KAWS – The Psychology of Graffiti

It’s just simply hilarious that when Jersey-born Brian Donnelly moved to NYC in the 90s, he was a Disney animator by day and illegal graffiti artist by night. He created the KAWS tag, because he liked the uniqueness of the letter composition and phonetics.

He eventually began to evolve from tagging, to subverting posters and billboards in an aesthetically-pleasing, artistic fashion. This seemingly marked a subtle shift in mentality from mildly-artistic vandalism to mildly-vandalistic art. Certainly, this new venture was considerably more attention-grabbing.

It’s things like his dystopian take on Mickey Mouse, and emphasis on characters with a shy or powerless pose, that meant we had to acquire some of his work. We think these works relate to our belief in accepting and celebrating the kaleidoscopic nature of human emotion.

Studies into the psychology behind graffiti, and tagging in particular, suggest the motivations lie in “showing the world I’m here”. 

It’s interesting that KAWS commented on his collab with Uniqlo, “I felt like I needed to do something to exist on a more candid level. They have 2000 stores, and we just blanketed the globe”. 

Despite now being construed as a legitimate artist, perhaps there remains that youthful motivation to ‘tag’ the world.