I Heart Street Art: Another Tag I Like

By Allan Hough Tue., Aug. 18 2009 at 11:20 AM

Categories: I Heart Street Art

Last week's I Heart Street Art, which I'd thought was the height of both critical analysis and street credibility, drew the ire of a trio of anonymous commenters. Today we respond to their concerns and look at pictures of a big purple tag I like on Jack London Alley in the SoSo District of San Francisco. (That's South of South Park for those outside the know.)

Anonymous commenter number one:

it might do you well to use a real camera, not a camera phone. pictures could definitely improve yuor piece.

Well, the thing is, I think you're wrong. While I love the professional-quality photographs folks like Steve Rotman and Plug1 take of professional-quality street art and graffiti, I believe lo-fi tags like this (and last week's subject) are better served being photographed lo-fi style with a falling-apart, 3-year-old flip phone.

Then again, I think everything looks better lo-fi, so I might be biased.

Anonymous commenter the second:

It may also do the Weekly well to hire someone who has some sort of clue about graffiti and street art to write this column... I cringe every time I read it.

So if I talked about this stuff like I was some kind of know-it-all insider you'd like it more? I hope you're in the minority because I for one fucking hate when writers know what they're talking about. (And that includes biographers.) And I mean, have you ever heard in-the-know people talk about graffiti? It's worse than listening to wine dorks talk about wine! So if anybody reading this wishes I knew more stuff, please feel free to stop reading.

Furthermore, it's pretty hard to impugn the Weekly's hiring practices when they've got a homerun hitter like Joe Eskenazi on deck.

Anonymous commenter number three:

it's just done by a dilettante - they can't help it

Okay, so this one's not ire exactly, but I took umbrage at first because I feel like "dilettante" carries with it a negative connotation or two. So I looked it up and found that it means an appreciator of the arts, or maybe an appreciator with a somewhat superficial knowledge of the thing they appreciate. A dabbler. And that's fine, I'm a dabbler. This feature is not called I Have Dedicated My Life To The Study Of Street Art.

As for this tag I like, it rules right? Confident lines, compelling spacing, fun curls. I dig it. And I prefer its being on this big ugly door to the big ugly door being big, ugly and blank.

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