Street Business: From Graffiti Artist to Entrepreneur

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2018-07

Department

Program

MA in Cultural Sustainability

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

This work may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States

Abstract

This Capstone project examines and explores current cultural transitions of one modern graffiti artist. For many graffiti and street artists, the transition from the streets to the gallery is nothing new, but for an artist like Jason Eatherly, it has been a way to turn a single image into a career. Eatherly’s transition, over the past six years, from graffiti and street artist to fine artist and entrepreneur raises questions of identity, recontextualization, authenticity, and commoditization. Creating a dialogue around these themes could illuminate alternate paths for other street artists looking to make a career out of their chosen medium of self-expression. Through this project, I have identified different audiences, context, and my positionality on this topic through a Cultural Sustainability lens.