Selling Out An Art Form. What?!?!

 To me, a graffiti writer is somebody who puts all his effort in doing the thing he loves the most – that is why I don’t consider myself a true street artist. A true artist leaves the house every day before he finds a reason to stay inside and never doubts to paste the most bell-bounding throwies, tags, stencils, wheatpastes etc. Etc. At the most dangerous spots there are in the city. He doesn’t have to think ‘why?’ and he knows no fear, but it’s as important that the message he carries is as powerful as his attitude on spray-painting. An urban artist is the person who takes the priority in making art, not fortune and never tries to take the fame for a work of his repeatedly – he remembers that the fame of a person is a thing acquired if his works are good enough, so shouldn’t be anything to concentrate on directly. He never ‘goes to a restaurant just to take a shit’. His true priority is the art he spreads and the ideas he provokes. Nothing else matters. An artist is that person, who consistently has a new piece to tell about, no matter if you talk to him daily or hourly. He’s always in his own world, and again – nothing else matter – his thoughts are always on the same subject. His efforts are entirely based on making great art and that is his only priority.

 But again – artist is still a person, who has to eat. People who paint walls and get paid for it are doing it, ‘cause that is the thing they do the best. It’s the only thing they really can. The same can be applied to the modern street artist – he makes art and often makes money out of it and there is nothing wrong about that. A buck or two out of a good canvas is completely awesome – the term ‘sell-out’ is a completely absurd phrase of both desperation and stupidity. The whole mess started just after Banksy spread his wings at the Sotheby’s and twisted everyones’ understanding of graffiti. The guy had made completely astonishing art for quite a while and finally his work had paid off. What is so wrong about that? In retrospection, this would be the same as walking to a sportsman and saying that he’s a sell-out, just because he isn’t entirely working for his own joy, not money. You see, graffiti was essentially the resistance of tagging, throwies, wildstyles etc.etc. Especially in the beginning, graffiti was something not understandable to a regular citizen and was pretty only in the eyes of the creators themselves. Then, one day, POW – this Bristol-based stencil artists pops out of nowhere and starts taking things over by doing shit no one had ever thought of. Suddenly the smearing on the wall was entirely understandable to everybody and had truly spoken of an important matter. And what is the only way to react, when you’ve been writing tags for years and years, not getting any money or real fame for it (Fame given by the society, not only the other writers), and suddenly seeing a guy who had the idea of provoking something important through a stencil, grabbing the big buck. I mean, isn’t screaming out ‘sell-out’ in most pure form of jealousy the only option you have right now?

 There is no way of selling out a form of anything. It’s just not possible. A person who makes money out of art is not a sell-out. He’s just fucking ten times smarter than everybody else are.

[Bli:p]