. Pollockness would look shitey alongside my naturally-hued home. Maybe if Pollock-ites would limit their choice of colors to carefully coordinated, complimentary colors... is there a Pollock-ness monster?
polartomato, Jul 26 2002
  

       As an urbanite, I'd hate to see some of the graffiti go. Good premise, bad principle.
watermelancholy, Jul 26 2002
  

       Sorry guys and gals, I think my opening statement was too provocative. I'm not defending people who graffiti walls, they irritate me as much as anyone. I just don't like large blank areas - they lack personality. I agree with you UnaBubba, I really appreciate the minimalist design approach that Jutta has taken with the 1/2B. It is particularly refreshing after the clutter that characterises most of the web.   

       Minimal decoration, when done well, can be most effective. I'm just adverse to utter unbroken blankness a la hospital corridors. I also have to admit that I like most public murals. They add interest to otherwise dull areas (not Boyd though, can't say I'm a fan).
madradish, Jul 26 2002
  

       "I'm not defending people who graffiti walls..."

I will.

There's a lot of illegal graffiti and there's also a lot of legal graffiti. I often find that those who do not like graffiti almost always use the “It’s not legal” argument as a crutch to dismiss the entire lot and when pressed to elaborate, will almost always say that they wouldn’t like graffiti if all of it was legal. The bottomline is that most people do not like graffiti simply because they don’t understand it (e.g. can’t read it, don’t like the style, etc.) or the people who do it and will write them both off as immature, having no life, or worse, having nothing to say.

All the important, cool sh*t that has ever meant anything culturally has started off illegal. Over time, however, it gains acceptance and blossoms into a co-opted, commercialized enterprise that is then sold back to the youth who’ve created it: from clothes, to music, to art. Incorporating Graffiti (art), Breakdancing (clothes & dance), MCs & DJs (music) hip-hop started out as an expression and has turned itself into an entire culture that’s crossed all racial, social, national and economic barriers. It’s the movement of a youth that older generations may never understand in the same way their parents didn’t understand them during their youth. Some will only accept it when a Basquiat or Haring “make it” by having their works shown indoors and commercial available. Other’s never will and that’s okay too…it’s wasn’t meant for them.
iuvare, Jul 26 2002
  

       //All the important, cool sh*t that has ever meant anything culturally has started off illegal//

For example?
hippo, Jul 26 2002
  

       If I recall correctly, criminals marked my house with grafitti a week before they burglarized it a while back. I don't really consider your standard urban grafitti to be artistic as much as a means of covert communication for criminals.
polartomato, Jul 27 2002
  

       Let me get this straight- because Jackson Pollock is an accepted, recognized artist by the mainstream, his art is more "art" than my art? By randomly splashing paint on a wall, it is somehow better than taking time creating a design, perfecting a design, and then risking being arrested to show the world your art? I guess you're only considered an "artist" if you go to art school and wear a beret and eat Cap'n Crunch with other certified "artists" at the local coffee house.

I think it's extremely hypocritical to label graffiti "bad art" and something that Jackson Pollock did as "good art." It's all relative to the person standing in front of it I guess, but I find most "modern art" extremely pretentious because I don't see the picture in it, just a bunch of random colors, lines, and the occasional randomly colored line. Maybe you see the most complex artwork ever, and it seems absolutely fantastic. The intricacy with which Mr. Pollock worked was amazing, the attention to detail beyond that of any human being.

How would you feel if graffiti artists began painting walls with said "art?" Would it suddenly be okay because it emulates an already established "artist?"
AfroAssault, Jul 27 2002
  

       No it wouldn't. This idea is suggesting you use Pollockesque anti-graffiti measures on your own wall, not on any wall you fancy painting

Firstly, there's a range of graffiti. Beautifully executed murals are better than the same idiot tag executed hundreds of times on everything stationary in our neighbourhood. Secondly, if you want to express your 'art', get your own wall, don't use any publicly owned wall, and don't use my wall.
hippo, Jul 27 2002
  

       has anyone ever put together a collection of the bizarre places that get graffitated (er, spray painted) they must be double-jointed trapeze acts to get in some of the places you see tagged.
po, Jul 27 2002
  

       I disagree with any anti-graffiti efforts. Let the people of the city speak. If they have a monotone voice now, i.e. just tags with illegible names, allow them to elaborate their vocabulary of signs and language once it catches on and style changes. Paint the city, don't let it be a giant eraser of creativity.
nratzan, May 27 2003
  

       Blasphemy, I say.   

       Try and control my spray can and I will show you a spray can that will control you. Cover the streets with paintings I can't paint over and I shall climb higher. Design the world with paint proof surfaces that reach to the sky and I shall carve my name into them. Of course if you pay me to stop... I'll think about it.
skratchaddikt, Mar 28 2004
  
      
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