The History & Emergence of Street Art & Graffiti Class Reflection 2013

The History & Emergence of Street Art & Graffiti, Class Structure, Process & Reflection 2013.

I created this post for Vandalog.com as a guest blogger on 7/30/13. To read the shortened version over there check out – bit.ly/16C2qX2

7/25/13

Street Art & Graffiti has entered the college and university level. It was long overdue. At both Long Island University (Post campus) and this coming year at CUNY York College students earn 3 credits towards their degree requirements in the areas of art history, studio art, or as an art elective. “The History & Emergence of Street Art & Graffiti” is the title of the course that I created and began teaching at LIU Post in 2010. One may think that the course would have trouble with enrollment at a University in the North Shore of Long Island, but this is quite the contrary. The course has booked solid every summer since. I started teaching at the college level in 2003 simultaneously between 4 colleges and universities here in the NYC area.

Bringing this subject into the college level did take some time and convincing, but not with the students, it was more with my peers and colleagues. Even rallying support and over all approval for a course of such nature took even more time, but here we are 3.5 years strong and only building and expanding. As a graffiti writer, artist putting his works in public spaces, and an art professor, the state accreditation aspect of the course is important to me. There are a few schools and programs out there that offer workshops in both street art and graffiti, and they are fantastic, but being able to earn actual credits towards ones chosen degree requirements validates the importance of the content itself as an emerging art movement of value contributing to the “art world” in the world of academia. I’m passionate about Graffiti and street art, it is the core of my inspiration as an artist. As an art educator, I feel it is my responsibility to bring that passion into my classroom to share and instill its energy into my students. We just completed one of the most productive, collaborative and energetic classes of my teaching career to date. The course at LIU is a 1-week intensive course. The class is offered in July and runs from 9AM-6PM Monday-Friday.

I carefully curated this course, and have been micro testing and interweaving the content into all of my classes for the last 10 years. Keeping students engaged and excited is a huge part of my teaching strategy in all of the subjects that I teach. I’m lucky to have a multidisciplinary studio based workload of courses that I teach. Street art and Graffiti are always a topic of interest, whether its drawing, painting, sculpture, print-making, graphic design, or art history based courses my passion for the content, its history, and techniques always comes through. In the classroom, the students will find themselves switching regularly between slide and video based lectures, technical demonstrations, museum and gallery visits, guest artist presentations, and hands on collaborative art making experiences. This results in an over stimulating experience filled with retained use value, plus the generation of several new pieces of both collaborative and individual works. Students created a network of new colleagues in a communal course like this. Having guest artists frequent the courses is of huge importance. All of which are highly respected in the movements for their prolific styles and commitment to their work. The course makes all of the artists accessible and transparent both in process and techniques. Plus, hearing their unique personal stories inspires motivation beyond one’s expectations. This course has filled to capacity every summer since 2010. The student interest is high, and in demand. I don’t have to convince anyone to take the course. People are highly inspired by the movements of street art and graffiti, and I’m taking about adults older than 20 years of age. This particular class that just ended had an average age range of 28 – 40 plus.

How did the course come about?

I started writing graffiti in 1984, Both Subway Art the book, and Beat Street the movie had just come out. I was 12 years old, and I was hooked. The energy was brand new to me. I connected graffiti directly to the love I already had for drawing, and creating colorful cartoons. Disney and Hanna Barbera cartoons were a huge inspiration at the time along with Anime from the 1980s. I wasn’t interested in hitting subway trains at that time, but I was interested in developing a name that I could share that would say I am here, and I’m going to expand and evolve through this medium. I instantly viewed tagging as an extension of the new gesture drawing technique that I was learning in my middle school art class. My teacher at the time disagreed, but that didn’t stop me. I went on to write and develop incorporating the styles and energy I picked up from other writers who were my friends at the time. I plugged it into my art, and eventually synthesized several styles together. Sadly, like most young graffiti artists, their career is over by the time they reach 17 or 18 years of age. For a long period of time, I was on my own. My family is from NYC, mainly Brooklyn and Queens. The family owned a business in Greenpoint and Williamsburgh for over 70 years. Until the late 1990’s, these were industrial areas, it felt like home, and it still does. I worked there every summer since I was 10, and in between my undergraduate education and my graduate program I worked there for 6 years. It was in 1996 while walking to a deli that I saw my first Andre the giant OBEY wheat paste. Cost and Revs were already roller legends up in the neighborhood and beyond at the time, but Obey and Bast were putting up different kinds of posters rather than regular text. They had fresh stylized graphics and used imagery that was recognizable. Bast had a whole series with Saddam Hussein at the time, the image of him was so displaced in Brooklyn, plus the way that it was being used, caught my attention. I wanted in, and from that day forward, I began researching, documenting and experimenting with my own pieces both on and off the streets. I was passionate about graffiti and my newfound awareness in street art, and this was before it had a title. The energy of the works felt just as immediate as the hand style graffiti did. In 2001 on September 11th, on my way to work I found myself stuck in dead lock traffic on the Kosciuszko bridge, a low flying plane appeared as I gazed at the lower Manhattan skyline. Still to this day, I can’t believe what my own eyes experienced. In real-time, I watched the tragedy of 9/11 happen. I had an epiphany that day. I can’t explain in exact words as the nature of the experience was spiritual, it changed my perception of almost everything I took for granted. I woke up the next day with a set idea and feeling. I knew I wanted to contribute more to helping others, and what better way that sharing and teaching what I loved the most, art. Not just street art and graffiti, but the over all passion for art making, and how that energy can make a difference in one’s life. I wanted to do this ASAP. By 2002 I was enrolled in an MFA program, which is a terminal degree that is the equivalent credential of a Ph.D in the USA. This gives one the entry-level to teach at the college level. I choose college level teaching with the idea to share my passion and love with people who specifically chose to study it. This is the reverse of the idea I had previously, which was to hopefully help raise the awareness of art happening in the streets and public spaces. It all worked out to far exceed my expectations. Today I also work with high schools in the NYC area by teaching through artist in residency based projects with groups of students. Much more to come.

Since 2010 guest artists and lecturers for the course include and have included,

H.Veng Smith, SEBS, Chris Stain, Cake, Leon Reid IV, John Fekner, Gabe Schoenberg, Katherine Lorimer, Lindsey Tabas, and myself. This is a growing list, and I am grateful to have a relationship with each one of these amazing individuals.

How does the course flow? 

The break down of the course functioned with an image and video based series of lectures each morning. This would allow for me to cover the history of graffiti and street art, where it began, and how it has evolved. We looked at who the artists and innovators were, still are, and how the works began making transitions from the subway system, to the streets, to galleries and museums. Obviously, there is a ton of amazing content to cover, selecting what to show was and still is a challenge as giving a basic overview is difficult when one is excited about subjects matter, it seems endless, and it is. After the morning presentations of about 3-4 hours, guest artists were invited in each day to present their work and demonstrate what they do best. Students connected with the artists intimately while getting first hand instruction.

On 7/8/13 SEBS was our first guest artist. A graffiti artist, SEBS first gave a presentation on his work, where and when it started and how it has progressed. He then led the class in a series of aerosol demonstrations. Many of the students had not used spray paint in this context before, let alone understood how advanced the technology had become. So the first exercise was an introduction to the spray can, how it works and what its potentials are. We then collaborated on a tagging exercise and then moved into larger scale letter styles.

SEBS getting his hand-style up.

SEBS throws up an outline and fills it.

Students spent time developing a new identity for their tags. We first practiced hand style lettering using pencils, drip markers, and then the aerosol cans.

On 7/9/13 – Chris Stain & Cake were our second and third guest artists. Chris gave a detailed presentation on his past and current works, as well as the history of stencil art making. He then proceeded to give a demonstration on how to cut stencils from scratch. Understanding the process of seeing positive and negative space is crucial for this technique. Chris placed several examples in and around the studio, we are still discovering some of the well-hidden surprises.

In the immediacy of having several artists together in the same space, Chris, Cake and I got up on this collaboration piece, three artists with three different styles resulting in one rare new work of art. We later discussed the importance of artistic styles and collaboration in general. Stencils, hand-style graffiti, and free hand drawing are techniques that can bare results quickly. There is a lot to learn from watching other artists create their work. Today we still see a lot of collaborations happening out on there on streets and in the studio.

Chris Stain’s sent this statement in about the class,

“What I enjoy about the class is being able to share my experience with people who are interested in doing something creative. Creativity, seems to me, to be the key for moving forward in life. No matter what people are involved in, be it business, construction, teaching, etc being creative can get one out of the “box” of the normal way of thinking and breaking routine thought patterns making room for new ideas. I think that’s important because you can only get so far following the pack, you can only be taken to the place that someone else wants to go. But the question comes up ” where do I want to go?” Offering individuals a credited class about graffiti and street art allows for an adventure in creativity and helps build confidence on a very DIY level where the intimidation one might feel in a life drawing class to be as good as Da Vinci is simply not present or necessary. “

Following Chris Stain’s lecture and demo, Cake gave a presentation on her work as well as a wheat paste demonstration for interior and exterior application. She left her mark both inside and outside of the printmaking studio. The space has been freshly activated by art students at LIU who have caught the stencil and screen-printing graphic buzz. The space continues to see new paste-ups, stencils and hand-style tags developing.

Cake sent in this statement about the class:

“Ryan’s class delivers the joy and freedom that pure expression creates and that is inherent in street art and graffiti. I walked into the class that day and saw the students engrossed in creating a stencil under the guidance of Chris Stain and I could feel in them the excitement that discovering new ways of expression can produce. Sharing my work with the class provided me with nothing short of pure joy in the same way making the work for the streets does. I think Ryan’s class succeeds in creating inspiration in a way that is a service to any person who has that innate desire to create inside of them. I’m grateful that Ryan’s class exists to help keep this movement afloat and I’m grateful I was given the opportunity to give a little something back to a movement that has given me more than I can articulate. For me, Street Art is magic because it brings many forms of connection to the table for anyone who chooses to accept it and ultimately, it connects me to the world I’m living in, reminding me that in this life I have something to give, and something to receive.”

On 7/10/13 the class met up in NYC for a walking tour down town with Gabe Schoenberg. Gabe was our fourth guest artist and is the owner operator of Graffiti Tours NYC. The company specializes in tours showing people where the graffiti and street art hot spots are. Along with the guided tour itself, Gabe is knowledgeable about the works, the city itself as a canvas, as well as the artists. The tour provoked the students to engage with the actual art in the space that it was created in. This provoked a whole new series of dialogs that transcended our classroom and studio setting. As the grand finale of the walking tour the class was lucky to experience the large piece down on Houston Street and Bowery. The space changes every four months or so, but this particular piece by Revok and Pose covers a great deal of dedications to many of the graffiti writers we have been talking about in the course.

I was lucky enough to snap this shot in between the traffic.

On 7/11/13 H.Veng Smith was our fifth guest artist. Veng presented a great juxtaposition of his works, and how he simultaneously transitions between painting large-scale all aerosol based murals with his collective Robots Will Kill to smaller scale realistic oil paintings of birds, portraits, and other forms of nature. Veng gave the class another aerosol technique demonstration on how to build up values and layers with the can. The end result, one of his infamous eye pieces. Veng then proceeded to start the class off on a collaborative mural. All in immediacy, I told the class that they had only one hour to complete the work. They had to work from their imagination or what has inspired them over the last few days. The end result was immediate and energetic.

Another collaborative piece created site on scene between myself, Chris Stain, and Veng. Veng and I got up on this piece below as well.

On the last day of our course before our final two guest artists I gave the class a presentation about my own work. I spoke about where it started and where it has transcended to as both an art educator and an evolving working artist. I spoke a bit about the ego aspect of my earlier years writing graffiti and making the transition from creating non-commissioned illegal works to seeking out permission based projects to create community, awareness, and commissioned works. It is my intention to raise awareness about the creative human potential. Creating works that the public can interact with is important to me. The desire and impulse to leave works on the street still plays a role in my process, but the process has changed in context, we spoke about why along with a few of my more recent projects.

Resent projects include the Welling court mural project / June 2013.

A new mural inside HALA / Jamaica High School / June 2013.

Outdated Cement Cast Aerosol cans / A public space near you, May 2013.

Outdated Cement Cast Technology Fragments / A public space near you, May 2013.

On 7/12/13 Leon Reid IV & John Fekner were our sixth and seventh guest artists. This was the final day of the course. Leon Reid IV gave a presentation and shared his story. The lecture was funny and insightful. The class was inspired by his use of three-dimensional objects, as well as his clever use of contexts and humor. Leon proceeded to lead the class in an exercise that deals with the creation of art in public space. By handing the students 4 images of 4 different types of public spaces, and then asking them to generate a concept or idea based sketch for a piece of art that would best function in that space. Students are asked to draw directly onto the images. A formal critique and dialog then took place where the ideas and concepts were discussed. The exercise took 20 minutes, so students were forced to be immediate and intuitive while also displaying their retention of what they experienced during the first 4 days of our class.

Leon Reid sent in the following statement about the course:

“Ryan Seslow’s course at LIU Post on the history of graffiti and street art is a giant leap forward for our genre; I’m not aware of any other professor nor any university that offers credits for a class on such a controversial art form. My presentation was welcomed with enthusiasm and participation from the students. If more universities offered a course like this I believe there would be greater understanding for this global movement.”

John Fekner was our last guest artists and speaker. From a video chat via Skype, John shared with us a multitude of his wisdom. From street art to public art, to community building and over all inspiration. The class learned about his process and how his early works took shape. We spoke about the south Bronx in the late 1970’s and how public art can raise the over all awareness of an entire community.

John Fekner sent in the following statement about the course as well as an insightful list of tips for all artists:

“A shared studio space is an active learning environment. More than ever, having a ‘place’ other than the comfort and security of home or the stability of the work environment, is not only a crucial component for an artist’s development, but essential for anyone pursuing an education today. By combining the input and contribution of other artists, musicians, poets, etc., with one’s own creative development and experimentation, a unique synergistic expression of art evolves for the common good for everyone. It may be an intensive graduate workshop at a university with contributions from teachers, mentors and students from different backgrounds and cultures; or a neighborhood mural project where an artistic teams interact and connect with a diverse mix of local residents who live and work and enjoy the outdoor art on a daily basis. The end result is art for everyone – anytime, without a fee.”

John Fekner – Some thoughts to ponder along the artistic path of life.

16. Creativity is a stream that runs alongside your life. Instinctively, there’s a time & place for the artist to jump in whether it’s calm, fluid or raging.

15. It is to an artist’s advantage to challenge oneself by taking risks – not foolish ones, to discover solutions in unique and unexpected ways.

14. Artists must learn to be fulfilled with an audience of one: to accept the silence of self. Once that stage is realized, vision is limitless.

13. When hope and expectation turn to disappointment, take a break from the actual work and simply refocus your creativity on centering oneself.

12. Good Vibrations: bells, teas, chimes, chanting, humming, spices, herbs and perhaps a pet. It’s all therapeutic for your mind, body and soul.

11. Stay home on either a Friday or a Saturday night. Have fun and make art. Be different.

10. Things that should change; don’t. Things that shouldn’t change; do. Change is inevitable, so be open and accepting, taking a balanced approach on the path of life.

9. Always have some hidden or quirky interest that you enjoy ‘alone’. Just you. Something that someone else might consider ‘odd’. There’s nothing wrong with ‘odd’. It is part of the journey of becoming an artist who is curious to discover new things in order to becoming complete with one self.

8. Read autobiographies of people from various fields. It might provide some advice and insight as to how they survived when they were younger and not yet established in their life’s work.

 7. Identify and participate within some other community completely separate from your home and work environment.

6. Beliefs are good. Believe in yourself, your artwork, your family, your friends and some mightier power of your choice.

5. Travel engenders new scenarios in which one meets new people and their cultures providing a learning environment of acceptability, understanding and embracing diversity throughout the world.

4. When a brilliant idea strikes you in the middle of the night or suddenly wakes you up – Never turn on the light. Keep a marker and white paper next to your bed. Write large in the dark and you will capture the true essence of the dream-thought. If you turn on the light, it prevents you from holding the magic; it disappears and you lose the essence of the fleeting thought and you wind up altering the initial idea.

3. Life is constantly changing, don’t be extreme or too rigid in your thinking, your technical process and creative art making. Allowing things to be open and fluid will allow for development, perspective and adaptability.

2. ‘Remembrance of Things Past’  Not to dwell or live in the past, but it is always important to remember the earlier stages of your growth and childhood. If you go back and visit your hometown during the daytime, it will mostly likely be a noisy and chaotic experience. But if you revisit at dawn, you might get a better sense of things really haven’t changed that much; the stillness and quiet in the early morning make it easy to rekindle memories and spark personal creativity.

1. Define your own alternate path of life and commit to it as an artist not as a ‘careerist’. The concept of ‘a career’ has all the social conditioning labels of being measured as a ‘success’ by society’s rules stamped all over it.

#histgraff is the hashtag that we created as a class. We are using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr & Instagram to post images from the course.

Some of our students sent in reflective reactions about the course::

 LISA F. – “This week has been incredible. The class overall was a lot of work, writing, creating, and learning. But it was worth every minute of the work because of the experiences that were presented. The visits from the guest’s artists were by far the most exceptional part of this experience. Being able to hear from the actual artists about their experiences, their process, and their work, was truly amazing. Each of the artists had a unique style, approach, and how they came to create the art that they are currently creating. To be able to speak with, interact, and create along side artists of this caliber was awe-inspiring and to some degree life changing. There were several critical moments during the guest artist’s presentations. One of the most resonating things that happened this week was when CAKE was speaking and she talked about taking care of herself and making her work. Her take on this was something that truly hit home. She always makes time for “her girls”. To CAKE, her artwork feeds her soul, and her job is something that she does to finance her passion. To her this was taking care of herself and putting herself first. Often time’s work or life seems to get in the way of making art and being creative. One of the big take always from this was that if art is important the time will have to be found. By not supporting herself solely through her art she is not dependent on it and the artwork is never tainted by that connotation. The work can exist, as a purely creative form of expression and this becomes food for the soul. When VENG was speaking about making work for the sake of making work that speaks to the artist for simply visual or visceral reasons. By not necessarily having a strong social or political message behind a piece of artwork does not lessen its value. According to VENG, not all art has to have a heavy message behind it. He said this in relation to his oil paintings as well as his street art. This is an important idea. Not all art has to be deep and meaningful. The viewer can interpret the meaning or message and can change or inspire the viewer in its own way. It seems many artists talk to hear themselves. In the same vein they make work to inflate their ego or “see” their voice. This doesn’t always have to be the case. Sometimes the work should just speak on its own and the viewer can absorb it anyway they choose. This class was truly an amazing experience. Hearing the guest artists and creating artwork along side them was truly amazing. Street art and graffiti is an exceptional genre of art, there is much to take in and much to learn. The class was eye-opening and inspiring. Thank you!”

Melissa M. – “I am so glad I had the opportunity to take The History and Emergence of Street Art and Graffiti course this summer. As a traditional artist growing up on Long Island, I was never really exposed to Street Art and Graffiti, so I had minimal knowledge of the movement. I feel like I had always stereotyped Graffiti, especially ‘Tagging’ as a form of vandalism rather than Art. After meeting with artists such as SEBS, CAKE, VENG, Chris Stain & Leon Reid, I have a new perspective and respect for Street Art and Graffiti. These artists are incredibly talented and unique. Just as any traditional artist, their work is a mode of self-expression and they have taken it upon themselves to display their work publicly in an effort to communicate their ideas amongst the masses. In my opinion, this takes a significant amount of courage and self-confidence. Taking this course also taught me about the different types of mediums Graffiti and Street Artists use to make their work. In the past I had thought of Street Art and Graffiti as being created solely with spray paint. I was completely unaware of other mediums such as stencils and wheat paste that artists like Chris Stain and CAKE use on a regular basis. I even had the opportunity to experiment with these materials, as well as the spray paint. I found the materials to be fairly difficult to manipulate while the artists demonstrated their crafts with such ease and efficiency. It is obvious that they have spent years perfecting their techniques. With the ever-growing popularity of Street Art and Graffiti, I hope to continue experimenting with some of these different materials, so that as a teacher, I can implement some of my newly acquired knowledge and skills within my own classroom. Special thanks to Ryan Seslow for leading such a wonderful and informative class.

Liz F. – I am so glad I took this course!! I only knew about the negative aspects of graffiti from being a little kid in Brooklyn and then living there again as an adult. I never really appreciated it as an art form. I was totally blown away by the craft and talent that goes into making this type of art. The whole culture of graffiti and street art is just so interesting and I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to learn about something so real and present in our society. Once again, a class that was so completely different from my expectations. I thought it would be an interesting lecture course on something I knew very little about but it turned into an inspiring and exciting experience. Everyday was another surprise with the guest artists and the hands-on studio work. The city tour was fantastic! All of the guest artists were fantastic! I feel like I learned something new everyday with all of the great projects. The only con I could think of was the fact that the paint fumes got to me at the end of the day. But where else would you get an opportunity to practice creating graffiti with spray paint! I can’t say enough about the course, it was just terrific. Thank you for keeping all of the information on your blog where we can get to it anytime we need it. You shared a wealth of info: videos, books and websites that I am definitely going to take advantage of. I hope you continue teaching this course in some of the other universities that you teach in because it was truly an invaluable experience. Thanks, Ryan!!”

Ashley C. – “Ryan, what you have done here has literally changed my life and artistic perspective on everything. I didn’t really know what to expect for almost 8 hours a day for a week. I thought to myself, what could we possibly do for 8 hours a day?? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. My outlook on the whole Graffiti and Street Art Community has completely shifted from knowing a little to literally surrounding myself to this fascinating art. I didn’t realize the amount of thought that went into creating either graffiti or street art and of course the differences between them both. I’ve always kept my eye open for this stuff and wondered who these people were and whats their purpose? Why just write a tag name and deface someones property? Now understanding the roots of it all and how it has developed into an art movement makes it so much more clear to me now. I find myself looking even more now for these artists and being able to name and tell a little bit about those artists to my friends makes me feel great! This course was well worth the wait. I intentionally waited to enroll in this course even though I could’ve finished last semester, #1 because I knew Ryan was teaching it and #2 because who wouldn’t want to learn about an art movement that is happening NOW rather than something thats ancient and so repetitive to the art history nature. I really had such an incredible time and learned so much. Only one thing I would’ve enjoyed was a little bit more studio time to create our own work. It’s a great feeling to be in the same room with fellow artists while creating work. Ryan, your high energy and passion is contagious. Thank you for exposing us to all these amazing, great people and information! Your hard work has definitely not gone unnoticed!”

Marvin A. – “The Pros and Cons of taking the history and Emergence of Street-Art and Graffiti are as follows. The hands on approach to creating street-art and learning to use a spray can are critical in understanding the time and talent it takes to go out and create art on the streets. But also allowing time to introduce the material and workshop extends to the idea that this class should be taught at the college throughout the school year. This class has too much grit to be only available for a summer class. The professor, Ryan Seslow did a phenomenal job in turning a recent art movement into lecture material and keeping us all involved and answering questions that let us attune ourselves to the subject. Graffiti Writer SEBS introduced us to the vandal side of the work and demonstrated his abilities to us and how to break the law with confidence. He made us question his nature and the negative options who could have taken for it not have been for graffiti. Chris Stain and Cake covered stencil making and performing large murals and quick cityscape spots for choosing that let us understand our surroundings better of city life. The graffiti tour was a gift in the form of Gabe Schoenberg. His knowledgeable understanding of what truly is happening in NYC and graffiti let our class feel as we just step into the current world of graffiti and street art. Street artist VENG let us understand the differences between different artists and their styles, some are complex and hard to decipher while others are simple and do ask for much attention. Leon Reid was probably my favorite of the bunch due to his understanding of why he did the things he did. I related to him the most and got to understand a little about myself in the process. John Fekner was the icing on the cake and spoke in a short and sweet interview about what it takes to be an artist in todays world and how to continue our thirst for knowledge. I recall him saying” stay in on a saturday night and make art, it will be ok”. The negative side of this 5 day summer intensive class/ workshop is clearly that. It’s too jam packed and too short to fully reach your own goal for the class. I strongly recommend this class be apart of academia and credited with the same respect as the other classes available through the fall and spring semester. Ryan Seslow is proving the point year by year the new classes are being created because their is a desire to know. I would gladly offer my experience and connections to the curriculum of this class in helping to expand the path that Ryan Seslow has created for us. Make this class available for the fall and spring, How long does he have to continue making his point with maxed out summer classrooms. The class has too much grit. It has teeth and exactly how a student should feel about any subject they wish to pursue. I woke up every morning wondering what the next artist was gonna bring to the table. And even thru my skepticism I always retained a valuable lesson that completely floored me. The pro’s heavily outweigh the negatives in this class, and as democratic nation I believe the choice is obvious. Make it happen.”

Jennifer L. – “This class was a much-needed education about street art and graffiti. Ryan Seslow truly had the student actively participating in the learning process, he kept us interested and motivated with his positive spirit. It was contagious. The artists that he arranged to visit our class generously demonstrated their craft are successful practicing artists. Right here. Right now. They exude contemporary art! Demonstrated for us were the major elements of graffiti and street art from spray-paint to wheat pasting to stencils. All the artists, Sebs, Cake, Chris Stain, Veng, Leon, and John were all great storytellers with specific areas of expertise and they were placed nicely coincide with our mornings of history and lecture. Thank you all for coming! A wealth of information is provided for us, and I know that I will come back to this very page when I plan my next lesson on street art and graffiti. The NYC walking tour with Gabe Schoeberg tied it all up and brought it too life. I am sure I could dig up some constructive criticism if I tried real, real hard; overall I have learned a tremendous amount last week, including some techniques that I am really excited to experiment with!”

Special thanks to ::

H.Veng Smith, SEBS, Chris Stain, Cake, Leon Reid IV, John Fekner, Gabe Schoenberg, the LIU Post Art department for supporting this course, RJ Rushmore at Vandalog, Summer, my graduate assistant for the course, and all the amazing students who came out to take the course. I am proud to know that your official college transcripts will forever have this course attached to it!

—————————————————————————————-

short-link to this post :: http://wp.me/p2SFO-1jg