AEROSOL ARTISTS
any hopes for the future of graffiti?
By Andrew R. Mott
As a little girl bends down to take a photo of a graffiti bug on a low-rising, cracked concrete wall, it becomes apparent that what is considered worthy of collection and preservation changes with the generations. Calgary is a conservative, corporate town that is willing to throw advertising just about anywhere that can turn a profit, while it buffs out street art in the name of eliminating the scourge of society. Elevator doors in hospitals are plastered with suburban dream home lottery ticket propaganda and all elements of the transit system, including entire buses and trains, are paid advertisements for companies that can afford the space. While the statistic of the average daily exposure to advertising varies from 300 to 3,000 messages, the fact is that our modern society is barraged with attention-grabbing commercials in every possible arena of human life. While ads are geared towards getting people to open their wallets, street art aims at connecting people with their emotions. The city of Calgary seems to be drowning its sense of self with an alcoholic wash of gray and off-white; fight emotion with the hopeless wish that it goes away.
David Brunning, aka TheKidBelo, is renowned for his creative talent and passion for street art that is rivaled only by very few. As a graffiti artist painting for the pleasure of the community, Brunning's most current aerosol expressions are of dynamically changing variations of the word “Amor.” At this point in his prolific career, he considers no other word a better term to visually engage society with than “Love.” It's this ardor that has driven Brunning to get involved with teaching respect to the next generation.
"The future of Calgary's scene is dire unless attitudes change," says TheKidBelo as he pours over images of the world's best graffiti artists on Flickr.
With spirited fervency, he talks about how “graffiti kids” need to respect the history of the art form and research its roots and stylistic movements. He's sick with how tags get etched into Mom n' Pop shop windows with an aggressive behavior that can only be considered vandalism. It's one thing to “blow it up” and “bomb” all the best spots in town with classic letters and personal flare, but something else altogether to piss your tag all over fences, mirrors and inside school hallways. Brunning is dedicated to promoting the long-term effects that the education of social values and respect for your neighborhood provide.
Working with high-risk teens in six-week sections at the Boys and Girls Club of Calgary, he shows new ways to look at life through art. For 12 years, Brunning's been involved with youth groups and has built a reputation of character that has landed him work teaching both junior and senior high school art. He encourages students to learn through researching any kind of creativity that interests them and ends up providing lessons that focus on color theory, composition, line and dynamics in a natural way.
Upset by the short-term angst and fear that causes the city to keep throwing money at the losing battle of eliminating graffiti, Brunning will forever forge forward with the simple tools of leading by example and showing respect. He wishes that there was legal space in Calgary like in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, all cities where he can actually paint without breaking the law.
Rick Haddow, the City of Calgary's manager of community relations and contact for graffiti awareness, had never heard the term “aerosol artist” before and needed a redefinition to understand that it's essentially a conservative handle for a graffiti artist. Rather than speak street jargon and create the tension that results from conflicting semantics, BeatRoute asked if there are any free walls in Calgary that street artists can use to paint murals for the public. An expected and starkly assertive "no" was heard through the phone, followed by, "We haven't had any success with free walls." In a jubilantly helpful manner, Rick was quick to direct inquiries to contribute to the public canvas of Calgary to the city's arts and culture division manager, Beth Gignac.
It seems that the municipal government does still have an interest in providing space for graffiti artists; it’s just buried in bureaucracy. So it will be through following the right avenues and putting in a lot of hard work that the burgeoning color of this city will creep like moss and breathe vibrancy back into an oppressively drab community.