Street Art Battle

Street art has had a big year.  The global pandemic and the presidential election and the Black Lives Matter movement have inspired creative responses from artists.  The city has become a big canvas as windows are boarded up for protection during marches and even riots.  When I returned to Chicago after quarantining in NC for several months, the plywood-covered windows had become a free art gallery on the streets of the city.  

                                    

Let's discuss these questions:

Have you seen any new street art in your neighborhood this year?  

What does it look like?  

What message does it communicate? 

This week's and next week's lessons are about street art.  Begin with a class discussion: 

• What is graffiti?  What is street art?  Is there a difference?
• What street artists do you know?
• What messages do street artists try to communicate?
• What are the types of art they make?

Your challenge will be to create a street art campaign of your own.  This means you will be "marketing" your art by making it usable, wearable and shareable!  Show us your art, but then design custom merchandise.  

Shepard Fairey Art and Gear

Student-Designed Shoes and Skateboard

There are 5 parts to this project!

1.  Read about these famous street artists, and choose 1-3 who inspire you.  You are also free to choose an artist not listed below if you know of any others!  

Cornbread

Keith Haring

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Eduardo Kobra

Banksy

Shepard Fairey

JC Rivera

You Are Beautiful

Rand Borden/ Kaiju Big Battel

Hebru Brantley

Swoon

2.  Choose a MESSAGE to communicate.  Examples from Banksy.  Think of what is important to you.  What change you hope to make through your art?  

3.  Design a personal TAG.  A tag is a custom signature.  How will you sign your name artistically so that the public recognizes it is your work?  Will you use your real name or a nickname?  What font will you use?  Click here for help.

Here are a few famous tags:

4.  Design a STICKER:  Did you know stickers are a form of street art?  Read about it here.  Street artists can spread the word about their art through distributing stickers.  

Here are some examples of famous artists' or art campaigns' stickers:

                                 

        

5.  The SHOE:  Don't you think you need a custom shoe to go with your art campaign?  Design a shoe that shows the colors and features of your art.  Get help HERE.  Here are some examples from the art world:  

Takashi Murakami for Nike

Shepard Fairey for Vans
READ ABOUT IT!  

Hebru Brantley for Adidas

6.  Design a MURAL:  Begin with a drawing of a wall or space, and fill it with a design that communicates your style and your message!  Refer to the Hebru Brantley project we did, but also think creatively about how yours will look.  Here is some inspiration from murals around Chicago!  Click Here

JC Rivera

Kobra

Hebru Brantley

7.  Design a SKATEBOARD!  This should be closely tied to the shoe.  Make them look like they will be sold together.  Get help here.

We will go over all of this together in class, and the videos below will help us.  Have fun with it by making it your own.  You have plenty of time to work hard and do your best.  Use your BEST art skills!  We will present the individual parts to this project together as a snapshot of your campaign.  Turn in each part as a photo, and we will create a template to showcase the photos in one slide or doc.  

To turn in work, copy this code:  WCCP-WSTF

Click here and paste the code to find your portfolio! Don't forget your artist's statement!