Artist Stament:

ARTISTIC IMPRESSIONS - A PHOTOGRAPHER’S VIEW OF GRAFFITI

I’m attracted to graffiti. The vast array that decorates the Oakland rail corridor is like candy to my eye. I found an absolute treasure trove residing in abandoned industrial buildings near the Alameda estuary. The shapes and colors, the attitude and energy, the deteriorated, underbelly settings thrill my artistic sense. My intent is not necessarily to document someone else’s work, rather it is to pick out that portion that, to my photographer’s eye, can stand on its own as an interesting, emotional composition.

Then there is what I call scrubbings: the results of someone attempting to cover over or scrub out whatever it was that offended them. Inadvertently they become both simple and complex, colorful, moody art objects, seemingly drawn from an abstract expressionist tradition. I literally search them out and put a frame around them.

So it’s not just graffiti we are looking at. These photographs document an artistic impression.

Jeff Cullen September 2010

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