Graffiti Artists Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen

Both Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen were both graffiti artists that did their work on trains and other urban infrastructure. Graffiti art has always been perceived by the general public as a very unconventional and often unappealing form of art. It has never really been embraced by purists of the art world and is often ridiculed in the mainstream aspect of things. However, both McGee and Kilgallen were both commissioned artists that were very determined to practice this type of urban art. Both were influenced by folk art from traditional American to foreign types such as Indian folk art work. There tagging of trains and viewing of other work done by other individuals on trains were very influential and were perceived as a sort of timeline. Though they were graffiti artists, they were also gallery artists, and were thought of by the graffiti world as "sell-outs" to the underground scene.  

Linda Zacks-Artist In review January 27th 2010

Linda Zacks implements a numerous amount of grunge elements within her work. It seems like she likes the look of randomness and makes it possible for her work to gain aesthetic value from it. Her use of crazy colors only adds to the variety of her work which also makes it very interesting from a conceptual point of view. It makes one wonder whether an unconventional, an almost urban-style graffiti themed piece of work can be made into mainstream media, and apparently Linda Zack's work is an excellent source for an example. It almost seems like she is targeting the younger demographic but her work also carries great artistic weight. For instance, her design of eBay's 10th anniversary logo involves many connotative and denotative meanings that surely implement the common message  of opportunity, community, and global trade. In an essence, she is very quintessential in mainstream graphic design, and her blending of different elements to create a unique juxtaposition has given way to a new way graphic design can be taken commercially. 

1,000 Journals

The concept behind releasing 1,000 blank journals into the world by the graphic designer named someguy was truly groundbreaking in the sense that it gave the average person a voice to share their inner most thoughts. During 2000, someguy released the journals into the streets of San Francisco, not knowing what will happen to them. He derived the original premise from the idea of showcasing random bathroom graffiti which would be then implemented into the book itself. The whole plan took approximately two years to complete due to financial constraints. The content of the journals were of various sorts because someguy did not place a limit pertaining to the content represented in the making of the book itself. As a result, hundreds of individuals in over 35 countries wrote some kind of content into the blank journals. In an essence, releasing 1,000 blank journals connected everyone who wrote in them by means of the commonality shared by means of sharing their thoughts in the blank pages provided. Therefore, unifying individuals from all over the world with various backgrounds a voice to be heard via their personal journal entry.