Graffiti? Yes, please!

Paris, like many urban cities, is embracing street art!  There are many installations through out town of art "out-and-about."  (If you remember from a few posts ago, I shared the balloons suspended in the air in a part of Paris called Bercy.)

When people hear the word graffiti, they often think of cans of spray paint being used to deface something.  But not here.  In fact in February, Paris' city hall announced that it would allot 500 million euros in 2020 for people to create street art walls in all 20 arrondissements!  As a result, there are now street art tours as well as classes you can take to add your own art to the city!  When I heard this, I knew Edy, Will, and I had to sign up.   If you want to read more graffiti in Paris, check out the link below:

  

https://uk.tourisme93.com/street-art-and-graffiti-in-and-around-paris.html

And here is one of my favorites that I recently saw around town.

We hurried back from our weekend trip on Saturday to head out to Bercy for our 10:00 a.m. Sunday graffiti workshop.  We met our teacher, Paul, outside the train station.  He then took us to a skatepark where we would be creating and displaying our art.  He talked about how graffiti is not just about creating something random, but instead has a theme with thoughtful consideration of color in helping it to stand out and reach even more people.  He divided us into two groups of 6-7 individuals.  We spent about 10 minutes just jotting down words that are important to each of us in paper.  We then shared our words and came up with a common theme.  We then worked together to create an image.  

Our group immediately grabbed the idea of PEACE.  (As an aside, this just happened to be the morning we woke up to all the shootings in America.)  Paul helped us with the outline and then we each took a letter to paint.  We decided that in order to create something visually pleasing, we came up with a concept that was harmonious but still had our own flair.  

It was only at the end that I turned to a fellow graffiti artist in our group and asked him what he did.  It turned out that Jordan was a famous magician!  I hope you all can take an opportunity to see what he and his twin bother do.  I included a link of The French Twins and their appearance on America's Got Talent below.  Wow!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYTNQhK5Cgk&t=2s

Here is a look back at our process:

Looking at all the other art and learning about the process!

Getting ready!

You can see the outline in light blue.

Edy chose the "E" in PEACE.

Will is busy at work on the "P."

Edy's finished letter.  To her, trees are peaceful.  

I got the !  I drew a world with a heart over it.  

Will's finished letter.  He added a tank with an X through it.  NO WAR!

Jordan giving Will some pointers.

Adding the background colors.  

Finished product!

The artists!

The other group did a chameleon. 

The amazingly talented Jordan!

Wouldn't it be cool if all communities would embrace street art?

Until next time...
Betsy