REAL NEO Graffiti now May Show at Star Complex

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 06/17/2006 - 03:42.

Graffiti at the base of the Cold Storage building at the west end of the Central Viaduct, which Cleveland planners and ODOT intend to demolish

I love "aerosol art" - the PC term for graffiti. So, I've long wanted to put a sustainable model together to allow graffiti artists to create works of art for the public and make money doing it - if they still are going to tag they are going to tag, but I believe the aerosol art aspect can be turned into a competitive advantage for NEO, if we channel the creative energy of graffiti artists into strategic objectives like political change, or even just help artists get paid to paint as an artist. The annual graffiti festival shows the range of great art that comes from aerosol artists - so does a trip on any rapid... all along the rail line there are grafitti images and the artists clearly can't be stopped by enforcement. But, being able to make a living doing this type of art is not in the current equation. I'd like to help restructure this situation so we don't have any bad graffiti art in our space, and we welcome more good artists to participate as they like. Some ideas on how graffiti may become a compeitive advantage for NEO...
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Before we begin, what about the environment

Van Gogh was lead poisoned - I suspect Jackson Pollock too - so many artists are killed by their art... lead paint on the skin and in mouth... solvents... and then, there's sculptures falling... so am I creating a health hazard proposing we promote aerosol art... is that going to cause the environment or artists harm? I know we can get around that so what are the health issues with this? Is there good spray paint?

street address for Star Complex

Norm, what is the best street address on Lakeview for the Star Complex, so I can put it on our Google calendar and also use it in the Trip Planner for the GCRTA?

Also, is it posted anywhere yet how the Hough Bakery used to be called the Star Bakery? That's a curious fact I'd like to blog about, and also tie the name of the Star Complex to its building's history.

The Star Complex is at 1519 Lakeview at end of Manor Park


Williams father Lamond and son Greg stand with pride before the front door of the Star Complex - note star above door.
Good point, Tim. The Former Hough Bakery complex, formerly the Star Bakery, is located at 1519 Lakeview. That is just north of Euclid and just east of University Cirlce, literally at the end of Manor Park coming the back way from the new Case Dorm isolation zone - we look forward to this being a new gateway between University Circle and the real world of open source economic development and community building so long an institutuonal weakness. So, take the Red Line to the most neglected RTA stop in NEO - W120th - and walk one long block past Lakeview Cemetery and then left on Lakeview... go under the rail bridge CSX has completely neglected and you'll see the beautiful historic facade on your right - there's a gate to parking next to the building, and you're in the heart of the Star.

Graffiti Artists Going Green

Graffiti Artists Going Green

Published: Friday, November 02, 2007

Graffiti can be found on the streets of every major city in the world, as tags and obscenities scrawled onto walls, or impressive pieces of artwork that citizens don't mind walking by every day. With concerns for our environment on many people's minds as of late, it is not surprising that many street artists are finding a way to keep expressing themselves through their artwork and going green at the same time.
Hungarian Artist Edina Tokodi is literally going green with her art in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her frolicking moss animals and camouflage growths are popping up on the sides of buildings all over. Her work is meant to be touched by passerbyers and remind them of a more environmentally friendly place. She wishes to reconnect people to nature that has been lost in the big city where people often don't have any interaction with it. She draws attention to it as something that is missing, but needed.
The artist uses moss for her art because it is so strong and can thrive in a variety of environments, so she doesn't have to worry about it staying alive. She sometimes goes back to visit her art and repair it a little, but for the most part the moss gets enough water and can live on its own with very little care, unless of course people remove it.
Other street artists are going green with a new trend called reverse graffiti. Instead of painting on surfaces they are instead finding dirty ones and use brushes, scrapers and pressure hoses, to clean their artwork onto them. Some artists are even being hired by advertisers to clean their company's logo onto a wall to show their support for cleaning up the world.
Brazilian artists Alexandre Orion turned a tunnel in Sao Paulo into a spectacular mural of skulls cleaned onto the side of the tunnel to remind motorists of what the affects their car emissions are on the planet.
While some reverse graffiti artists are getting in trouble and being forced to remove their graffiti (by either cleaning the whole wall or making it all dirty again I am unsure), Orion's work caused the city to clean the tunnel themselves, although only the spot where his mural was in place. He then simply re-cleaned his skull mural onto the other side of the tunnel. Authorities then responded by cleaning every tunnel in the city.