Painting Detroit

[EastsideAl]

All jibes aside, I continue to be tired, as I have been for years, of people from outside the city who treat our city as their little lawless playground and act here in ways they wouldn't dare act back where they came from. Particularly when they act as if no one lives here, or as if the people who live here don't count and can be disrespected at will.

[detroiturbex]

I dont see it as vandalism, I see it as creating what I want.

It is this exact mentality that caused those buildings to fall into the state they are in now.

[citylover]

All jibes aside, I continue to be tired, as I have been for years, of people from outside the city who treat our city as their little lawless playground and act here in ways they wouldn't dare act back where they came from. Particularly when they act as if no one lives here, or as if the people who live here don't count and can be disrespected at will.

I got news for ya......people inside the city i.e. residents got that shit covered

[EastsideAl]

Yes, but it's OUR city. We're the ones who live here, not you. So don't whine if you go around acting like laws end at 8 Mile and end up serving a few nights downtown as our guest in our lovely accommodations.

[mpow]

plus the work really screams cliche. I really prefer the less self-conscious and rich graffiti in the city. sorry.

[softailrider]

Yes, but it's OUR city. We're the ones who live here, not you. So don't whine if you go around acting like laws end at 8 Mile and end up serving a few nights downtown as our guest in our lovely accommodations.

All those assholes standing in the street selling dope and turning neighborhoods into open air drug markets don't seem too comcerned about possible accommodation problems.

[EastsideAl]

Nope. And so if you come down here and decide that it would be fun to paint over a whole building that doesn't belong to you or tear down someone else's street on a snowmobile or just plain get drunk and act a destructive or combative fool, then you shouldn't mind a few days hanging out with them either.

[Downtown Lady]

Hey EastsideAl, did you check out the Painting Detroit thread? You'll love this guy's "art" project. And by love it, I mean you'll hate it. Slapping some paint on property that doesn't belong to him and calling it art.

[Detroit2MeetU]

From now on, all tagging of buildings, tossing of tires into fields, and throwing of garbage out car windows will be done in Bingham Farms, instead of Detroit.

Nice one Coleman...

"I issue a warning to all those pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers: It’s time to leave Detroit; hitEight Mile Road!"

[Detroit2MeetU]

Tyree Guyton called and wants his idea back.

It's just not original, it's cliche, and doesn't exhibit any talent. Do what you got to do, but I don't think the MET will be calling any time soon.

[hamtown mike]

Hey yessers,

Tell me if this is way off for this site or not. An acquaintance in the media has an interest in exploring this story.

Would developing this give the story/"artist" undue exposure? The last thing I want to do is to give this thing any positive exposure-hence my declining to appear on camera.

Would anyone be interested in sharing your opinion to this reporter?

[Gistok]

I'm mot sure how I feel about your project. From a visual perspective, I find it interesting and appealing. However, I'm not happy about the use of the abandoned and tagged sites.

It might be OK on the interior of abandoned buildings, but when it goes outdoors on public property, then it bothers me.

For example, the doorway of the abandoned building....I hate to see further destruction of the property, not to mention that there is now paint on the sidewalk. Although you might see it as artistic expression, I think it invites more tagging and destruction by others.

I guess my feelings exactly mirror Kathleen's... there is much visual interest in the painted car, the boat, the vehicle... and perhaps even the painted human figure [[or whatever it is). But just splashed about randomly it adds to the destruction, and detracts from the merit of the work.

I too was upset to see all the paint splattered on a public sidewalk in front of the corner doorway. And I hope that wasn't a Cass Tech High School room all splattered with paint. That one was disturbing.

I'm sure the OP now wishes he hadn't posted this thread...

At least the OP has stated that he is now focusing on painting objects in their environment [[like the the cart, boat, car, and hopefully mannequin). But even there try not to further muck up the area around your "object" with splattered paint... and do leave the buildings alone!

[Gistok]

After the shellacing [[pun intended) that this kid got on this forum... I think that this kid may just want to get on with his exhibition... and leave it at that. On the one hand, he could generate some media interest... but if the media approached the topic from an angle of "breaking the law"... then it wouldn't be the kind of exposure to help his artistic cause., and he could get into legal hot water with the city...

One would hope he learned something from this thread, and wish him the best in the future... with an eye towards being more responsible.

[EastsideAl]

You still don't get it, do you? Where you may see emptiness and a potential lawless playground, I see home. And it is home to me and over 800,000 other people. Most of us, believe it or not, law abiding citizens, trying to make the best out of living in a terrible economy with limited resources under often difficult conditions. Then along comes that guy from somewhere else who vandalizes the hell out of vacant houses, classrooms, public bridges, etc. that do not belong to him by spraying neon bright paint all over them and calling it "art." Only that's my city, the city that I, my parents, my cousins, all live in that he's spraying paint all over.

Oh and then there's those cool overgrown kids who decided to go out and snowmobile up and down our streets and freeways, and just to show how cool they think their potentially dangerous foolishness was, they put it up on YouTube. So why did these brain surgeons chose our fair city to do this in? Why not do it in Farmington Hills, or Troy, or Livonia? Because chances are they'd all be in jail now, and their nice little toys confiscated, if they did that.

As several people point out above, these are only the latest incidents of outsiders coming here to my city specifically to do "wild and crazy" goofy crap they wouldn't dare do at home. This kind of stuff has gone on for years now, and it is infuriating for those of us who actually live in your "playground."

Now, like most people, I'd like to see the drug dealers, b&e men, felonious assaulters, etc. thrown in jail. But I'd also like to see these other "just having fun" jerk-offs thrown right in there with them. All of them treat my home like trash and disrespect and diminish the quality of life of myself, my family, and my neighbors. It's just too bad that that would take diverting our precious and deeply understaffed law enforcement to police the actions of over-entitled and under-matured middle class overgrown children who should know better.

[DetroitPole]

What sticks with me most is when I saw a Lions tailgater savagely beat a homeless man for bothering him...
Rest assured DPD was not happy with him when they showed up, and I'm sure they saw to that he got what was coming to him...

The bright spot is that it is a double-edged sword and these risk-takers operate in an environment where their punishment can be meted out to them quite arbitrarily...street justice is unforgiving.

Detroit: where you'll get what you deserve.

[detroiturbex]

I too was upset to see all the paint splattered on a public sidewalk in front of the corner doorway. And I hope that wasn't a Cass Tech High School room all splattered with paint. That one was disturbing.

It was. I was walking around that floor with a Cass Alum who was explaining the difficulties in rehabbing a building like Cass. We came to that room, and he didn't understand why paint had been thrown everywhere. When I told him it was probably someone's idea of "art," he had a lot to say about how this sort of thing negatively impacts the rehabilitation prospects of a building.

Not like it was going to be a deal-breaker with Cass, but you get the idea.

[canuck]

I think the worst thing about that "art project", is that it screams "ordinary".
I would rather stand back in an empty warehouse and contemplate its history and details. If I come across a splattered room someone promotes with self-indulgent drivel, poorly thought out, and badly written; chances are the "vacant shell of a building" will win out.

There was one artist in particular who died at age 35 in 1978 and did some pretty interesting and potent stuff in the seventies where he would cut derelict buildings in amazing sculptural forms. And he didnt put out obscure and pathetic artist's statements to shroud the work in mystic crapola. Check out Gordon Matta Clark's work on the web. Now, he did cross the line and vandalized to some extent mostly buildings that were scheduled for demolition. But his work had the same potency that the vacant architecture has when it begins to speak to you.


http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate...ing/attlee.htm

[Hamtragedy]

I wondered who the smartass was that threw paint all over my favorite boat over there behind the Milwaukee lofts, and on the doorway and concrete on the building at Milwaukee and Russell.

WTFEver.

Eastside Al I agree with you 100%

[Gistok]

Detroiturbex... when I saw the arched windows and the rather high up views of downtown in the background... I thought... oh God... don't tell me that's old CT!!

The mention of the snowmobiling in the city got me wondering... in the Balduck Park area I've seen tracks going across people's lawn and all... and thought WTF... who's doing this?? Time to start putting some large stones around the property... to mess up some peoples fun... and machinery...

[socks_mahoney]

I think this is awesome. All the buildings are clearly already beyond repair. The generation that let this all rot lost their say in what happens to it a long time ago.....

I say keep up the good work JohnKuhnPhoto and welcome to the forum.

keep putting light into the darkness.

[johnkuhnphoto]

I like the photos of the painting environments you did. The colors are perfect with the rusted "canvas."

When I took the train out of D.C. in 2009, I realized why some people do graffiti art. it's too cover up ugly places.

exactly what im saying

[johnkuhnphoto]

...on property that is not yours to alter.

Which means that, sometimes, buildings are broken into.





Dear John Kuhn:

I hope you get arrested. Other than that, I am amazed that you would go on a public forum and admit to these crimes and use your real name.

im not admitting anything. i just showing

[johnkuhnphoto]

If CCS implicitly approves of this type of activity, they deserve a little less respect and maybe a visit from the cops to their event.

Wasn't it also a CCS project a few years ago where they were painting on parking meters, etc... some kind of fish or something stupid like that?

no idea on the parking meters...

[johnkuhnphoto]

plus the work really screams cliche. I really prefer the less self-conscious and rich graffiti in the city. sorry.

cliche. hows that?

[johnkuhnphoto]

Tyree Guyton called and wants his idea back.

It's just not original, it's cliche, and doesn't exhibit any talent. Do what you got to do, but I don't think the MET will be calling any time soon.

How does it resemble Tyree Guytons work?