Shepard Fairey, Detroit

©tom stoye

Shepard Fairey-Obey Mural, Detroit, MI

©tom stoye

It's finally finished. Last weeks visit by renowned street artist Shepard Fairey, has resulted in this 185' foot mural on the backside of the Compuware Building.

I've never liked this building, it looks like a bunch of boxes huddled together in a shopping mall aesthetic. So for me personally, the mural follows the street art edict of taking something and making it better with art.

The naysayers are already out in full force though. The key complaints I've heard are twofold; number one being, it was financed by Dan Gilbert, and number two, it wasn't done by a local artist.

Regarding the finances, this was not a paid piece. Only the costs were paid for (300 cans of paint I had heard), but Shepard Fairey did not receive payment for the mural itself. That being said, I don't care who paid for what, I like looking at it.

As far as the disdain for Gilbert, I don't even know where to begin… so I won't.  It doesn't warrant a response. As they say, haters gonna hate."

Regarding local talent doing the mural, there are many beautiful local murals around Detroit done by our homegrown talent. Being local doesn't give you exclusive rights for EVERY public mural: or any art for that matter. The DIA has a few non-local artists in it I believe, and that seems to have worked out  well.

I respect the talented pool of artists we have in this area, and I think they have been poorly represented at times, but there are no shortages of empty wall spaces in Detroit. The opportunities are there, they just need to be cultivated by the artists. I think we, as artists (myself included), often struggle with the business-side of our art. Figuring out ways to get to the next level can feel impossible, but it's doable if your work is solid and you are honest with yourself.

As a friend recently said, "If you don't like it or the way it was done…by all means prove us all wrong by doing it the right way YOURSELF."

Then and Now

©tom stoye c.2009

tom stoye c.2014

Trumbull Avenue, Detroit, MI

©tom stoye

©tom stoye

For years I would drive by this building on Trumbull (top photo), and see the hand painted sign of the lady with the short dark hair. Above it, in quotation marks, it read, "What role do public artworks and art parks play in the development of space within the city?" This was painted way before the onslaught of public murals that are now an integral part of the city.

The sign has been relocated, but the question is still important. What is the role of public art, especially in a city like Detroit, a city trying to reinvent itself after bankruptcy?

It's role is especially relevant when considering Mayor Duggan's recent foray into the art world. The Mayor took it upon himself to go after the building owners who have taken Grand River Avenue and made it into an amazing outdoor gallery full of beautiful murals. The city rewarded their efforts to make the world a more beautiful place by spanking them with $130 tickets, and demands to buff out their walls or face further repercussions. Ouch!

The timing is puzzling. Kevin Orr had just handed over the keys to the mayor's office, and one of his first priorities is to come out swinging against public art? Not exactly a confidence booster in the court of public opinion. Once the mayor realized he wasn't thinking so clearly, he released a public apology that went something like... "Aw shucks, I didn't know the difference between civil disobedience and public art…… oops, sorry." By labeling all street art under the umbrella of illegal graffiti art, the mayor appears to be out of touch with a vibrant local art scene, a scene that is sure to play a future role in the city that Duggan was elected to serve.

Before he applied for his current job as Mayor of the great city of Detroit, Duggan was a prosecuting attorney for the city of Detroit. During his tenure, his public enemy number one was... you guessed it, graffiti art. His biggest target, was a guy who was painting turtles all over the city. Duggan had an employee working full time to bust this guy. The mantra was, "Forget everything else, it can wait for Christ's sake, there's a guy painting turtles around town!" Ironically, Turdle was never caught. Instead, one day, the Turdle decided he had had enough of being the secret Turdle guy, and just admitted, yep, I'm your guy. There was a short article in the paper and it was gone like a fart in the wind. Whew!!! Glad that was solved.

With nobody to catch, Duggan set his sights on the leftovers. He even held a press conference after he nabbed a couple graffiti writers painting on a desolate stretch of Rosa Parks Blvd.  This was all taking place while the city was beginning its decent into financial collapse. Duggan would leave his job as a prosecutor to work in the health care industry, but in the present, it appears that he's been festering all these years, ready to jump back into the fray again, fighting the good fight, to save the people of Detroit from the biggest art movement in the world.

Moving forward, the Mayor needs a 101 on street art, so he can embrace all of the wonderfully talented artists who make up our city, and channel their creativity into a working relationship with city officials.

Luckily for Mayor Duggan, there are working models in other cities (and ours), that have successfully dealt with solutions to embracing the culture of street art while reducing illegal graffiti at the same time.

If his apology to building owners on Grand River Avenue was sincere, a visit to The Alley Project in southwest Detroit would be a perfect place for Duggan and his cohorts to get a grasp on what it would take to work out creative solutions to "cleaning" up the city. The time is ripe for trying something different; prohibition and incarceration are weak solutions and lack the insight required for the city to move forward.

Art heals!

Dasic

©tom stoye

"DASIC" c.2010

Dasic Fernandez is a Chilean-born graffiti writer and muralist. Although he's painted several murals in the city of Detroit and Hamtramck, they are just a small sample size of other murals done around the globe, in cities like San Miguel, Brooklyn, Santiago and Chicago to name a few. He currently lives in NYC.

The mural pictured here is in southwest Detroit, on the wall of Hacienda Mexican Food Products building.

El Mac and Retna

©tom stoye

"EL MAC & RETNA" c.2008

Based on a photograph by Estavan Oriol, this mural was a joint effort by El Mac, who painted the face, and Retna, who provided the typography background. The mural is located in Los Angeles on W. Pico Blvd, just west of Ogden Drive.

Muralist Halima Cassels, American Beauty 2009

©tom stoye

This mural, done by artist Halima Cassels in 2009, was painted on the facade of the American Beauty Irons building. The architects were Albert Kahn and Ernest Wilby. The building (built in 1908), was originally called the American Electrical Heater Company, but was later changed to match the companies best selling product, the American Beauty Iron.

In 2008, Cassells started the Detroit Mural Factory project. For the next four years, she and a group of other Detroit-based artists, taught area-youth how to paint while doing live community murals around the city of Detroit.

The mural you see, titled, "American Beauty,"was created with the help of 31 schoolchildren and took six weeks to finish. Sadly, since this photograph was taken, the American Beauty Irons Building was demolished (2012) and made into a parking lot for Wayne State University.  The mural panels were saved, and eventually relocated to other buildings.

Destroy

©tom stoye

"Destroy" sits outside a building owned by junk magnate Matt Naimi' of Recycle Here. This particular building, where the Destroy piece resides, is occupied by Chip Flynn from Apetechnology.

I had driven by Destroy a half dozen times, and because the letters were buried behind the fence surrounding his fortified property, I was never able to get a decent photograph. You keep driving by a place enough and it starts to gnaw at you, so one day, I just said, fuck it, and banged on his door. Chip cracked the door while I made my pitch, which for a photographer is step one, and usually the most important. Step two, he opened the door. I'm in!

The interior of Apetechnology looks like something out of the movie Young Frankenstein, which is about the closest I can come to a physical description of their shop. There were hardly any lights on, and it would have been impossible to photograph it without a tripod and some strobes, so I proceeded to the bay door and was able to take the photographs I had come for, which were the tall sign letters arranged to spell "destroy." Someday I hope to make it back and document the interior of the building. Hopefully he'll crack the door.

Malice Green Memorial, Warren Ave, Detroit, MI

©tom stoye /mural by Benny White Ethiopia

On this day, November 5th, 1992, only a couple of months after the video taped beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, Detroit resident Malice Green, an African American, was beaten to death by two white police officers (Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers), during a stop and frisk on Detroit's west side.

The autopsy report stated that Green had been hit in the head approximately 14 times by a blunt object, which according to witnesses was at the hands of Nevers, who repeatedly struck Green with his flashlight, after he refused to relinquish a vile of crack cocaine. Detroit Mayor Coleman Young was quoted as saying that Green was "literally murdered by police."

Artist Benny White Ethiopia, painted a mural memorializing Malice Green at 3428 West Warren Avenue, the site of the beating. Recently, unannounced, the city tore down the dilapidated building, and with it the memorial. Outraged, local citizens are making plans for the artist to create a new memorial in its place.

Street Artist Eno Laget, Detroit, MI

©tom stoye

Snyder Wholesale Mural, Woodward & Charlotte St.

©tom stoye

Unfinished Motown Mural, Grand River Creative Corridor

©tom stoye

Street Art City Detroit: Graffiti, Urban Renewal, and the Formation of Identity

I will be participating in a panel discussion at the CASL building (College of Arts Science and Letters), located on the University of Michigan, Dearborn campus. The topic will be, Street Art City Detroit: Graffiti, Urban Renewal, and the Formation of Identity.

University professors Nadja Rottner and Liz Rohan will be the panel moderators. Besides myself, other panelists will include graffiti writer Freddy Diaz, curator and artist Matt Eaton of the Library Street Collective, and photographer and youth developer Erik Howard of The Alley Project, in southwest Detroit.

The event starts at 6:30pm, on March 25th, 2014. The College of Arts Science and Letters building is located within the campus on Richard Dr. Directions here.

 Arrive early, the parking lot fills quickly, and spots can be at a premium.