King a what? King of Styyyyyle

Watching something that I had done 12 LONG years ago, being painted over, I didn’t expect my reaction to be what it was. I thought I’d feel horrible, it was something I had done when I was in my twenties, when I still felt invincible and had an unwavering sense of mission. But hiding there watching the workman paint, what I actually felt was a calming sense of accomplishment. What I sacrificed to create this piece, gave back to me ten fold. I never expected it to reach all corners of the world. And even though it was only a blurb in history, I feel it helped put LA graffiti on the map.

Ultimately I’m not happy with them painting over history, BUT, I won’t mind, if it means they will follow through and adopt an intelligent policy along the lines of the Friends Of The LA River’s mission:” to protect and restore the natural and historic heritage of the Los Angeles River and its riparian habitat through inclusive planning, education and wise stewardship”. Fuck it! I would rather trade shopping carts, rotting canine corpses, and florescent purple water with a shit brown tint, for clean water and a flourishing, vital habitat, wouldn’t you?.

After I got back home from the river I was inspired to make some adjustments to a small number of the river posters I have, one hundred of them in total. They were signed, dated, numbered, and hand touched, all on the day it was buffed.

Here’s what I came up with, what do you think?

For Sale In My Shop NOW

Friends of the LA River

IS THIS THE REMOVAL OF LOS ANGELES HISTORY?

We in Los Angeles are no strangers to having our art history destroyed, from the whitewashing of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s Olvera Street mural “La América Tropical” in 1932-33 to Kent Twitchell’s mural “Ed Ruscha Monument,” painted over in June 2006. Of course, the big difference here is the Getty Conservation Institute is unlikely to fund a multi-million dollar restoration (as in the case of the Siqueiros mural); nor is SABER likely to win a $1.1 million dollar settlement under the Federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) or the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA) as Twitchell did in 2008. You might think that is because the piece by SABER was illegal, but recent history suggests otherwise.

In 2007, the graffiti gallery Crewest, along with help from the activist group Friends of the L.A. River (FoLAR) organized “Meeting of Styles: LA.” The event brought together over 100 graffiti artists to spray paint a 10,000 square foot section of the L.A. River at the Arroyo Seco Confluence in Highland Park. Despite the fact that the organizers secured all necessary permits for the mural project, and that the event was fully licensed by the county; supervisor Gloria Molina objected to the work after the fact and introduced an emergency measure to the County Board of Supervisors that forced the mural to be whitewashed from the flood walls. A spokeswoman for Molina called the legal graffiti murals a “public nuisance and a potential safety hazard,” and justified Molina’s decision to introduce the mural’s removal by saying the county was “trying to save lives.” That is because unlike any other form of public art, people believe that graffiti art is dangerous, that is ruins neighborhoods and turns juvenile delinquents into criminals. At no point does anyone stop to think that they are looking at a generation of artists who have grown up within a public school system stripped of arts education, and in a physical environment that seems to have no problem with the proliferation of illegal advertising billboards and super-graphics. Graffiti artists and supporters have pushed hard to create legal public spaces for people to paint, but one by one places like the Venice Walls and Belmont Yard have been destroyed, as charges for vandalism went from misdemeanors to felonies. Yet those corporate interests have no problem stealing the intellectual property of those artists in order to market to the youth.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included $6.5 million to ensure structural integrity, remove graffiti and manage vegetation along the Los Angeles River. Graffti abatement is a popular ploy for politicians, able to point to the stark visual change it produces and claim that real improvment is being made. However, they don’t seem to understand that providing a newly buffed surface is only an invitation to graffiti writers who know that the politicains will inevitably turn their backs on the river once again. While buffing the river may create a few immediate jobs, I fail to see how this money works toward the Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan’s worthy goal of transforming a more than 30-mile stretch of the L.A. River into a greenbelt linking communities. I hope one day that the powers that be recognize that graffiti art, such as Saber’s historic river piece, are as important to linking communities and the health of the L.A. River as the meaning of “traditionally navigable waters” is.

– Post From PS: the Public Square.

Interesting comments on LA METBLOGS

This feature brings awareness to the river. It shows it’s importance, effecting everyone in the city, from the construction workers who keep the bridges from crumbling, to those who work to protect the wildlife.

Check it out….

KCET-DEPARTURES: LOS ANGELES RIVER