At the Art Alley Artist Guild's usual Friday morning coffee at The Factory we  were discussing art and how art relates to life - as we usually do - and the  word "uppity" was used in regards to art. A lot of times art becomes uppity. Is it supposed to be uppity?

Art Alley seems anything buy uppity, but I can easily see it becoming uppity.  When I think of bohemian street artists I always think of Jean-Michel Basquiat.  Basquiat was essentially a homeless teenage drug addict running with the SAMO  crew in Lower Manhattan during the late 1970's who couldn't hardly give away his paintings - much less sell them -  but then he met Warhol. Warhol made his  art "Uppity" and the world changed for him. The last Basquiat I saw sold went for $14.9 million at auction.

Is art uppity? Should it be? Does it get better or worse when it becomes  uppity? It becomes worth a lot more money when it becomes uppity. Is it better when it becomes worth more money or is it still exactly the same?


　

So much happens in Art Alley every week.. It occurred to the Art Alley Artists' Guild that it would be great if the community had an opportunity to get a recap of these things, whether it be a traveling artist who creates a new mural, or the goals and topics that we discuss at our Friday coffee and conversations. Here is the recap for this week. Let us know what you think!

Tuesday, 9/15/14- Art Alley Artists' Guild OPEN PAINT SESSIONS
  Art Alley Artists' Guild hosts Open Paint Sessions every third Tuesday of the month. This week Rapid City Public Library brought their teen advisory program down to participate.

Thursday, 9/18/14- The Rapid City Arts Council brought a class from Wyoming's Sundance High School down to Art Alley for a tour. The class was amazed at the variety of work they saw.

Friday, 9/19/14- Art Alley Artists' Guild 8am "Coffee and Conversations" at the Factory Salon. Open to the public. Anyone interested in Art Alley is encouraged to come join in the conversation!
Here is what was discussed.
-Featuring guild member profiles on the blog so people can get to know the people behind the scenes in the alley.
-ways to get artists involved from more genres of art/ welcoming back artists that feel displaced in the alley through collaborative projects.
-we took a look at the generation of local graffiti artists coming up in place of the former generation,  and evaluated our mentorship of them.

We will continue to share these weekly happenings, and encourage you to share with us. We feel it is important to document all the amazing things that happen here, and hope you will help us identify and document these things as well, as all things in this space are so temporary.

A new mural that was started on Sunday night (9/14/14) and completed by the next morning has gone nationally viral in a matter of hours. News of the "Protect The Sacred" mural from honorthetreaties.org is being spread around the internet like wildfire.
The artists responsible for the mural kept a low profile, quietly arriving in town, completing the mural, and then disappearing.
Both nationally recognized muralists, Seattle, WA.-based Cheyenne Randall, and Sante Fe, New Mexico-based Jaque Fraqua teamed up to bring this stunning and massive mural to life in just one night. It is believed that at least one of the two artists, Cheyenne Randall was here last year, and created a smaller mural for the group "Honor The Treaties". Part of that mural, a picture of Chief Oliver Red Cloud, seen in the left in the top right corner of the new mural was left in tact.
Pictures of the mural have already been passed around on social media thousands of times receiving great acclaim in just a matter of hours.
Interestingly, the image of the woman at the center of the piece was also used in a poster for a Unity concert that took place in Piedmont this weekend presented by the Paha Sapa Unity Alliance, Uplift, and the Center for Sacred Studies.

One of the most common complaints I hear from fans - and even those who are not fans - of Art Alley has to do with the random tags/scrawls/lettering that is less about art and more about someone having a can of spray paint or a marker in
the one place he or she can use it on a building without getting in trouble. While I don't necessarily encourage this, it is a critical part of Art Alley's rejuvenation process.

The "Wall Scrawl" - as I call it - takes various forms. Sure, occasionally it is done with malice, but more often it is simply someone having fun and lacking situational awareness of where they are placing their mark. I've even seen parents bring their little kids to The Alley with a can of spray paint for some good old 21st Century fun, Rapid City style. No one expects little kids having fun to produce a great mural or even really notice where they are having their fun, but there isn't anyone - and I mean no one person - who doesn't want families to involve themselves having fun in Art Alley simply because they don't have the skill sets, time and materials some of the other artists do. Art Alley is for everyone.

 In the end, whether it be malice, lack of situational awareness or simply exuberance the end result is the same, Wall Scrawl. But that is why it is necessary. If the art in Art Alley did not eventually become "tagged" over with wall scrawl (or whatever), it would get to a certain point and then stay the same, and that is not what Art Alley is all about. Art Alley is about constant change. The wall scrawl serves the purpose of creating "art erosion" so to speak, so that something great can take its place. Further,
I think the most important places for Wall Scrawl to eventually show up is on the best work, because if it didn't the best pieces and murals would never change. A large part of what makes Art Alley so great is the way that it changes every day and Wall Scrawl helps make that happen.