A friend of mine is in his last year of University and is writing a dissertation entitled "Reading Graffiti". He asked me to answer the following questions about my own art and about graffiti. I'm publishing this for you to read with his permission. The opinions stated here are just that, my own personal opinion as I see it today. I'm sure a year from now I could have a different opinion all together but today this is what I think. If you are of a different opinion please express that in the comment section. Any and all opinions are welcome.
Peter Bragino
www.bragino.com
1. How would you characterize the art which you make?
I’d say that it’s based on organic design, nature and the randomness of the way nature creates things. You have that aspect in my work along with the urban environment that I”ve grown up in. My work is generally celebrating both of those things at all times no matter what I create..
2. Can you describe the first piece of art you made? The most recent?
> The first considerable piece of art that I made on canvas was a painting called Frustration. It was me trying too hard to make what I wanted to make but the work of art had something different in mind. After hours of throwing paint and having fun my first spontaneous piece of art was born. It was a liberating experience.
> The most recent image I made was a digital painting created improvisationally and wound up becoming a scene of a girl flying on the back of this giant bird down into a mountain top village with towering, post-apocolyptic fortresses on top. It’s called Mythic Mountain.
3. How often do you make works of art?
I make works of art on a daily basis. I’m always drawing, painting, designing. It’s a constant thing..
3. What is the significance of the particular medium/s you work in?
The mediums that I work in are more of a reaction to the result I’m after rather then being a significant thing in themselves. The medium depends on what I want to do and where the art is taking me. If it calls for digital, that’s where I go, sculpture, mixed media, spray paint, walls, it’s all subordinate to the idea and the work itself.
4. How would you describe your own style?
My style is evolving but has a heavy influence from design based art, nature, and the human form.
5. What factors have most influenced your work as an artist?
Above all nature influences my work more than anything else. To me nature is the master artist.
6. Do you feel others have been effected by your work?
I hope they have. I’ve been told that they have but it’s more important to keep going, learning, exploring, and growing as an artist. I think that’s more inspiring than the work itself.
7. Is there a relationship between image and word in your work?
At this point there isn’t much of a relationship between visible words in my work but writing and storytelling have a very strong role. They’re what drives my ideas, so in that sense words are ever present..
8. Can you describe the relationship between form and colour in your work?
I’d say form and colour play equal parts to me. I’m just as excited about line, composition, and mass as I am about color. When you mix the two together you get a carnival of emotions. It’s visceral at that point and hits you in many of your senses at the same time. I’d like to think that they compliment and strengthen one another in route to building a unique world to view.
9. How does the setting in which your art is viewed effect how it is viewed?
The setting is enormous in how the work is viewed. Everything is in relation to one another. This is true of color on a canvas and it’s true of how people interact with art. A piece of art can change drastically depending on where it’s viewed. This is why street art is so exciting today. It’s being viewed where we walk, breath, and live, not in some cold, white gallery.
10. Is graffiti art? If so, since when and for what reasons?
Graffiti, as far as I define it, is certainly art. It’s an expression of an individual and depending on who interacts with that expression it has the power to influence. I think the lines of what is and what isn’t graffiti are getting blurred pretty quickly though. I relate graffiti to a calligriffic art style. I don’t believe that any art that is created in a street environment is graffiti. Art is a broad subject and there are many avenues and disciplines to engage in. I think the true artist is intereted in growth and continual knowledge of their craft and of themselves, not in a title that limits them. I don’t consider myself a Fine Artist or a Grafitti artist, or an Airbrush artist. These terms are restrictive. Artists should be able to talk in many visual languages, with any medium, at any time. The person who finds one thing that they’re succesful at and repeats it contunually without an overiding intellectual reason to do so is, to me, not an artist. Art to me will always be about traveling into the unknown, not reproduction unless that reproduction is creating higher awareness in others. Grafitti is one style of art. I think it’s been art since the first time it was put on a wall. In my opinion, and I’m sure many would disagree, once you start tagging the same thing over and over without interest in variation and growth it becomes something different than art, especially when it has no message other than fame. Grafitti is definitely art but I ask you this. What is Grafitti? That’s the question and I’ll bet there are a million different opinions on it…
11. Do you feel there is a relationship between graffiti and your own work?
There is definitely a relationship between graffiti and my work. I grew up in New York and you had no choice but to be influenced by graffiti. I was breakdancing in the streets on cardboard between ages 12 and 15 when breakdancing first came around. I’ve been drawing people names for them my entire life. That culture, especially grafitti or lettering styles, kept my hand moving as an artist for my entire childhood but I don’t consider myself a grafffit artist. As you move forward as an artist many things influence you and graffiti was surely one of them. My motto is try it all, keep experimenting, always learn and never stop making art..
12. Do you feel there are any differences between graffiti works on display in the street and those displayed in a gallery?
I consider graffiti a calligrific lettering artform in general. If that hangs in a gallery I would still consider it in the style of graffiti but I wouldn’t consider it graffiti. Graffiti was a movement that started on the streets and on trains but that doesn’t make all art done on the streets today graffiti. If graffiti style was started way back when on canvas then it would feel more at home on a canvas but that’s not where it’s roots lie and that’s not where it will ultimately be loved the most. There’s no shame in painting a canvas and calling it Fine Art or Illustration or Graphic work. If you want to display in a gallery then understand it’s a different format and maybe it’s just not graffiti anymore.
13. Are there any further comments you would like to make regarding graffiti?
Graffiti is one of the most interesting and unique forms of art in recent times but painting on walls isn’t new. It’s the calligrific quality of the work that set it apart. The lettering styles were pushed to a great deal even so far as to become abstract. But that abstraction had already been done. I think graffiti was born out of abstract expressionism and mass media, printing, etc. It’s been a powerful force for many people and has added great benefit to the art world but it’s not and end unto itself. It’s a style. The best artists that I’ve seen, who choose to paint in a graffiti style, are also well trained and studying artists. Not sure if we can even still call what’s happening now graffiti? I think graffiti has past us already. The artist’s of the world are onto something else but there’s nothing unique enough yet to warrant it’s own name like graffiti did.
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