Ohio University's Graffiti Wall

As a freshman choosing that special place on campus you connect with can be a little bit challenging. I haven't seen everything on the campus. At first I was worried about what I would do this project over but then I quickly realized that I've had a strong connections with the Graffiti Wall. I took art in high school and it became a big part of who I am. Art in a way saved my life, so having a place like OU's Graffiti Wall for free expression is very meaningful to me. This made my decision of creating an art project for my promotional piece easy. My artistic process then took over. I had to decide what to create, who my audience would be, what medium to use, and how I would display the history.

My first and main decision was what type of art project would best portray the history of the Graffiti Wall. The best way I saw was to create my own type of Graffiti Wall. I couldn't go out and make graffiti on actual buildings. Although that would have been really awesome instead I decided to make a smaller version of a graffiti wall. One I could construct in the comfort of my dorm.

My audience for this project mainly was college age students that have an interest in graffiti or art in general. I would not limit my audience though; I hope that by making this promotional piece that more students would become interested in art and the Graffiti Wall.

I next had to figure out what medium I would use. I needed to know what different colors would use. I needed to know what different colors would be appropriate and how to display photographs on my board. I wanted to grab the audience attention so I chose to use many neon colors. I decided to put the word "History" in the center of my board so whenever my audience would look at it, they would know what the piece was about.

The way I wanted to display the history and what history I should show. I knew that I would have to put the history of the construction of the wall and then I chose information that had happened throughout the decades about the wall or things that had been painted on the wall that I thought my audience would emotionally connect with. I went as far back when it was first built in 1926 to today. I put on my graffiti wall how Geoffrey proposed to Maureen, how Ocean Eiler promoting recycling, and the beginning use of the graffiti war to protest against war. I chose all different types of information to put on my wall so to display the diversity of uses for graffiti. The different uses of the graffiti also help to attract different types of audiences.

At the top of each piece of history i put "titles" either a word describing what had happened or the year in which it happened in case someone was wondering when something specific happened with the Graffiti Wall. I decided to organize the information in order in a clockwise fashion around the word, history. I did this because I knew it had to be in chronological order so not to confuse my audience. I put the information clockwise because writing out the information in a straight line would be boring and look more like a timeline then an art piece. I also knew that I wanted to be able to blend photographs into my artwork. This was probably one the most complicated decisions I had to make. If I had just simply put the photographs on the board I felt like it would take away from the graffiti look of my piece. It would have looked more like a poster or a bulletin board. I tried many different ways to connect the photographs but every time I did, it took away from the art. So my final decision was to not display photographs at all.

I wanted to stay true to the graffiti font so I decided to use different types to display the different fonts throughout history. For each piece of history I tried to change the font of graffiti. I used simple fonts so that my audience would be able to read the history but bold fonts to catch their attention. If I would have used just any type of font I think my audience would have been struggling to read all of the information on my board.

I tried to create an artwork that was informative in a creative way. I wanted my audience to look at my promotional piece and learn something that they may not have known before. The Graffiti Wall at Ohio University has been used to promote information, express oneself, or to protest. I wanted to inform my audience about all these different aspects of the wall and hopefully connect them to the art that is all around us.

Place? Where you belong? Who you are?

My relationship with place, I would say is my art, my friends, my passion, my family, and my creativity. These are the main components to my identity. It's what makes me who I am today. These are the things I run to anytime I'm having problems in my life.
I always thought that a sense of place was having somewhere to "fit in", be a part of a group. The truth I've learned over the years isn't quite a place where you fit in but a place where you are accepted. It isn't where you are, it's who you are.
I believe having a sense of place is very important. I also think everyone has that place where they specifically belong. It's just a matter of discovering it. When I didn't have sense of place I felt like I was constantly missing something. I was very lost and insecure. Although I honestly am still trying to figure out who I am, having my family and my art as"my place" is reassuring. Having a sense of place can give you confidence because it gives you that feeling of belonging. It makes you realize your identity and can help you grow.