Street Tart

Sculptures.  Sitcoms.  Paintings.  Gwen Stefani songs.  Junior High School Gymnasium Murals.  And David Hasselhoff eating cheeseburgers.  All of these are viable entities that have been considered art.  One of the newest and most popular forms of artistic expression comes from the streets.  Stencils and graffiti have pushed the medium of the outdoors to the forefront of the art world.

Using the open air gallery of the street, street artists are scrawling all over the "established" art world elites with their Pinot and their abstract-itude, as well as the world of anti-vandalism police squads with their high profile teepee cases and pie-in-the-sky pension funds.  With the faceless face of street art, Banksy, completing his October "residency" of New York to great acclaim, I thought it was high time for yours truly to enter into the rough and tumble streets of the new art world.

"Nightmare on My Street" - Artist Unknown

I was as surprised as Pee Wee Herman finding out about public indecency laws, when I heard the latest art craze involved the streets.  Like any red-blooded American male I concede that the streets are best used for driving on or dancing in, but for drawing pictures of???  But once I gave it a shot, I can honestly say that I've never experienced anything that came within driving distance of the thrill of adding my vision of a street to a public wall.

"Crossroads at the Fridge" - Artist Unknown

Finally, I had my day in the sun of getting something of mine put on the refrigerator.  Word to the wise (or to your mother ™ - Vanilla Ice): When you choose what goes on the fridge, there is no pride in seeing your self-chosen work there.  This piece represents the crossroads we all face when absentmindedly finding ourselves staring endlessly into this appliance without a clue as to a.) how I arrived here and b.) well I better eat something since I'm here, and hmmmmm, well, umm, I assume carrots and chocolate sauce might mix well, and my eyes feel like they could use the old carrot boost.

I hope you noticed the inclusion of a guitar and shoddily sketched devil (below) in the street work.  I can't verify the truth behind the story of Robert Johnson and his dealings at the crossroads, but I am confident that he would find my lollipop-shaped stop signs nauseating.

"I Make Pot Holes Not Plot Holes" - quote by Steven Shakespeare

The photography is clearly my biggest error in this post, but as you can maybe see - the above shall rest as a "pot"-hole until it is quickly dispatched by wind, rain, SUVs, and roaming packs of wild dogs.  I'm only joking, I didn't let that drawing get destroyed by the elements and canines.  I placed it as a halo above my house guardian and omnipresent mascot Vonn Mexico.

"House Elf and Pot-head" - Vonn Mexico

The final Street art installation from my night residency of my residence depicted my lack of familiarity with the definition of curb stomping.  Yes, I've seen American History X but I have seen far more people just stomp on a curb without a human head being smashed between Neo-Nazi shoe and concrete.  The enthusiastic stepping onto of a curb is how I define a successful curb stomp.  I decided to trivialize memorialize this by capturing a shot of this.

"Stomp the Yard" - Artist Unknown

Songs Meant for Dancing in the Street, That Are Not Named "Dancing in the Street":
- "Positively 4th Street" - Bob Dylan
- "Mainstreet" - Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
- "In the Street" - Big Star
- "Electric Avenue" - Eddy Grant
- "Dry the Rain" - The Beta Band (just because)