French *Street Artist* Grafitti Tagging Joshua Tree N.P.

we need to live in a more civilized world and educate them.

On Instagram, André replied, "This mr was made with love at friends privet back yard and not in your national park! [sic]" However, a thorough investigation by Modern Hiker and its readers revealed that the rock indeed was inside Joshua Tree, near the trailhead of the Contact Mine—confirmed by a reader in the area who took a photo and posted it on Facebook. André locked his Instagram account and deleted the photo shortly after being called out by Modern Hiker, but it has been saved for posterity on their own account.

I can’t tell you if there’s a direct link between things like this and the truly staggering amount of graffiti that’s appeared in Joshua Tree over the past few years, but when street artists as famous as Mr. Andre post photos that even appear like they’re painting in nature without permission, it sends a powerful message that the outdoors is a fine canvas for your street art. And that, we feel, is a message that needs to be stopped.

THIRD UPDATE:

Jeff from SoCalHiker noticed this image on Mr. Andre’s web site (under Graffiti, Mr. A if you’re interested).

Not sure where this is but it certainly looks like Joshua Tree, doesn’t it?

Reader DESERTED just noted the EXIF data in this image is from July, 2013. We still don’t know where this is but it’s definitely not from this recent trip to Southern California. It does, however, show his willingness to tag on natural surfaces.

Thanks again for the insights.

The high mission of any art is, by its illusions, to foreshadow a higher universe reality, to crystallize the emotions of time into the thought of eternity.

the eurofag

if that is art, then I was a Rembrandt at age 4.

On the street André is known by his graffiti-artist alter ego, the tag Mr. A and for his concept “Love Graffiti.” Mr A is a funny, round face, with a huge smile and a wink that follows you everywhere, and now is all over the world — and often in pink! — a color that is pretty much taboo in the graffiti world, except when itʼs Andréʼs monochromatic style. The Love graffiti are tags of peopleʼs names commissioned by their loved ones that he does in pop colors near where they live, so that they canʼt miss it.

Unlike the past 20 years of street graffiti, where a street artist imposes an anonymous tag for an anonymous crowd — some merely staining a depressing urban landscape, a few becoming famous gallery artists, such as Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, KAWS, Neckface, and of course Samo — André has hesitated to go from the street into the galleries. Rather heʼs given a new sense to his graffiti art, first, by by-passing the walls of the gallery and introducing his imagery into clubs or night spots, which he participates in opening and promoting all over the world. In doing so he has proactively changed the nightlife of cities such as Paris, New York, and Tokyo. He also reinterprets the meaning of graffiti art, from underground opposition to a more friendly and utopian alternative to the day time. André is one of those rare people who is able to make things happen naturally. His genuine generosity extends into the romantic utopian nightspots he creates, and where people meet.

His second move, after having gone from the wall of the street to the walls of clubs, is choosing drawing over classic canvas work. In quiet moments, he prefers drawing on scraps of paper or in notebooks, which heʼs constantly filling, but rarely shares with others. This is a more personal and intimate activity, far from the commercialism of art.

All the rest I'm cool with.

It's a 'photoshop' of grafitti right?

Who's right, who's wrong, who's selfish?

If this was done a 1000 years ago it would be held up as art and a historical artifact and the crag would be closed to climbing.
Funny how this art stuff works.

what's the difference?

Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's own attributes. The term originated from the Greek mythology, where the young Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water.

Narcissism is a concept in psychoanalytic theory, introduced in Sigmund Freud's On Narcissism. The American Psychiatric Association has the classification narcissistic personality disorder in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Narcissism is also considered a social or cultural problem. It is a factor in trait theory used in some self-report inventories of personality such as the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. It is one of the three dark triadic personality traits (the others being psychopathy and Machiavellianism).

Except in the sense of primary narcissism or healthy self-love, narcissism is usually considered a problem in a person or group's relationships with self and others. Narcissism is not the same as egocentrism.

Ok artist family and friends this is for you,

Attached is a piece of “art” that was painted down in or near Joshua Tree National Park. The artist calls himself Mr. A and he has a web site. He’s French and came here recently to tag this rock in JT. Please distribute to your art world friends, galleries and associations to express outrage. There is no place for this in our treasured natural areas that must be preserved for future generations.

This guy is beyond education, his remarks regarding fed back on the inappropriateness of the place have been replied to with a hardy “fu*k you”. So I contend the only way to affect his future behavior is for him to have consequences. Places that show his work should be boycotted, those who plan on showing it should be made aware there’s a whole contingent of people that would just assume he’d expire from breathing his spray can fumes. Given their willingness to show his work represents their own values.

End of rant, thank you for your cooperation in advance!

Trust all is well with you, best regards…..

Charlie D.

For the magnitude and historical significance of the murals, the park was designated an official historic site by the San Diego Historical Site Board in 1980, and its murals were officially recognized as public art by the San Diego Public Advisory Board in 1987. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in San Diego County, California in January 2013 owing to its association with the Chicano civil rights movement. Chicano Park, like Berkeley's People's Park, was the result of a militant (but nonviolent) people's land takeover.

$275

In January 25th, 2009, Santiago Meza Lopez (aka maker) shared his recipe to make “Pozole”, it include two empty oil barrels, several pounds of caustic soda, latex gloves, gas masks, and a pair of “teachers”, supposedly brought from Israel.

...however, i don't consider them "sacred" because i don't know what they mean

Iskander Lemseffer, an acquaintance of Saraiva and owner of Lab Art, a Los Angeles gallery dedicated to street art, expressed mixed feelings about the dispute.

"When it comes to street art, you do it big or don't do it all," Lemseffer said, standing beside a provocative work of his own: a replica of a movie Oscar on its knees cutting lines of cocaine. "But even I was shocked when I saw photos of what Andre did to that rock."

Los Angeles graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman, 43, who is also known as Mear One, said street art has a purpose that goes beyond the image.

"Graffiti art is the honest voice of the dissatisfied soul — it's a political act," Ockerman said. Then he added, "All Andre did was smear a work of art by mother nature with industrial chemicals to celebrate his own ego."

As the debate goes on, some private businesses forced to paint over graffiti regularly see a certain irony in protests by graffiti fans angry about tagging in national parks.

"I wish they were just as outraged over graffiti on other people's private property," said Lena Kent, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, whose freight cars and engines are tagged on a daily basis.

"Playing devil's advocate: If provoking outrage is not part of your intention as a graffiti artist, why do it?" Jeremy Cross, an artist and curator at the Night Gallery in Santa Ana, said with a impish grin.

“Everything I do comes from the attitude I learned from graffiti.If I want to do something, I do it. If I want to paint this rooftop, if I want to paint this train, or a place that’s very difficult to access, I’m going to go and paint it. And I’ve kept that attitude with everything I do. I want to do a movie — I do it. I want a nightclub — I’ll do it.”

“Graffiti should only be painted on what humans have built — not on nature’s land and rocks,” he said, nibbling on French pastries at an outdoor lunch table in Hollywood. “Joshua Tree was the wrong place for it, and I am sorry.”

Who removed the graffiti from the boulder in the parking lot?

“I did,” he says. “Four days after I put the graffiti on the rock, I cleaned it off with a bottle of water, a brush and sand.”

“by making people think I went all over the park to deface it, and by posting a 20-year-old image taken from one of my websites of Mr. A on a rock in Brittany, France and using it as possible evidence of vandalism in Joshua Tree.”

“As a result,” he adds, “park rangers had to spend hours and days searching for nothing.”