Get Fresh

Winta Fresh Graffiti and B-boy Competition
9am-6pm, Saturday, December 13
Tucson Water Department Parking Lot
301 W. Alameda
$7 admission for spectators
Competition registration info below

Although street art is highly controversial and often confused with tagging, one can't deny its ubiquitous influence in commercial graphic design and fashion. This Saturday, local muralist and art educator Rocky Martinez will host the Winta Fresh Graffiti and B-boy Competition, featuring aerosol painting demos, exhibitions, live music and breakdancing. Each artist will paint a 4-foot-by-8-foot section of a wall in the city parking lot behind the Tucson Water Department at 310 W. Alameda St. The resulting mural will be kept for one year. Martinez will also help judge the graffiti competition, along with California artist Jason Williams, aka Revok. Competitors can register on the day of the event. Cost is $5 for graffiti contestants and $7 for breakdancing contestants. Graffiti artists must supply their own paint. Artists must arrive by 9 a.m., while break dancers should be there by noon.

I highly recommend you read through the reader comments on both the Arizona Star and Caliente articles. Street art in general seems to be a hot button issue with a lot of people. Just because something is influential, does that make it right? Is street art one of the few contemporary art forms that is inventive in both content and medium? Can it help inspire young people to be creative and interact with the world around them instead of being fed culture through mass media? Is it a form of decoration in an otherwise bland urban landscape of mass-produced architecture? Tell me what you think, and go to this event with an open mind.