Mashing it up: Change, Graffiti and a great flick

By now you should know that I am not a great rule follower. I let my kids listen to their music with explicit lyrics during class, allow the use of phones, deviate from the crap curriculum that the district has laid out for use of a more creative states (NYC and WA)that hold art to the highest standard. So the same should be expected as I complete another assignment, in my own way, following instructions, kind of.  Sometimes it is hard to really follow the directions explicitly and keep your focus on the topic at hand. My focus is street art/public art and Social Justice, which I hope you have sensed in my previous posts. 

The assignment: 

Mash up two iconic movie scenes, aim to be subtle. So here's a girl that loves vintage cars, the attire, hair and music. Really I should have been my grandmother's child not my mothers. So there are only a few movies to choose from: Grease( the first one of course), Dazed and Confused, and American Graffiti. Being that one of my focuses is on graffiti, I had to bring one more Brit onto the American scene. The clip is from American Graffiti, and the graffiti is from Banksy. A little play on words I suppose, American Graffiti, British artist, Graffiti in two contexts... You get it, right? 

I suppose I could have follow the directions explicitly, and grabbed some graffiti from West Side Story, but that only came to mind just as I was writing this blog, and that perhaps would have been too subtle or too obvious.  

What you see: 

I used Ps and a film still from American Graffiti, here pictured is Charles Martin Smith "Toad", and Candy Clark as 'Debbie', appropriately they sit and ponder what will come of their relationship as things and time changes as they go off to college. If you are not familiar with the film, it is the perfect stereotypical example of white middle class America set in the 1960's. 

The original picture had a few things to take out: trash can and the reflection in the window of the trash can, to fit the graffiti in. After multiple layers, cutting and re-imaging a bit of the scene, I could place the graffiti in place, using a new layer and changing the opacity helps to create the 'realness', along with a little dodging and burning to re-create highlights and shadows. 

Original Images: 

I picked Banksy's work specifically because of his normal commentary on current society. The sign being held in the graffiti, " keep your coins, I want change".  Even deeper than thinking about departing a relationship, I thought I would throw a little irony in the picture, as that is what they should be thinking about, but of course the actors surrounding removes them from any real cause for deep critical thought on the current progress of society at the time.