JR's mural gets tagged on Melrose. Click the jump to read more about our thoughts on this, the idea of street art 'team', and why LA is the best place for street art in the world
After being 'decorated' by David Flores last week, JR's mural gets tagged on Melrose.
The people who don't like graffiti will probably despise this, while supporters of graff might support this as the 'organic process of a piece on the streets'.
Our take on it is that it is a poor move and in bad taste. Mainly because there are plenty of blank walls in the city, and even right next to this one. But the writers chose to hit this wall for obvious reasons.
While we are never big fans of 'fame-jocking' (c'mon, at least in NY they do it with style and full color fill-ins!), the biggest issue to us is the violation of the idea of 'team'. We understand that not everyone sees it this way, but we feel that street art is a movement, and those who are getting up are part of the 'team'. Graffiti is at the root of this movement, and in our opinion a very big part of it. And just like animals don't shit where they eat, members of the movement shouldn't play against the team by defacing art like this.
Not everyone may agree, but we feel that this piece by JR was epic, and best in its natural state.
Fortunately, for the most part most artists get up respectfully, and LA doesn't carry a lot of beef that some city's seem to have (where the only hot spots are just folks capping over each other). Its cool how in LA, most pieces are treated with respect and get the time to shine. Maybe that's why LA is becoming the top spot for street art in the entire world.
