Reflection

When I first started to write and organize this research paper/blog, I was scared and worried. Scared because I did not know if I would be able to write ten to twelve pages about a topic and worried that I would not bring street art’s and graffiti’s beauty justice. Due to my fear, I failed to fact check a lot of my sources. Therefore, many of the facts that I presented especially about the differences between graffiti and street art are completely different from what I wrote now.

I also dislike the fact that I was not able get interviews from artists in Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. I reached out to the organizations as well as artists, but was turned down because the artists were too busy to answer my questions. I also failed to visit Solano Alley and The Mission District due to time constrictions and my fear of traveling alone on public transportation (I get lost very easily even with the help of a map). I wanted to get personal photos with the murals in both cities and find out the effects of street art in the neighborhood, but I was not able to.

Although there are many things that I was not able to do with this research paper, I am glad that I was given the freedom to write about street art and graffiti. Through the hours of reading books about street artists and writers, I was able to find out the reason of my obsession with public art as well as its impact on my life. Learning more about graffiti’s technical details or the history of street art in America made me realize how much it had personally influenced me to express my creativity and artistry. Not to mention, Sasha’s question during the class symposium about my personal experience with street art, made me not only learn how to tag but also to try and paint a mural (with permission) somewhere on campus. I am so glad that I decided to focus my research on an interest that I purposely forgot I was interested in. I hope that in the future that I learn more about street art and find ways to incorporate it into a successful profession.