Opening Your Eyes to Art During the Pandemic
11 students across 5 states come together to tell their stories of spontaneous interactions with street art in their communities. These stories are filled with the essence of color, togetherness, social justice, realness, and bravery. Each piece chips away at the darkness of the pandemic and reveals how people unite in a beautiful way to show color and vibrancy through art.
Lead Editor: Averee Nelson; Deputy Editor: Tess Schumacher
Gabrielle Fiorella Reporting from Manhattan, New York
New York City will never have a shortage of eye-catching elements scattered all over. From murals, to photograph displays, to street art. They all have their own stories and unique origins that make you wonder how they came to be and look in awe at the end results. The two pictures of street art above were taken in Chinatown and in the East Village. “I Choose Love” was a part of various anti-Asian hate murals that spanned over various buildings that I passed by walking through the vibrant and lively community. When I first lived here back in the fall of 2019, I remember frequenting Chinatown a few times and seeing that these buildings were bare, just waiting for someone to add some creativity to them. It’s heartbreaking to know what these murals came out of, but beautiful to see the art that came of it and the message that it’s spreading. After seeing the Chinatown mural, I decided to make my theme of street art for this story love and acceptance, and just a short few days later, I saw the chalk hearts covering a section of sidewalk in the East Village. The various colorful hearts evidently are promoting love and peace, but I also see it as promoting equality because none of the hearts are the same size or color, but if they are the same color they’re not the same size. When I was taking the picture, a woman was having someone take a video of her walking back and forth across the patch of sidewalk, and it made me smile that she was interacting with this lovely art as much as I was with this blog post. Besides these pieces that I saw, NYC is full of other love-related street art and it’s beautiful to see the sense of compassion and caring that New Yorkers are exhibiting to come together.
Rayiah Ross Reporting from Manhattan, New York
Graffiti in New York City has had a substantial local, national, and international influence. While most people view graffiti as simple tagging through symbols and intricate lettering (the more territorial components of graffiti), there are many other forms of nondestructive graffiti. Many artists have expanded their art to video installations, stencils, yarn bombings, and video projections. The artists sometimes illustrate their emotions and stories through their art. Sometimes this art functions as a code for other artists, while other times it is an outward piece for the public to understand. The two photos above are examples of both graffiti and street art. From a legal standpoint, the only distinction between street art and graffiti is permission. With permission granted to the artist, painted graffiti is (for the most part) considered public art. The graffiti tagging Is seen on the side of a subway station elevator and it consists mostly of tagger names and a sticker that says “BZEE MIND CONTROL.” The street art, on the other hand, is seen in the 72nd and 2nd subway station and it’s part of Vik Muniz’s glass mosaic “Perfect Strangers” from 2017. In recent years, more street art is changing individuals’ perceptions of the concept because of its normality. Art such as murals and mosaics have been around for centuries, typically covering entire walls. These viral forms of art are taking over urban settings around the world. For example, Banksy (an anonymous street artist and political activist) did an installation of his Better Out Than In project around Manhattan, New York in 2013. He used his dark humor to aid in social and political commentary on streets, walls, and bridges.
Tess Schumacher Reporting from New York, New York
Street art has been around for generations. People have used graffiti and street art as a way to express themselves. Just like any other artform, street art is a creative outlet with endless possibilities. There has been much controversy though on whether street art is an actual art form or just plain vandalism. I tend to lean more towards it being an art form. I understand that graffitiing private property is illegal and disrespectful though. I think there should be a designated location for graffitiing to take place. There actually was once such a place known as 5 Pointz. It was an enormous collection of abandoned structures that had become the hottest spot in NYC for street art. Once a factory for making water meters, it had become the grand mecca of street art and graffiti in New York City. It was located at 45–46 Davis Street in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. Every wall was covered and some of the art was truly spectacular. This location was unfortunately torn down, despite the beautiful art that remained inside. Many of the artists actually received cash rewards because their art was ruined, since 5 Pointz had actually become a legal place for street art to take place. In 2018, the Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge, Frederic Block, announced that 5 Pointz’ owner went against the rights of the artists by whitewashing and painting over the art in 2013 without a warning. In the end, the artists received a total of $6.8 million. This was a great feat for the artists who sadly lost their work. A new location should be established and perhaps it could be called 5 Pointz 2.0!
Olivia Pietruszewski Reporting from New York City for this edition (based in Weymouth, Massachusetts)
The expression of creativity from all walks of life can be widely appreciated when the city is used as a canvas. In early 2020, Bianca Romero teamed up with the clothing store Rag & Bone and painted a mural on the outside wall of their NoLIta location in order to celebrate Women’s History Month. While walking by this piece of art, the variety of colors and attention to detail caused me and my friends to stop and take a longer look. This mural, which resides on the corner of Houston and Elizabeth Streets, is titled “Power to the People” and features women’s rights activists Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis. The layers of detail work together to tell a story about the meaning of the piece as a whole. The two ladies depicted have been fighting for women’s rights for many, many years. Their facial expressions, being very firm and very confident, along with the word “power” being scattered throughout, holds true to the title of the work. Although I saw this piece at night and the lighting was less than perfect, the friends that I was with wanted to take photos in front of it. I think that this mural gave my friends a sense of pride and was something that they wanted to share with the world. I can definitely say it made me feel happy and proud inside. I think that Bianca Romero accomplished exactly what art sets out to accomplish; to make the audience feel a certain way.
Princess Raymond Reporting from Houston, Texas
Upon first glance, Houston doesn’t seem to have much street art. However, as a New York native who has only spent a week living in Houston, Texas, I’m sure there’s much to discover. This picture was taken in the George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and is located in the Delta Airlines area for Arrivals in Terminal A. I found this last weekend after arriving back in Houston from New York. It is located right on the way out of the airport before you reach the ground transportation and passenger pick up area. I think this picture is a great representation of Houston, from what I know about the city so far. It doesn’t just state the word “Houston,” but the letters are filled with artwork that represents what it’s all about. My favorite thing about the Houston photo is that in the world you can see the Texas flag. This photo seems to be a huge attraction in the airport, as there were about 20 people standing around it taking photos and marveling at the creativity of this masterpiece. Even the people who did not stop to take pictures were looking and pointing at it as they walked by. I couldn’t help but notice and compare the reactions most people had to the artwork in comparison to the way there is street art everywhere in New York and people often walk by it unphased, often barely noticing or paying attention to it. This is probably due to us being so used to seeing it everywhere, and this observation along with me not finding any other street art in my several searches makes me think their response to it is due to the lack of it in the area. I look forward to checking out Downtown next to see if there is some more street art there.
Alexis Stovall Reporting from Miami, Florida
I never paid much attention to street art until very recently. Any time that I saw graffiti or paintings on the streets, no matter what city I was in, I just assumed it was graffiti or drawings that were not allowed to be there. I never looked at it with an artistic eye. In Miami, the Wynwood Walls is a unique outdoor destination and it has the world’s greatest graffiti and street art artists. This area used to be a district full of empty warehouses and considered very unsafe and had a high crime rate. Since then, this crime-ridden area has been transformed into a cultural hub for art, music, food, and fashion. It is refreshing to see street art being encouraged among artists today. Although I have not discovered street art or art of any other form in Miami, I am looking forward to paying more attention to and seeing the way that street art is incorporated in our streets today. I have begun to discover that street art doesn’t just have to belong on concrete walls, you can find it on stoplight poles, sidewalks, and even on public transportation. Street art allows people to express themselves and allows a wide audience of people to view an artist’s work and get exposure for them. I would view the street as even free publicity for an artist. How else are new artists supposed to get their name out there? This is an easy and free way for them to do so.
Myah Lake Reporting from Minneapolis, Minnesota
The word graffiti comes from the Italian language and it is the plural of the word “graffito.” They are both derived from the word graffito, which means “a scratch.” However, the style of urban graffiti that most people have seen and know about, the kind that uses spray cans, seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and by the late 1960s it had reached New York and was born on the subway trains. Although graffiti is more present in bigger cities such as New York City, we still see the relevance in Minneapolis. There is beauty in graffiti. Often people see graffiti as a bad thing and messy, but indeed graffiti can hold so much beauty from within the art and outside of the art. An internal influence for many of these images is the fight for equality in America and having justice be served to those who suffered police brutality. And to shine light on protest art, that sends out messages. In Minneapolis much of our graffiti came after the protest and riots that took place after the brutal murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Many artists were influenced to convey art that symbolized the nation’s cries for justice and the pain police brutality has caused the Black and brown communities. Although George has received his justice, Minneapolis is still filled with beautiful concrete canvases that symbolize our pain.
Hannah Corbett Reporting from New York
What once was in the top three most beautiful places to live in, was also ranked 15 among the most dangerous cities in the United States in 2015. Newburgh, New York, a quick hour and a half drive north from the city that never sleeps, is one of the Revolutionary Wars’ most historic places. George Washington and the continental army resided here in 1782 in the Hasbrouck House on what was known then as “Kings Highway”. Washington passionately refused the crown while staying here, making Newburgh the land of the Republic. In glory of the crown’s refusal, Kings Highway was renamed Liberty Street; which drove us straight to “Archways”. Sitting right across from the Hudson River waterfront accompanied by a statue of Christopher Columbus and gorgeous restaurants is the longest single work of art along the Hudson River; completed on November 3, 2021, by Garin Baker. “Archways” exemplifies the liveliness of Newburgh through the eyes of the community. Five arches were created and within them, you could find the beauty of what this city and community holds. Downtown Broadway, Downing Park (architecture was done by Frederick Law Olmsted, whose first project was the big apples beloved, Central Park), Washington Headquarters, The Dutch Reformed Church, and The Crawford house. Connecting the archways are street signs and pedestrians enjoying the city as it should be. This Mural brought in thousands of viewers from all over the united states, reuniting this distraught city with its historically privileged roots. “Archways” is a picture of hope for this community, inspiring that one day our city will once again be able to be of the top ten most beautiful places to live. Newburgh, New York was ranked 36 on the most dangerous cities to live in the U.S in 2021.
