Concrete Dreams Initiative

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Posted on July 2nd 2009 by Owen Thomas

Who: Concrete Dreams Initiative
What: local vandalism clean up project
Where: Hamilton and surrounding areas
Written by: Owen Thomas

There's a very easily defined line between graffiti art and vandalism. No matter how artistic the piece, tag or subject in question is, the easiest way to distinguish the two apart is by asking "was it done with permission?"

I'd like to begin by saying I do not agree or like the defacement of public, local business and individual property. This is also coming from someone who spent 4-5 years of their life apart of "graffiti culture". Those days have now passed.

My introduction to the world of graffiti was in 1999. I was 14 on the top of Jackson Square at a festival called "Concrete to Canvas". Little did I know, I was witnessing some of Canada's most renowned graffiti artists like, Mediah, Thesis and Water. The images are still burned in my mind. Not from seeing them that day, but from spending countless hours deciphering, studying and learning from the pictures I took.

At the time, I didn't even know how to draw but made a promise to myself I'd learn everything humanly possible about this mysterious art. After a year or so of drawing in my sketch book, I felt my letter styles, knowledge and skill was sufficient to begin the next phase; learning to paint a wall piece.

From there I spent my weekends painting a wall in my "chill spot" tucked away under a bridge in a nearby forest and my weekdays preparing and building my styles to push the limits at the wall. Every spare dollar was spent on aerosol paint. I had no interest in tagging the street or painting on buildings and steered clear of any sort of action. I strictly kept to my spot. It was not done with permission, but in defense, it was out of the way not bothering anyone where no one could see. It was left for random passerby discovering a hidden piece of visual treasure buried in the forest.

I learned a lot from graffiti that I wouldn't have elsewhere. Some of those skills have helped me succeed in aspects of my life long past the days of muddy forest bridges and paint ridden finger nails. A major facet of the culture is self promotion with a thirst for public and peer recognition. Those skills helped me excel in event marketing and promotion. The graffiti clad, silk screen tee shirts I sold in the street as a 16 year old taught me how to organize, manage and mobilize human and material resources; all skills that later help me become a 905 area talent buyer that's brought 3 Grammy award nominated artists, 3 Juno award winners and other artists who collectively had dozens of #1s on the Billboard dance charts. How about the raw art skills that helped me design this very magazine you're reading?

Graffiti isn't bad. In fact more positives can be found than negatives. The unfortunate thing is the destruction of public property, whether its bus shelters, mail boxes or local business walls, with graffiti styles art puts a very dark shadow over the positives.

Over the last year I've noticed an influx of vandals across the city. I will omit these names as I would be feeding the fame they crave when they "get up".

Our city and the people who live in it need to understand they cannot suppress and eradicate graffiti. No city across the planet has, regardless of any authoritative action they take. If they try, it only gets worse. The best way to clean our city of graffiti styled vandalism is to embrace the culture and uses the positives against itself.

Although young vandals have very little respect for any surface they display their name, the one thing they do have ultimate respect for is art in any form. Regardless of how many times a wall or surface is cleaned, there will be a reoccurrence of vandalism. It has been proven time and time again that if you replace the defaced surface with one worthy of admiration, the reoccurrence rate is extremely low.

With this in mind, Nightdreamer Magazine is launching a city wide vandalism cleanup project called The Concrete Dreams Initiative.  We will be working with local artists and local businesses to beautify high target wall and replace unsightly tags with full scale pieces of art. This service will be of no cost to the target walls. We provide the artist, art supplies and art work.

If you are interested in being a part of this positive city project, whether it's as an artist, supporter or have a surface that needs to be beautified, please contact us. If you're just simply interested in what we're doing, our projects will be displayed each month on this same page.

concretedreams@nightdreamer.ca

 

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