My Final Artist Statement

After my first multimedia presentation I pretty much had a clear idea of what I was going to pursue with my final project. I wanted to focus on art for my final but I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go searching through the school for evidence of creative activity or wander through the streets looking for murals and other scribbling. On a casual walk home from 4^th and National I kept my camera on hand just in case I was to stumble upon something. By the time I reached the bridge that connected the South of the River to the third ward I had created a video blog as well as three plus examples of street art. In my video blog I was very adamant on finding examples of art not just by the school but in the rest of Milwaukee as well. Noticing my increased interest for discovery I latched onto the focus of Graffiti and began filming multiple sites that I heard had possible tags that haven’t been erased yet.

Initially I wanted to overlay a beat over my film and then just play some clips that synched up with the beat. After watching DJ Spooky’s remix of Birth of a Nation, I felt that something even weirder was possible. I talked to my film friends and asked they would be able to help me. It turns out that what I wanted to do was a little advanced for my friends’ level. I was a little disappointed and I tried to think of a way to convey this art form in an informative or interesting way. I looked at movies on YouTube, hulu, and heard interviews to find inspiration. I kept going back to Esquela Vieau and had a great time talking to the kids at the school. We talked about sports, television, food, and videogames. More often than not they were very chatty and really interested in my perspective. I thought about it after a while then decided that I wanted to interview people about their experience or feelings of graffiti and how it affected the neighborhood.

It was very difficult to organize a time when I could just sit down and speak with the staff at the school for schoolwork and other things got in the way. But I never stopped filming graffiti and finding places all across Milwaukee. So even though I had no reaction to the art I still had plenty of art to show. But around the last two weeks of my service I was able to sit down with a student as well as Miss Montenegro and talk to them about my film and subject. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect interview. Even though a young student is going to be a little fidgety with a camera in his face, Miss Montenegro delivered a well thought out and long dialogue about her feeling towards graffiti. After wrapping up my camera and saying my final goodbyes all that was left was to compile the footage into a usable format.

Unfortunately, when it came to my first presentation the program that originally ran my movie was unresponsive to the laptops in the classroom. But that was easily dealt with once I showed the class all the footage I took (including the 12 minute interview with the student and Miss Montenegro). But aside from the presentation and creation of my project, which went well in my opinion, the things I learned from making my movie didn’t really surprise me. When confronted with such a threat as gang tags or illegal activity, the neighborhood dealt with it as best they could. They banded together, fought back, and cleaned up the mess so as to be prepared for more vandalism. Miss Montenegro recognizes the beauty of graffiti symbolism and subculture but at the same time she recognizes the dangers that come with such an art form.

So I feel that this neighborhood not only met my expectations, it exceeded them. From the start I figured that this was a very tight-knit community but to actually hear about it and see it in the students and teachers was something that has always stood out in my mind whenever I visit another city. It was very inspiring to experience what I did at this school and I hope to do it again sometime.