The Takeaway

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Working on this blog has been a delight. I’m happy I got to explore this topic and share my appreciation of it with my audience.

Here is a breakdown of what was going down behind the green curtain during the span of this blog’s activity.

My most popular day in terms of page views was April 9th by a long shot. That day my blog got a whopping 16 views with the majority of them centered around the home page and then 5 views each for the post about Roshi K and ACSOblucka . Twitter was the driver for that traffic. If I followed the right-hook method, I probably could have driven even more views. I have to admit, this project was never about getting views for me.

Looking at my twitter analytics for April 9th shows that I got 54 organic impressions on that day. That’s almost my entire following on Twitter. Including the hashtags #FDOM18 and #TXState helped out a bunch.

One of the things I wish that I would have included in this project is an interview with one of the artists. I would interview every one of them if I could. Having a video of an interview would drive views and help you, the audience, make a human connection to the artwork.

This project really showed me what its like to create content regularly. It also helped me develop a little style in my writing. Overall, it was a valuable experience.

If I were to continue to do something like this professionally I would work a lot harder at growing my audience and engaging with my readers around the content that I produce. Behind the scenes, I could take note to see what’s working for me and what isn’t.

A Visible Voice

One of the most powerful aspects about street art is conveying a message and inspiring action from the audience. Even if the action is as small as just making someone see something in a different light, it has done its job. With a simple image and a few words in a high-visibility place, an artist can draw attention to an issue they care about or express an opinion that wouldn’t reach as many people in another medium. The shock value of seeing a piece with a message somewhere it shouldn’t can create quite a stir.

The best example I can think of is the UK artist Banksy. He’s a well-known artist who has famously kept his identity a secret. A lot of his pieces are politically skewed and highlight a specific issue in society or international relations. Banksy used his fame as an artist to turn the worlds eyes to the political unrest in the Gaza Strip by doing pieces that sharply contrast the local scenery. A great example of this is the Guantanamo Bay prisoner stunt at Disneyland.

Using your work to draw attention to social and political issues is one of the greatest things about street art in my opinion. Creating a piece that stirs something in the audience and creates emotion within them is a wondrous thing and should never be discounted.

HOPE Revisited

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For this post, I made a special trip to the HOPE Outdoor Gallery to see what’s fresh on the walls of my favorite creative space. The gallery was busier than normal with several local artists selling prints and canvasses of their work. I happened across @lananonstop, an artist that I recently discovered at a SprATX event, selling prints as well. It’s always nice to put a face to the work, and I’m happy that I can now do that.

One of the things that I appreciate about the gallery is how it’s always evolving. While I was there, people were buying paint from a vendor and putting their doodles and work up. Seeing people do this (with widely varying talent) reminded me of the ever-changing nature of street art and how nothing about it is ever expected to be permanent.

It used to annoy me to see these doodles over a well-executed piece, but I’ve come to accept them as the nature of the artwork. Nothing about it is permanent, and it’s always changing. Thinking about this I’m reminded of the way that Tibetan monks make beautiful, intricate mandala designs out of sand. They work on these mandalas for days and as soon as it’s finished they wash it away and life goes on. It’s all about letting go and accepting that everything is temporary. Maybe comparing the two is a bit of a stretch but if you look at it, they are both about creating works of art meant to be enjoyed at a specific point.

Roshi K

Roshi K is a unique and talented Austin artist. Her pieces are distinctly feminine and very colorful. Rather than using large, bold lines and flat colors, Roshi uses thinner outlines and incorporates much more detail into her work. To me, this shows that she really cares about what she’s doing because it takes a lot of time to bring a lot of detail to a piece.

Roshi’s works are usually paintings and sketches, so it’s rare to see her work on a wall around town. The SprATX gallery has a portion of her work for sale if you would like to see it in person.

Roshi is a force to be reckoned with, and I hope to see much more of her work in the future.

Oblucka

Giraffe by Oblucka. Empire Garage; Austin, Tx.

 

You may have seen a giraffe or two on walls around town. Those would be the work of Aaron Darling a.k.a. Acsoblucka. Every now and then an artist comes along who has recurring character in their work. Space-invader does it with his 8-bit characters and Shepherd Fairey used his images of Andre the Giant to the same effect.

When you build a brand for yourself using an easily recognizable character you start to gain attention and he has definitely done that of late. His talent has landed him commissions at Austin Kickboxing, where he did a large mural of Muhammad Ali and Slab BBQ. All of his work is unique and he has earned the fame.

Giraffes aren’t his only game though. Creeping his Instagram account will show you that hes taken an interest to painting giant flowers and other natural scenes. Of course the giraffes are still around. I have a feeling they’re not going anywhere.

 

 

 

 

Briks loves you!

Green bear by Briks. HOPE Outdoor Gallery. Austin, Texas

It’t true. He does.

Briks is a truly special artist with a talent for the bizarre. His pieces can vary quite a bit but they’re usually people or animals painted in vibrant colors with bold, dark lines. Spotting a briks out in the wild is very special and always makes my day.

Sailor by Briks. HOPE Outdoor Gallery. Austin, Texas.

Briks’ cartoon-ish style and wacky characters have got him enough fame to start doing various commissioned pieces including a couple of food trucks you may be familiar with: Angry Eggroll and Rollin’ Smoke. His pieces are often featured in the SprATX gallery and you can also pick up some stickers and merchandise created by him and many others.

One of the best ways to experience Austin’s street art is at one of the live art showdowns that are held periodically at various different venues. A pair of artists go head-to-head at these events and create a piece within a specified time. The audience then votes on which piece they like the most and then the pieces are raffled off at the end. It’s just one way to show your support for the arts and to experience the creative process in action. Who knows, you might even see Briks himself there.

The Queen in Austin

“Queen E” by Jason Eatherly Empire Garage, Austin, TX.

Sometimes artists have a calling card that they put everywhere. For Shepard Fairey it was his image of Andre the Giant, for Banksy it was the rats for a little while. This artist is no exception with his larger-than-life profile images of a tattooed monarch wearing a respirator that seem to pop up all over Austin. I would like to introduce to you: Jason Eatherly.

I remember when I first witnessed a “Queen E” in person at Castle hill. The piece stood about 10 feet high and was in one of those spots that make you ask yourself: “How in the world did they get up there?” It was truly impressive not only because of the size but because of the subject. The juxtaposition of the respirator and floral neck tattoo on royalty was striking to me. On another visit to Castle hill a few weeks later there were four magnificent “Queen E” pieces placed next to each other in a Warhol-esque fashion spanning an entire wall. Each print was a different color but other than that they were identical. Since then I have spotted the queen all over the city and I couldn’t be happier about it.

I have followed Jason on Instagram for a couple years now it is interesting to see the variety of pieces that he posts. From surreal pictures of cars with houses on top of them to Frank Sinatra rocking a snapback you never know what he is going to put out next. One thing is always certain: Its going to be good.

 

Streets of Melbourne

Andre the Giant by Shepard Fairey.

Finding another blog devoted to street art was harder than I thought it would be. There are plenty of blog posts out there featuring street art, but very few blogs devoted to the craft entirely. The majority of the content I found was pictures from travelers or photographers (or traveling photographers) documenting their various art sightings in different parts of the world. While these were all neat and well composed I wanted to find a page like mine. A page devoted 100% to featuring street art and sharing it with the world. I think I found what I was looking for.

The Streets of Melbourne is a blog very similar to mine in that the author focuses on street art within a specific city. Some other blogs featured works from several cities or even focused on an entire country, but this one picked a single city. Just like mine.

The page takes on a minimalist form with the posts limited to little more than pictures and captions that include the artist and whereabouts in the city the piece was found. I can appreciate that level of simplicity. A little more detail and artist background would help the author of the blog build engagement with their audience, but I don’t think that is their goal. It seems to me that the author of The Streets of Melbourne wants to say: “Look at what I found. Enjoy.”

I hope to find more blogs centered around street art in the future to gather ideas from. Since its such a visual subject, it can be difficult to generate written content about it. I hope that I find more authors out there from other cities.

Hope Outdoor Gallery

You can’t talk about street art in Austin without bringing up the HOPE Outdoor Gallery located at 11th and Baylor. People also refer to this spot as “Castle Hill” due to the castle-like building that sits at the top of the hill bit is not a part of nor affiliated with the gallery. I could do an entire post about that building but that’s not why we’re here.

Hope Gallery is situated on a hillside that was once the future home of a condo building.  Developers only got as far as pouring the foundations before abandoning the project altogether due to zoning and soil problems. The lot sat unused for several years before it was spotted by the HOPE Campaign in 2011 and used as a promotional project for South By Southwest (SXSW) featuring Shepard Fairey and his famous OBEY brand.

You can find everything from tags, to full-wall murals placed there by artists from all over the country. It is truly a sight to behold and I recommend it to anyone who is visiting Austin.

Like the shifting ground beneath its walls the gallery will be relocating to a six-acre segment of Carson Creek Ranch on the east side. While the new location is a little off of the beaten path, it will allow for more opportunities for Austin artists. You can find a more complete rundown of the move and its cause here.

 

Rough Sketch

Welcome. My name is Zac and I’m a student at Texas State University.

The purpose of this page is to showcase the talented work of street artists in Austin, Texas. I want to be up front and say that none of this work is my own and I will give credit for any of the content posted. I simply want to share the works and hopefully get the artist some recognition in the process. For obvious reasons I will only use the artist’s handles when posting images or stories.

I chose this topic because I want to expand my own knowledge of the genre. I find the styles of the pieces incredibly interesting and have an appreciation for the artists and their craft.

For future posts I would like to include an interview with an artist or two and provide a  time-lapse photo album to show how a piece comes together from start to finish. This is just a rough idea of where I want to go. There’s no telling where this will lead but I look forward to the journey.