Street Art, Time Lapses, and Yarn Bombing

I've recently been reading about street art because I'm supposed to lead a Spanish conversation class on the topic and it turns out that it's incredibly fascinating. 

I didn't really know where to start because I hadn't really put much thought into street art before. Usually when I thought about street art I pictured train cars covered in spray paint, sometimes just for the sake of vandalism, sometimes beautiful and meaningful works of art.

I started thinking about the purpose of street art. There are some pieces that convey political or social messages, but there's also street art that seems to just exist for the sake of art alone, which I think is my favorite thing about it. It's a very versatile art form and even when it's not telling a story or expressing an opinion, it's still sharing a bit of color with the world, which I think is something this world needs more of. 

This of course depends on the context. There's a lot of street art that's beautiful and brings color and life, but there is also street art that brings hate and destruction of public property. I am torn about whether or not in both cases it is still considered art. 

So then I started looking into specific street artists, and came across some pretty cool stuff. 

For example, "Cekis" is a popular Chilean street artist living in New York. I love seeing the murals especially, like the one featured in this video, because it's crazy to think about how much time and planning went into it. 

A friend of mine suggested that I look into Christian Awe, a German street artist and I came across this next video. It's a completely different style, and a fascinating process.

Another one of my favorites that I found is another Chilean artist known as INTI. He creates a lot of similar characters that I find very interesting.

Now I've been absorbed into the world of street art time lapses on YouTube but then all these famous street artists got me thinking about what it really means to be a street artist and if people who are famous for it and do it legally are still considered street artists, and I'm pretty sure they are, but it is definitely a bit different, and there is also definitely something to be said for anonymous street art which gives of a more spontaneous vibe and the secrecy of it all is almost part of what's coolest about it, but anyways I started overthinking it and had to change gears a bit. 

So I start thinking about other types of street art, like music or sculpture, or interactive installations, and I come across something called "yarn bombing" which I had never seen or heard of before in my life but several of my friends who have spent more time in big cities around the world say they've definitely seen examples and for whatever reason it has me fascinated. I think it's because I don't really understand it.

If you are like me and are oblivious to the concept, "yarn bombing" is pretty much just street art with yarn. It appears to be the art of covering stuff with colorful crochet projects, like trees, or bicycles, as if they were cold and needed a sweater. 

There is a possibility strong possibility that I like it because as we've previously established I really enjoy looking at pictures of trees.

Conclusion: Street art? Into it.