Boys learn graffiti from a master

Experienced graffiti artist, Ashley Goudie, is on a mission to teach people all about the culture, language, techniques and laws of modern day Street Art and Subway Art.

Ashley visited the Junior School four times recently to spend time with each of the Year 6 art classes sharing with them first the theory of Street Art and then demonstrating some of the skills he has built up over the last three decades.

The boys were in awe with how, in a very short time, Ashley was able to build his image from blocks of colour to something that really ‘popped’.  They were also amazed how the art practices they have learnt in class over the last couple of years with their art teacher Amanda Foulds, also applied to Street Art.

Art lessons

Ashley spent a lot of time talking to the boys about the legalities of Street Art – what’s ok and what’s not.  Many were surprised to learn that not all graffiti is illegal, and there are some places in Melbourne where it is OK.  In contrast, they also learned it is illegal to carry spray paint and that every illegal tag on trains and in lanes is documented by the police on special software, Vandal Tag. It shocked them to learn that if a graffiti writer gets caught for one illegal tag, the police will check the database and the tagger will also get caught for any other instances of illegal tagging recorded in the past.

The culture and ‘rules’ amongst the artists themselves are also interesting and something the boys learned about last week when they actually visited the city for a street art tour with graffiti artists.  One example, “Don’t cap if you can’t burn’ meaning don’t paint over someone else’s work unless you can do a better job.

The session finished with Ashley creating a tag for each boy – on paper of course!