I feel like graffiti has become a dirty word that you have to clean up by using the term “street art.” Or maybe you consider them two different things. But there’s no denying graffiti’s value as an art form. You might see crappy tags or colorless bubble letters and think they’re ugly. Often, that spray-painted crap was the beginning of something great. But graffiti is illegal, so the artist probably had to run before finishing their work. Imagine what happens when you take a huge warehouse with endless walls, and let graffiti artists go nuts without the fear of getting popped. Endless Canvas is an organization that finds ways to make this happen, yielding arresting results (no pun intended).
When I noticed my nephew doodling a character created by prolific Bay Area artist GATS, I practically grabbed him by the sleeve and ran down to the latest Special Delivery exhibition curated by Endless Canvas. Remembering my own teenage art experiences, I recognized that graffiti is often one of the first and most accessible ways for kids to notice art, and I wanted him to see what GATS could do indoors. We were lucky to sneak into the last viewing of Special Delivery at a Berkeley warehouse owned by art collector, Alan Varela. It was a known graffiti spot that had been abandoned for over a decade, and Varela liked what he saw on the walls. He wanted to give the artists a chance to do one last piece and show off their work before the space is sandblasted and occupied by his business. He’ll later commission about ten of the artists to do permanent works.
