Graffiti Backstory
A few decades ago I took a photograph of graffiti in Italy. I was stunned. What kind of person would do this? Exhilarated by it beauty, I also judged its creator. This is vandalism!
For seven years, I have collected and cataloged images based on city, subject and signature. I have captured time, place and emotion: My art attempts to set it free.
Using watercolors and print transfers, I juxtapose graffiti with natural forms and conventional art using color as a uniting theme.
Compelled to get feedback from a professional, I took my collection to an artist that owns a gallery. Later I found he was on the art commission and I appreciated his modesty. He allowed me to record his commentary while looking through my portfolio. His comment to me had a tremendous impact. “Be committed. Make a choice.”
I chose to share the challenge of graffiti – the conflict between the act and the art. I chronicle these transient splashes of color and feeling before the wall, train, or billboard is returned to anonymity and propriety is restored.
Some will see creation where others see destruction, I neither condemn nor condone, merely consider the creative impulse behind theses rebellious expressions and appreciate the beauty of it all.
My compositions of graffiti and mixed media strive to observe the aesthetic within these pervasive outpourings and invite the viewer to reflect when their reflex is to resist.
nancy CHARGUALAF martin 