Here are some answers/responses to some of the questions we have been asked since posting our diatribe. They paraphrase many of the things we have been asked and our answers help us to clarify our position. The whole point of this website is to start a dialogue about what is good and what isn’t and how to make it better. Please ask more, we love to respond.

Why don’t you do something better instead of complaining about the crap that is out there? Why spend all of this energy putting other people down instead of just getting up yourself? Who the fuck do you think you are?

We don’t view this as a waste of energy. We think CHALLENGING our peers and the up-and-coming generation of street artists is an important thing to do. If all we did was congratulate everyone who has “street art campaign”, we would have to be blind. If we were just to bitch to ourselves and not try to do something about it, now that would be a waste of energy. But instead, we are trying. We are trying to get people to think. If that takes starting some beef (something sorely absent from street art in our opinion), if it takes putting some people on defensive and asking them to be artistically accountable for their actions, then so be it.

We care because street art is important to us and today it looks like shit. We have done street art, we have done graffiti and we do get up ourselves, so don’t worry. And we try to think about all the issues we raise here when doing our own art.

So why don’t you tell me who you all are?

Because the anonymity is what makes it fun and it lets us get away with saying things we might otherwise not have the balls to. That is why we ALL use fake names, because it keeps us a little safer and lets us be a little dangerous. We read a good Oscar Wilde quotation recently, it goes something like: “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”  (Yes, we did just quote Oscar Wilde. Deal with it.) And it isn’t about what we do; it is about what you do.

Isn’t what you are doing with your stickers the same thing as what you are complaining about on the site?

Yes and no. Yes in that they are mass-produced stickers with a web site on them (puke), but no in that the stickers are not trying to be art. The stickers themselves are not the point, they are not the project, and the stickers are not, in and of themselves, important. They are a medium to discuss an idea.

Our beef with most sticker campaigns is that they try to make the sticker important. How is putting up a bunch of stickers with some half thought out image on it art? Is that it? Is that all we get? Where did this icon come from and why is it iconic? 90% of the stickers we see are pointless (and no, that’s not a good enough point.). Most of the time, they look like ads. Today, it’s a challenge to even distinguish between the two. On one hand we have ad agencies marketing on the street with stickers and posters, while on the other we have artists trying to brand themselves and build a client list from the backs of Do Not Walk signs. And everyone is using the same printer. All the talk about the power and freedom of the street is null and void if it just becomes a big ole billboard. Street art should not be a pre-requisite to a graphic design job or a gallery show. Street art should be outside because it is necessary. Street art shouldn’t be important because it is outside.

We try to use our stickers to speak to the people whom we go over and anyone else watching. It is an admittedly flawed method, but if you want to talk to someone, you have to speak the language.

Why do you care so much what other people do? Why do you hate street art?

Street art is great, when done well. The point of the project is NOT that ALL street art blows, just the vast majority of it. We care because it is a medium with so much potential, and so much f it is going to waste. Street art has the stage, but it’s not stepping up to the plate.

The point of the project is to get street art practitioners to think about what they are doing, not just to settle for what is being done. The bar right now for what is considered “good” street art is sickeningly low. We are just trying to encourage people to TRY HARDER and THINK MORE. Rest assured, we don’t put stickers over quality street art, just the crap.

I did graffiti for 10 years and then I got married and had kids. Now I do street art because I don’t want to get arrested. I know what I’m doing, so don’t go over me.

Fine, great, that’s cool. Most of the writers of the train era now rock permission walls and graffiti jams. Is it cool? Sure. Why?  Because of the graffiti they have done in the past. Is it graffiti? No, it’s a mural.

If you get old and just want to put up stickers, fine, great, but don’t expect it to have the same potency as when you were putting up stickers, catching tags AND doing fills on pull down gates. Stickers and stencils should be one tool in a graffiti writer’s bag of tricks. They should be part of a whole, not an easy alternative. If you view them as such, an easy alternative, you should understand that ONLY doing them is sub par. Especially as a former graffiti writer.

Does that mean we feel that only spray paint, tag-based graffiti is good? No, but if graffiti is what you want to do, and you are only doing this “street art” thing because it is easy, don’t play it off like it’s the realness. Challenge yourself. Look at the graffiti writers who have really paved the way for street art, they all have developed new mediums and methods for their work, they didn’t just go back to putting up stickers. If you are bored with graffiti after doing it for so long, why are you basically still doing it, but only using the easy methods? Why not try something REALLY new?

“The long and the short of it is that you're using the same language as war-mongers and ignorant Republicans with your 'keep your art to yourself' crap. Not only is it arrogant, it’s censoring other people.” (THAT WAS IN A REAL E-MAIL REALLY SENT TO US!!! NO JOKE!!)

Okay, we could make the argument that ALL ILLEGALLY POSTED ART is, in a way, similar to the Republican war mongering that has been going on as of late

A lot of people, especially the owners of the buildings you post your “art” on, probably aren’t too happy to see it. You could say you are shoving it down their throats, forcing your ideas and your singular vision on the city, whether like it or not (anyone who says all land is stolen land gets smacked). Realize that your “freedom” of art could be seen as “holding down” or “oppressing” the person who has to deal with the consequences of your actions. There are two sides to every coin and someone has to spend their money and their time cleaning up your mess. Does this mean you shouldn’t do it? Of course not, just make it count.

One idea frequently waved around is about the freedom street art provides, that exists outside the gallery system and it is a truly democratic medium (it’s not really, but more on that another time). Well if you don’t like the idea of other people telling you what to do or where to show your art, don’t call foul when someone defaces your defacement. Something about a pot and a kettle comes to mind.

The writer here accused us of censorship. Censorship of an ILLEGAL MEDIUM is an interesting idea. If anything is censorship it is the society we live in making laws and regulations about where art can go. Our point is not where street art MAY go; it is where art CAN go and, more importantly, what it should do once it gets there. Having someone react to your work is called “what happens when you put your art outside.”  It is one of the nasty side effects of operating in “a free world that isn’t regulated by the gallery system.” The nice thing for us about working in the “freedom” of the streets is that you can say whatever the fuck you want. You did, remember?

Who are you, the style police? Why do you think your opinion should count for shit?

One of our strong beliefs is that if you don’t agree with something you shouldn’t just accept it with a shrug, you should try to change it. For us, that something is the direction street art is going in these days. The vast majority of media coverage of street art is from a human-interest perspective, not a critical art perspective. “Oh, look what the kids are doing” can be great, but once you have the attention of the public, if they find nothing, they will stop looking. We shouldn’t let this happen. This laissez-faire attitude of if it’s art on the street, it’s got to be good has gone far enough.  If we can’t trust outsiders to offer us criticism beyond “keep it up, it is so radical” or “stop vandalizing,” it is up to us to examine ourselves. It is time for everyone to step up their game and for us practitioners to start expecting more from each other. Because if we don’t, who will?