If I could get a minute to chime in...
Ok, first of all, I really liked that tag, but somewhere in between getting approval for 3 walls in Midtown and actually finding a warm enough day to go out with my latex paint and rollers, Revok's tag showed up. Bad timing happens, no disrespect.
FAQ:
Did you get permission?
Yes, not only did i ask for approval from the building owners, I'm also getting paid to do the murals. It's part of Art X Detroit taking place in Midtown from April 6th until the 10th.
How do you feel about your number being posted?
All threats will be taken seriously, in the meantime however, I've gotten a couple e-mails and phone calls in support of my project which is how I found out about 12 oz. prophet in the first place! Also, with a project like mine, there has to be a level of transparency. Besides my e-mail and phone number is everywhere, on my other website: cedrictai.com, we live in a world where privacy is really tricky, ever think about how traceable you are just by going onto the internet? Detroit is a small community anyways, people know who tagged the Slows To Go restaurant when that opened up, I'm taking different risks that grafitti artists don't take, the lack of anonymity.
What is your project about, is it just to cover tags?
Actually, my piece is about highlighting how jacked up brick walls are when you actually see how they fill in space. The tesselation generator makes a perfect pattern and when that pattern gets broken up by inconsistent bricks it's highlighting all the mistakes that we don't normally see. I invite everyone to make a design on makebrixels.com
Do you think graffiti is a less relevant form of art than your brixels idea?:
I see brixels as a conversation about blank walls. I do think that there are certain people that do grafitti in Detroit because it's so easy to take advantage of the city with much less chance of getting caught. With that said, I do think there exists great grafitti, just like there's good street art, but Detroit has more than its fair share of bad tags. Perhaps this will up the level of grafitti? You have to do one crazy tag to compete with my Razzle Dazzle.
(My favorites in the past were TRTL and the tags that are up in the Dequindre Cut, especially the two new ones that are by the north entrance. My favorite tag of all time however had to be this one behind a billboard by the Russell Industrial Center, since I'm on the 3rd floor our windows faced these gigantic words that said F**k Y*u that I would see every time I was working in the woodshop, it got painted over which is too bad because it made my day, every day.)
Are you going to try to cover up all of the grafitti everywhere you don't like?
I chose buildings based on their visibility or non-visibility, not just to cover up people's tags, it was also based on who i could get permission from. All of them are buildings that are in use, not abandoned, I wasn't able to get in contact with any of the owners for the abandoned ones. Also I really wanted to see other people do this brixel idea wherever they were, I don't 'own' this way of working, I think it's a really great way to pay attention to the bricks that are there. I'd like to see other people do their own Brixels.
Your stuff is whack:
I'm also getting support from local grafitti artists who have helped me find scaffolding, have donated paint, and gave me advice. They all told me to GO FOR IT. Besides, all art is temporary, I'm reflecting the times we live in with this project. I'm pretty excited that this site has made my project go viral.
Some little 8 year old kid is going to make a design on makebrixels.com and it's going to show up on a building that wanted to cover up the grafitti. Your beef is with that building owner who doesn't like your work, and the residents of the city who prefer my art in their neighborhood to yours (if your tag was covered up).
Thanks everyone for caring. Giving a sh*t and having an opinion either way makes reminds both Revok, and myself how important our art is to other people. To the people that tagged the cars at our house, I hope you get caught.
