The Purpose of a Street Artist

"Nobody ever listened to me until they didn't know who I was"
- Banksy, Wall and Piece

This quotation from an extremely famous street artist is a great representation of the aforementioned distinction between street artists and graffiti artists. As described, this distinction lies within the message, or lack thereof, that the street art attempts to convey.

-A mural our group was able to analyze and identify as street art-

Our group was able to observe this in the evident concepts in murals observed along Guadalupe Street/ ‘The Drag.’ One mural depicted a naked woman, a pig, and a man playing the violin all floating in the midst of a masterfully created valley or field. In this mural along the wall of a business, the artist draws the viewer’s attention to the scenery and people. Even without history or experience in art analysis, the viewer can infer that the mural conveys an idea that humans are disconnected to one another and the world around them.

Only with more detailed scrutiny does the viewer find the name of the artist of such murals tucked away in the corner, clearly not the focal point. However, a more thorough observation to discover this name obviously takes more time than the average passerby has to offer to such street art.

-A mural we observed: the artists' name can be found in the bottom left hand corner, barely noticeable-

Our observations of such murals substantiated the idea found through our research: street artists do not want to draw attention to their names as graffiti artists do. Rather they want the art and its’ ideas to be the viewer’s focus.

However, it is important to note that both street artists and graffiti artists desire to acquire cultural capital, but street artists want cultural capital in the form of intelligence. Street artists show their cultural capital of intelligence by displaying ideas and concepts in their paintings instead of just writing their own name. People walking by can admire the intellectual ideas behind the art and see that the artist has cultural capital by looking at their work. As a group, we found ourselves marveling at or discussing many of the obvious works of street art. In that way, we are contributing to the cultural capital of the artist’s intellect.

Knowing the basis of these differences also allowed for us to easily identify street art. Murals, images, painted walls and doorways with people, animals, objects and distinct color choices all became clear street art to us in that there was meaning behind them. In this way, the subculture became easier for us to understand.