28 April 08

Cans of spray paint, a face mask, a joint compound spatula, white cardboards, magazines and finished artworks lay about the floor on Kärtnerstrasse surrounding Johanna Schörkhuber, a spray paint artist.

Spray paint art is an artform utilizing spray paint and performed on posterboard or wood. It differs from traditional graffiti in that graffiti is performed on buildings, trains and the like, as opposed to more traditional art surfaces. This is a unique form of art that is generally performed on the street in large metropolitan cities creating surreal landscapes of planets, comets, pyramids, cities, nature scenes as well as simple one-colored backgrounds or even multi-colored backgrounds where the paint swirls together or fades from one color to the other through a series of differing values (of each color). Wikipedia.

I arrived after Johanna finished spraying one piece of work with orange-yellow background. In between taking shots, I disturbed her to ask if I would be allowed to post her photo and her works here. She smiled and being in the middle of work asked me to wait until she's finished.

Ten minutes after scraping, spraying, and texturing she proudly presented her work to everyone in the crowd, followed by an applause.

After introduction, I asked for permission to upload these photos. The journalist in me can't help to interview her a little more (hehe). She comes from Austria, unfortunately escaped my memory where in particular and has been practicing this art for more than 2 years now.

(Janet, thanks for the additional info about where exactly the place is, this is just above the stairs in Stephansdom.) Pardon me for lack of time, I have been outside the city, photos of which you would see here later.

Back to Johanna, the streets in this area is pretty much her open gallery, she said. She isn't everyday there though, but often stays there with her art. So in case you happen to be in the city, try stopping by and take home one of those surreal and wonderful artwork of hers. It was really a great opportunity that I met this talented lady while walking about in the city. Johanna, thank you for your time and for allowing me to feature you here. (Hope I'd be able to post this in German soon...*sigh*).

More of Johanna's artworks later. =)