In the shadows cast by dumpsters and overgrowth, a man identified as “Outspoken” drops a nondescript bag onto the pavement.
A cigarette lies smashed at his feet, joining the insolvable litter that inevitably peppers an alleyway at 2 a.m. Smoke from the ash leaks into the early morning stillness.
“I like this spot right here,” he calls over his shoulder, gesturing at a blank concrete wall.
With that, he unholsters a spray canister from his bag, a vandal John Wayne, quick on the draw. Stepping back slightly and glancing furtively both ways, he holds the can about 6 inches from his chosen canvas.
Renegade; criminal; artistic. Outspoken begins to paint.
Nervous and fidgety, I scan both ends of the alley for cops every few seconds – Outspoken focuses only on his strokes. Curved letters emerge from the sweeping motion of his right arm, practiced but not perfected penmanship in black spray paint. The letters run together, intentionally.
Within 30 seconds, he’s done.
Bending down, he slides the can back into his bag, then slips the bag back over his shoulder. A few long strides later, he’s standing in the slight light of a street lamp on 16th Street.
During his hour-long journey through Fort Sanders, Outspoken leaves one other signature, this one adorned with white shading on a brown fence several blocks away from the one by 16th Street. But Outspoken is not limited to signatures – later, he stencils an image of a man walking his dog in three more locations. In several spots, Outspoken points to red outlines of Nintendo’s Mario, evidence of his early work.
Outspoken is not the first Knoxvillian to paint public art, and he probably won’t be the last. In the Armstrong/Strong Alley behind Market Square, a city collective called the Artist Alley Revamp Project has claimed the space for artistic expression. They began in 2012, and this summer they painted over some of the older work to make room for new pieces. Pedestrian traffic through the alley – formerly populated only by graffiti taggers and waiters on smoke breaks – has grown since the project started. Tourists walk past trashcans to look at the paintings behind them. Over by Old City Java, the same collective has enlivened a similarly dull pair of walls.
In Fort Sanders, however, there is no art project working to increase tourism or promote artistic expression. We’ve got Solo Cups and homeless guys in our alleys – not coffee-sipping art purveyors.
To the City of Knoxville Public Service Department, graffiti outside designated areas isn’t art at all. It’s vandalism.
In a June 18 press release, Director of Public Service David Brace said, “We understand it’s frustrating to have to spend time and money cleaning up damaged signs and buildings from spray paint and markers, but that’s really the best long-term solution.” According to the statement, the City recently purchased a water-sand pressure washer with money from Central Business Improvement District and the downtown capital improvements fund to clean up the “damage.”
Walking along The Fort’s uneven sidewalks, I see the markings that so frustrate the City. Outspoken points them out – symbols, letters and even crude language; street talk. The tags convey only the tagger’s desire to leave his or her mark. These hasty scribbles on dumpsters and corners are not art; they are physical manifestations of vanity.
Outspoken’s work is different, closer to the paintings behind Cafe 4 than the curse words that decorate so many Fort Sanders alleys. New to the street art scene, Outspoken is still developing his style. But, already, more politically minded stencils – like one involving Chancellor Cheek and our ever-rising tuition – are sketched out in his mind.
“What I really want to do is bring more of a street art to it,” my guide explains as we pass a dumpster covered in another artist’s loopy scrawl. “I want to try to send a message, talk about topical things, make someone’s walk to class better.”
We stop, abruptly, for Outspoken has spotted a clean stretch of concrete. He bends down, whips out a paper stencil, and flashes his spray paint over the page. When he removes the stencil, a man remains, perfectly silhouetted on the wall. He repeats the process, this time leaving a dog to trot eternally at the man’s heels.
It’s a sweetly simple picture, and somehow, I doubt the City will come along with its new pressure washer.
In the gasp between early morning and sunrise, we go separate ways, Outspoken disappearing like his art someday will. I haven’t seen him since, but there’s a boy floating away on red balloons near my apartment, stenciled just like the man and his dog.
I see you Outspoken. I hear your streets talking.
R.J. Vogt is a senior in College Scholars. He thinks UT Art Students should start an artist collective in Fort Sanders like the one in Market Square and can be reached at [email protected].
