Sticker Project For My Graffiti Class!

This semester, I had the unique opportunity to take a special class, Urban Interventions, which focuses on studying graffiti, street art, and public sculpture. In this class, I learned all about famous street artists as well as the history behind street art and how artists think when creating sculpture and art using the streets as their canvas. 

For my final project in this class, I was given the opportunity to create an art piece to put on the streets, and I decided to opt to create a sticker. I wanted to combine my passion for art with my academic background in the natural sciences. Initially, I struggled to find a starting point, but I delved into the work of other street artists who combined science and art to get inspiration. 

One standout was SHOK-1, known for its X-ray-style murals. His work mimics the look of real X-rays, created entirely freehand without stencils or tape, which was quite impressive. I was fascinated to learn that SHOK-1’s background in science informs his art, using it to comment on the depth of human emotion and his frustration with superficiality. 

Another source of inspiration was Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, a street artist whose murals are vibrant, large-scale tributes to scientific discoveries and the work of female researchers. For instance, one mural was drawn from a female astronomer's research about black holes and connected to the women of New York City. Another piece uses climate change research as a metaphor for intimacy and human connection. Amanda’s work intrigued me because it highlights scientific findings and adds a layer of gender. These two artists showed me how science can serve as both a foundation and a subject for art. 

While brainstorming my project, I began reflecting on a key element often unnoticed in street art: the surfaces themselves. Artists create their works on walls, metal shutters, brick facades, and other urban materials, but these surfaces rarely get the appreciation they deserve. Without them, street art as we know it wouldn’t exist. This realization became the foundation of my idea.

My final project aimed to create a series of stickers that celebrate street art canvases. To incorporate my scientific background, I focused on the molecular bonds forming these surfaces. For example, concrete, a popular medium for murals, is made up of calcium silicate hydrate, while the metal shutters in front of shops consist primarily of iron or steel. By visually representing these bonds in my designs, I allowed viewers to glimpse the surface's internal structure. 

To get started, I drew out different variations of the internal bonds of two structures: metal and concrete. Then, I added different backgrounds and played with the background to create my final drafts of the stickers. Then, I went to a local printing shop and got my stickers printed. After this, it was finally time to hit the streets. When I approached this phase of my project, I decided to focus on surfaces that themselves were underappreciated. For instance, a metal box with lots of graffiti that was unlikely to get noticed by someone walking by. Or, a wall filled with beautiful street art that is covered by a series of large trashcans, making it unnoticeable to the viewer who is walking by. I focussed on these sorts of locations and surfaces and put my sticker on there to bring more notice to them. Overall, I had a wonderful time creating and executing this project and learned such an amazing amount of information about street art.