Art for The People by People like You and Me

Carolyn Castaño's Dancing Women in Balmy Alley

Buildings, garage doors, trucks, tunnels and various public spaces are our canvas. Public art provides an outlet for social commentary and illustrates our diverse culture in San Francisco. Whether you’re going to a local corner store or walking through neighborhoods like the Mission you see art murals and graffiti. The buildings of San Francisco exhibit public art through paint mediums like graffiti and wall murals, and interactive 3-d displays. 
Before Tiffany Holmes lecture I asked myself, in a city that's moved beyond fossil fuels what are our options for public art? We need to recognize a post-carbon environment excludes petroleum. Our reliance on petroleum to manufacture and distribute paint products like spray-paint and acrylic do not hold hope as an art medium in a post-carbon environment. Not to mention spray paints, aerosol cans, emit toxic chemicals like propellants, adhesives and solvents. So what are our options you may ask? The lovely media artist, Tiffany Holmes, suggests to brainstorm the meaning of your art piece and then tackles the logistics. So lets take a step back and think about what public art means to us. Public art, I imagine, should be done by the people. The art piece should have a purpose, a social message understood by everyone, and visually appeal to the eye. Art should also set an example for the meaning you want it to hold. Since we're envisioning a post-fossil fuel world, mediums like moss paint and reverse graffiti promote environmental awareness through liberating us from our dependency on petroleum today. Also, moss paint and reverse graffiti enable a public exhibition of what we want to say to the public legally! So let your nature dissemble the site through your messages, and try out these mediums at home with this how to below!

Do It Yourself - Moss Paint 

Moss Graffiti by Anna Garforth

When you think about something green and living you think of a plant in soil or a vine on the wall, but have you ever thought about moss on a wall? Probably if you live in a tropical humid environment, but did you ever think it could say something to you? Moss murals interact with the viewer while soaking up carbon and releasing oxygen. The moss mural like the one painted by Anna Garforth on the left is powerful, concise and clear. The green moss straight up acknowledges moss paint is "The new eco-nomics."

Moss

Ingredients
- A handful of moss

- 2 cups of buttermilk or yogurt (vegan yogurt can be used)

- 2 cups of water

- ½ teaspoon of sugar

                                                                                     Steps

Blend Moss in a Bike Blender

1. Wash moss to filter the soil and roots out

2. Place moss in the blender

3. Add the buttermilk/yogurt, water and sugar. Blend till the texture is paint-like.

4. Use a paintbrush to apply the moss-paint to the surface where you want the design to grow.

5. After a week check the site and spray water on the moss. If in a dry climate apply more moss-paint. 

6. Watch your art grow and comment back with results!

Do It Yourself - Reverse Graffiti

Indigenous plants found 500 years in San Francisco on Broadway Tunnel Mural

As a kid I remember us all writing "wash me" on dusty cars with our fingers. Now as an adult I have refrained myself solely because the dust ends up on my hands. Reverse graffiti relates to our childhood tendency to get everyone to notice a dirty car. Just as we cleaned off the dust on cars, reverse graffiti cleans the grime we produce, through various polluters like car exhaust, on outdoor tunnels. 

The first to introduce the concept of reverse graffiti is a London-based artist, Paul Curtis, known as Moose. Moose came to San Francisco in 2008 and cleaned the Broadway tunnel. He transformed the dirt into a beautiful mural of indigenous plants from California. In the video below Moose says, when people see reverse graffiti and realize it is not paint they have a "cold realization that the world is really dirty." Moose is right, I cannot believe how white that cement is suppose to be!

Ingredients 

- Either water or bleach alternatives like vinegar, salt and water (sodium hydrosulfite), hydrogen peroxide or Eco concrete etcher clean grime off walls. What you use depends on how much grime is on the wall.

- To scrub off the grime you can use old toothbrushes, old rags, or scrapers

- Last but not least as Moose, says, you need "elbow grease"

I love graffiti because it's an outlet for social commentary. The common argument, “Graffiti is illegal!” has made graffiti seen as a notorious risk for jail time. Graffiti is illegal if a person paints on a private building surface. However, there is no law that outlaws us to clean a surface or create a green space. Not to mention in some instances like in Porto Alegre, Brazil (shown in the video below) police officers protect us while "cleaning the wall." Thus, these eco friendly solutions enable you and other graffiti artists to set a new standard for social commentary. As we see from the murals by Anna Garforth, Moose, and the boys in Brazil, artwork on public spaces is not always seen as vandalism. The outdoors is yours so own it! Come up with a powerful statement that you want to share with your community. The writer Alan Weisman, in the The World Without Us says, "All this is not irreversible. What we have done can be undone." So, undo the dirt our exhausts have emitted and paint the moss onto the bricks and cement that take away green space. Comment back with your results!