THE ART OF BROWNSVILLE - COMMENTS

Hi! Well I was in Brownsville this past Turkey Day weekend and I tried to work in some "research" between eating meals. LOL. I guess that's what every college students does when they go home...Sleep, Eat ALOT, Sleep, Eat ALOT, and the ocassional movie at Movies 16. Well about my research...I went to the Border Patrol office at "El Puente Nuevo-- Viejo"(now outdone by El Puente Viejo--Nuevo and Los Tomates) and I was disappointed to hear that I was not able to collect the clothes refugees leave behind. I was hoping to use them for an installation. The agents were very nice but were puzzled at my request for clothes. It was the same look I got when I went to the Goodwill Blue Hanger at Austin when I paid for mismatched shoes. I will probably not go to the river bank looking for clothes because in reality it does seem like a very dangerous job and I do not want to get shot down by some coyote or mistaken for one by the Border Patrol. Too much danger involved and I think I can recreate a scene for an installation just using items I would collect by a safer means. After I left the Border Patrol, I went scouting the Brownsville neighborhoods for graffitti. Austin has some good graffitti artists and I always think that a community that has a great fine arts venue would also have a counter or underground art community usually occupied by non-traditional artsits like graffitti artists. Please note that when I say graffitti art, I do mean art and not gang graffitti. In larger cities, some gang graffitti may have more of an artistic bent, but as I had noticed in Brownsville, most of the graffitti I saw were scratchy territorial markers by local gangs. I know most Brownsville residents would hate to see a rise of hip-hop graffiti in their community, but I really think that if art is not being expressed through young artists by this mean, then something is amiss in Brownsville art education. Just to clear this through, graffitti has been a part of urban culture since early civilization. From my search, I did not see a concern for aesthetics or conceptualization in Brownsville graffitti. Some how art is still not an embedded presence in the youth culture of Brownsviile. I am still working on my theory, so let me develop more ideas on this before the tomatoes get thrown my way! By the way, I am not a graffiti artist and I don't think I have the guts to be one. I am just aware and appreciative of its presence as an artistic outlet and venue, but I do not support the vandalization of private and public properties. I have added some links about Graffiti to my links list so check them out! It's pretty cool!
Here are some links about graffiti that I want to share. Enjoy!
Graffiti.org
Texas Graffiti
Keith Haring
Jean Michel Basquiat