Late January 2021
Introduction
Wall art (street art, street murals, whatever) is temporary. The art fades, becomes defaced, gets painted over. I notice a one-time favorite gone. Sometimes I go through my library of images to remember them. Here are a few. You’ve probably seen some before. But they still intrigue me.
Calle Canale
Calle Canale connects Condado to Santurce. It goes underneath the highway separating the two neighborhoods and passes near the Placita de Mercado. Someone, some group, recently painted the bridge abutment.
Apparently ADMCRU identifies the work of a group of street artists. Click here for other examples of their work. I have to admit I don’t particularly like it. And I miss what was painted over. Here are some recent images of the artwork underneath the new paint.
I had long been intrigued by these works and had spent some time editing them. Here are three examples of my edits.
Copyright?
Someone commented on one of my earlier blogs on street art and wondered if I had obtained permission from the artists. He/she wondered if some of the works were protected by copyright. (I inadvertently deleted that comment before I could reply.)
I did some internet research. Here is what I think I learned. I am free to take pictures of wall art – they are public things in public places. I may or may not choose to identify the artist. In many cases, the artist is unidentified, as in the works above. If the artists name is on the mural, I try not to delete it.
I am free to edit my images any way I wish. Once I capture the image, it is mine and I can do with it what I want. I can share my work informally with my friends, and via, for example, this blog.
What I cannot do is use any of the my edits for profit. I can’t sell postcards based on the images without attempting to contact the artist and obtaining his/her permission and, perhaps, contractual arrangement. Which is too bad because I think some of my wall art edits would make attractive post/notecards.
I wonder what happens to a copyright if a work is painted over, as happened here. The original work no longer exists. My images are a record of what was and no longer what is. Does a copyright still pertain? Anyone care to share your thoughts with me?
Other Examples
Here is a comparison of what is now and once was on a wall on a side street near the Placita de Mercado.
You’ve seen this one before. The Woman with Green Face adorned a wall in the Sagrado Corazon neighborhood. She’s long since painted over.
Here is another mural that has long intrigued me, again in the Sagrado Corazon neighborhood.
Defacement
Here is another example of defacement.
I’m not sure how to translate the words on this mural. The best I can do is “Jose Luis Feliciano Pillo the bird the incest . .” And of course loco means crazy. If you can, feel free to send me a better translation.
New?
I noticed this mural the other day, on a side street off of Calle Cerra. I haven’t done any editing yet but I’m cdertainly intrigued.
The 1492 mural interests me. I’ll have to see what do with it once I start my edits. For example, would it be effective in black and white?
Stay tuned.