Graffiti and the Internet Repurposed

I was at the bar last night talking with some friends about graffiti art. I had to confess to them that I didn't know much about it, I didn't know any artist really aside from the really famous ones (i.e. Banksy and Sheppard Fairey) and the rest is from what I've seen on the streets and in books. But I did remember Blu (the artist above), who I really admire. My opinion on graffiti is that the medium has become diluted with crap. I think that the idea of quick tagging or illegibly writing your nickname in one color is truly vandalism. There is no artistic value in it and does nothing but kill the work of real artists. Then there is the style of graffiti that is performed over and over and over again. Whether is words with sharp angles that overlap one another or bubbly words with a gradient fill we've seen it done by countless amounts of people. This work by Blu pushes the boundaries of the medium and transforms graffiti into something new. He sketches and doodles and buildings become his paper.

The internet has fallen into the same scenario as graffiti. We see wonderful usages of the technology medium buried among terrible websites with bad typography and cheesy stock images. Then clean corporate websites are a dime a dozen with the invention of pre-made web templates. But there are a few designers and artists that take the medium and see it in a different light. Or artists that take technology and express strong messages in clear way like Banksy does with graffiti.