Jump to content

smartmouth

Member
  • Posts

    17
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

0 Neutral
  1. A lot of older writers will tell you this a stupid/lame idea, but it's not. I know that it's really difficult to practise piecing when you've only got illegal walls to hit. Half of the guys who'll shoot you down for this are probably hitting legal walls regularly, but have some notion that you should 'pay your dues' or whatever by not doing so. Climbing around finding illegal chill spots is cool. You feel like the fucking man if you discover a new spot that none of your friends has ever seen, especially if it's in some insanely hard to find location. For example, we once found a hole in the ground that led down to a disused subway tunnel, it was awesome to know that nobody else (including cops) had thought of this. But none of that stuff is better than being able to chill in the sun with your friends, playing some music, maybe getting a BBQ, and taking your time. No, you won't get any respect for painting a legal wall at your school, but you will get better at painting. If you then want to go hitting all sorts of spots that will earn you respect, you will still be able to after a legal wall is set up. They're not mutually exclusive. My advice is, if you can't establish an official 'legal wall', see if you can't get permission for you and your friends to do a mural somewhere. Then, a couple of months later, you can 'update' this mural, then 'update' it again. After a while, what you have is a defacto legal wall, that you can pretty much paint whenever you want. Important point, though, I'm not talking about a very public, high-profile wall here. What you want is a wall round the back of somewhere. A wall that's already got graff on it and is a bit neglected. If it's going to evolve into a 'legal' wall over time, it's got to be somewhere people don't really notice, and don't particularly care what's on it. It starts as an art project, something nice you're doing to spruce up a shitty little wall somewhere, and just gradually becomes somewhere you and your buddies can paint because the owner knows you and doesn't mind. The thing is, this depends on how good you are. If you're pretty good, people will, on the whole, dig your pieces and are likely to be happy enough for you to use the wall whenever you please. If you're just starting out, though, people are less likely to accept you painting whatever and whenever you like. There were no legal walls in my city, but there were a few walls where this type of scenario played out. So yeah, if you can't get people to go for a legal wall, see if you can get permission for a mural. It's not what you want, but it will make it easier to get there.
  2. It's a really good read, I just spent about an hour reading it. All I can think about, though, is; "What the fuck did you do!?". Shits annoying me. I think you can get sent to jail more easily in the USA, but here in the UK you usually have to do something pretty major to end up in the can for a first offence (I get the impression it was a FO since he seems all surprised). You've really got to put in work to get locked up for graff, for example. I don't know if it's the same in NYC. It's just weird reading it without knowing what he did, it could be something totally fucked up that would make you feel less sorry for him, or it could be something any of us might do, in which case it's more of a hard-luck story.
  3. I know all this, I know about the semi-legal walls, and the tolerated rather than legit legals. I am a toy, I admit that, but I'm not totally new to this, I've been writing for a few years now. It's not like any of this is new to me. Anyway, thanks for the advice and info guys, this is helpful, even if we did get off on the worng foot.
  4. Bojangles I am currently in the sewer ducks and murky tunnels stage of my graffiti development. That sort of place is pretty much the only spot available to me right now. The thing is, the legals that exist where ever it is that you are, do not exist where I am. I'm not trying to become the sort of guy that only ever paints one board for ten years, but I'd like to have the option available to me for when I do feel like relaxing, I'd like to be able to approach pieces like projects, take a couple of days over them, and make sure they're as clean as I possibly can.
  5. We've got all kinds of wood, it's like the future over here.
  6. Decyferon Really heplful, appreciate it. Yeah, there are some spots like skateparks, but I'm trying to up my game, and none of them have a surface that would really allow me to go all-out. I'll defo look into the ownership of land though, see if I can't find a suitable place. Ear To The Ground I hold my hands up, there's not much difference between what he does and what I want. But let's be honest- anyone painting a legal wall may as well be an old guy doodling some flowers in a garden.
  7. Thanks for the advice guys. I've had the odd piece of work commissioned before, but I've never been able to get somewhere that will let me paint whatI like when I like. work yr soul I live in a pretty big city, and there are places I can paint, which I often do. But these aren't really places that you want to go by yourself, so I only really get the chance at the weekend when other peolpe are coming with me. It's not that I can't paint pieces in this city, it's just that it's fucking awkward and not much fun when you're spending the whole day by yourself in a muddy tunnel under a subway station. I want somewhere I can paint outdoors, maybe have some music and bring some food, enjoy myself while I paint. Instead of having to look over my shoulder for crackheads and gangs wandering about behind me.
  8. I've thought about asking shop owners etc if I could paint on and old beat-up walls, but I've only tried a couple of times and not had any luck. Have you or anyone you know ever done this?
  9. Swindle Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the advice even if you do think I'm a "fucking moron". I don't want to paint infront of people, that's not the point, what I'm saying is I won't exactly be hidden- so people will see me, whether I like it or not. And no, I wasn't going to use my actual word. As far as using my own property, I've tried that, but people in my building were complaining that they could smell the fumes when they had their windows open, so that's not a option. And before someone says: no, that won't be an issue with this other spot I'm talking about. You say that the only legal barrier is the rubbish-dumping laws. That sounds about right to me. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's the sort of place that is totally deserted at night, and it's not like right outside anyone's house, so I don't think I'd get in any trouble with the rubbish dumping issue because I don't think anyone would notice that it'd been dumped. There's some jumps and ramps that BMXers have built there that have lasted for years, so I think it'd be ok. You say it's unwise, I take that on board, do you have any other ideas that you think would be more workable? Just to clear up the Bojangles thing, He may be a very experienced writer who's far better than me. That gives him the right to say what he likes, but if he's obnoxious, he can only expect some retaliation. I respect older writers, but it's not like I have ever done anything to provoke Bojangles, maybe he thinks this is a stupid idea, that's fine, if he's just straight-up about it I'll take that on board and respect his opinion as a more experienced writer. But if he's just sarcastic and offering no help whatsoever, even if it is just to say "bad idea" then I'm going to stick up for myself. Anyway, it's nothing personal, it's just the internet.
  10. I'm not starting beef with anyone, he's the guy that was ripping on me, I just gave some back. As for me getting the plywood, that's done, don't worry about that. People seem to be hung up on this idea of trespassing, but I really don't think it's an issue. I'm talking about the sort of place people take their dog for a walk, the sort of place kids throw a ball around, not some piece of pre-development real estate. This is like communal land, it it's never had anything built on it, ever. And I know bojangles is a mod on here, and probably a good writer, but fuck it, he was trolling, what does he expect? I can see why people think this is a dumb idea, I kind of do aswell. But how many people out there wish they had a better spot to piece? Probably the majority of writers. What I'm saying is, you can easily get that spot, if you're prepared to spend a little bit of money and a little bit of time putting it together. Skateboarders and BMXers are constantly doing things like this- finding spots and building kickers and dirt-jumps on them, and they usually don't get any hassle There's not a whole lot of difference between what they do and what I'm talking about doing. I bet the older heads who think 'this shit is hilarious' spend most of their time painting either chill or legal spots, so don't act all sarcastic about it just because you're on the internet. But we're not all lucky enough to live somewhere with easy access to good spots, so I'm trying to do something about it. And if people think this idea is totally unworkable, can you give me some advice as to how I can get a legal wall set up in my city? What's the story behind the places you paint, how did they end up as legal walls, and how can I follow suit. Thanks to all the guys leaving genuine replies, even if you do think it's a dumb idea. No beef, I'd just appreciate it if people would try to resist the urge to shit on a writer who's just trying to get somewhere decent to paint.
  11. Aww, that's just some really clever material there, "play getting up", now that's a knee-slapper. You're a comic genius. Just because I want to know about a legal wall doesn't mean I don't also bomb. But I'm not talking about bombing, I'm talking about painting for hours in the middle of the day while people walk past. You always get a few idiots who act up on the internet. As night follows day, I ask about a legal wall, I get told to play Getting Up. You ever been on the "Brick Slayers" section of this forum? You know where 90% of the burners in there were painted? Whisper it... legal walls. Why don't you go in there and call them all pussys, while you sit in your mother's basement watching Buffy and getting doritios all over your face.
  12. Thanks for the replies, nah, I can't really use my own property, for various reasons. I take your point about nothing being technically "waste ground", but I'm not talking about jumping over any fences, I mean the sort of place that people walk across all the time, just a bit of ground with nothing on it. Your idea about going to a city-owned park is interesting. I could do that, but then again, I don't know if I'd be in breach of some rule about what you can do in a park. The reason I want this plan to be 100% legal is that I just know the police are going to try to stop me, I am going to look like I'm breaking the law, so I need a rock hard excuse when that ineviabley happens.
  13. Where I live there are not very many good walls to paint pieces. There are a few, but they're at least an hour away on the bus, and in the sort of nieghbourhoods that you don't want to be hanging around in by yourself. I'm not working right now, so practically every day I want to go out and paint a piece, but because other writers are busy on weekdays, I'd be by myself, I end up not doing it. So, my solution is to hook myself up with a legal wall. I have a plan, and I just want people's opinions on whether it could work: I get 3 big sheets of ply, like 8ft by 5ft, and take them down to this piece of waste-ground near where I live. I attach them together, into one continuous piece, so I have a 'wall' 15ft by 8ft; big enough for a piece. I then proceed to paint a burning piece and go home happy. The practicalities of actually constructing the wall are not the issue, just go with me on that, what I need to know is: Am I breaking the law? See, it's my plywood, I can do what I like with it. The land in question has no building on it, it's not even fenced off, it's just waste ground, so I don't think it belongs to anyone. Surely this would make it legal? I mean, I'm just a guy painting some wood that he bought from a store... I live in the U.K. and I know most people here are from the U.S.A. but broadly speaking, the laws are similar, and if it's illegal where you are, it's probably illegal here too. I know I'm going to get people calling me a pussy for all this worrying about legalities, but I'm talking about blatantly painting in the middle of the day, in full public veiw. I will be seen by the police, I need to know before that happens if I'll end up in bracelets. It might seem like a stupid plan, and lots of effort to go to just for somewhere to paint. But it's summer, and this would be like my own private wall, if this plan works I could paint it like every single day. And it would save me the hassle of tecking to the chill spots that are miles away. The way I see it- one afternoon spent knocking this thing together could save me hours of travel in the future. But really, I'm not asking you whether you think it's a good plan, I'm asking you whether you think it's technically legal: that's the advice I need. Has anyone else attempted anything like this and did it work?
×
×
  • Create New...