Art and Advertising

Some state that art is closely linked to advertising. This relationship can work both ways, one inspiring the other, or the other way around.

While it’s fairly new to be green in advertising, street artist have been eco-minded for a longer period of time. Reverse graffiti has been around for more than eighty years and has developed from writing simple statements on cars like “wash me” to creating beautiful and tremendous pieces of art. Resources have expanded from water to even using sand or moss to create a shape or message.

Take Moose for example, no not the animal, but the pseudonym of Paul Curtis the street artist. He was one of the first that discovered the power of cleaning. His tools are simple, using a shoe brush and water. He calls himself “the professor of dirt”, creating beautiful pieces of art. He got inspired when he worked as a dishwasher, spotting some dirt on the wall, and creating an even bigger spot by cleaning it. In the end he cleaned the whole wall, because of the big contrast between dirty and clean spots.

Doug Pray made an interesting documentary of one of his biggest works, cleaning a tunnel in San Francisco, drawing pictures of indigenous Californian plants, which had grown there if the tunnel didn’t exist. Please feel free to become a fan and watch the documentary on our GreenGraffiti® Facebook. The contrast between the dirt and clean spots is highly visible.

Street artist Edina Tokodi is a fairly new ‘graffiti’ artist, putting a new spin on green tactics and takes it to another level. This lady studied graphic art and design at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts and also completed urban design course work in Milan, Italy.

The work of Tokodi can be touched and felt and with here artwork she hopes to recreate the relationship between nature and the city people. By seeing and feeling her art they hopefully get in touch with nature again.

She creates different shapes and forms, mostly animals or plans vivid in her memory from when she was living in Central Europe. The green colour of the moss is in great contrast with the surrounding area’s sheathed in steel, glass, pavement, and stone...

Tokodi strongly believes that the reactions of passers (or the lack of any reaction at all) is a real indicator of a deeper malaise that we need to pay attention to and reseed with “mentally healthy garden states” and direct interactive engagement.

So there is moss and water to use. But when I thought I’ve saw it al, I found this video, surfing the Internet, of twenty-four year old Kseniya Simonova, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table portraying how ordinary people where affected in The Great Patriotic War in Ukraine.

Everyone has seen sand castles before, but this is a unique practice that amazed a lot of people so far. This video speaks for itself so there’s no need to elaborate anymore on this.

Perhaps, when we have had a lot of practice, these techniques may come in handy one day for GreenGraffiti®. It’s always good to be inspired, keep track on what is going on in the art world and have big dreams, but for now, lets focus on refining our water practices before we dare compete with these artists!