What are the perfect words I wonder.

I’ve loaded an overly complex component or group into the 3-D model for Graffitti Park and it’s causing the little ring thing to come up every time I make any changes. I’m frustrated with it. Every time I make any change- I have to wait and stare at the screen like a zombie until it’s done and it allows me to continue- needless to say- that component, is gone next time I go back. Because I don’t just wait. I can’t just wait. I bring up my e mail, Facebook, news sites, Art news, and come back to it after an article or two- but still, that’s not working, that’s working around.

In any case- in my distracted state, one of the things I’ve done is revise, delete and restart an ad campaign on Facebook for Graffitti Park’s “page” as they like to term it. Not to be confused with the oversimplified “group” page of course. And in that process, I got to thinking- what are the right words? What would be the “perfect” words… to get people to look at, consider, support, and even one day contribute towards this idea that I constructively question each day, and as of yet have not found a reason to abandon it for being any less plausible or full of potential.

But what would be the words one can use to bring people in? What words can be used, to influence people to see what I see?

I mean, limited reviews have been good. Slowly, those who come across the site or who I’ve shown the idea, click “like” or join the group or on a personal level they communicate their approval. that’s appreciated of course. Hopefully, it’s not like an unattractive tie or a haircut one gets, and people aren’t just being polite. I have a select couple of friends who I know are brutally honest with me- because they know I can take it and I appreciate that type of honesty the most. They have both given the thumbs up. But then there are, of personal friends, and family- those who say nothing?

And who can explain such behavior? Lack of attentiveness? Lack of support? Reluctantly, I have to include the possibility of the ever-ugly jealousy? One supposed friend in particular, who I think I have been most flattering in asking their opinion specifically because of their experience in business- has mysteriously said absolutely nothing. After repeatedly requesting that he merely “take a look” and tell me what he thinks… nothing. To which I have taken insult of course- because this project does mean a lot to to me, and because unfortunately this particular friend always seems to think all the others are somehow envious of him and his success, but doesn’t realize apparently how he himself, in situations like this particularly, alienates people and it has nothing to do with anything other than his lack of follow through.

In any case- if anything, that’s done more to motivate me than slow me down, so in a way I am grateful for that person’s typical behavior- and it aligns itself with the general concern…

Are there somehow some magical words that can be spoken, to open people’s hearts and minds to something that would be a good investment, in every respect of the word?

I remember a time where I worked for a small start up advertising company many years ago. But that experience, although enlightening and a learning experience, also served to confirm certain suppositions I’d had from the proletariat point of view. Those suppositions I’d made were that if you came from money, which the founders of this company did, it is generally easier to get others with money, to look at your idea and take out their check books. Rather unfortunate of course- and I’d trade that life experience to have worked somewhere the founders came of meager means of course- but it is what it is, and you can’t change history. I would have liked to witness in them, and in the shareholder meetings I sat in on, that there is philanthropic investment for bare ingenuity- but in that case there was not. The founders were both PhD’s, one from old money in his grandfather’s liquor importing business, and the other form what I could tell, old Manhattan money. Investors that I met were family friends.

Fortunate circumstances that lend themselves for a platform where one could launch new ideas, endeavors, even new technologies and have a shot. For their select audience- I’m sure they had the words- but they also had ready ears. Ready ears, and open wallets- ready to put the money on the line to make something happen. In their situation- they were putting forth a new form of advertising technology- a risky venture indeed, and yet, they had enough willing investors, hundreds of thousands of dollars at their disposal- for research and development, a healthy salary for both of them, payroll, and expenses.

I recently looked up the company, that then wanted to become a multi-national. I found a small obscure website listing most of the staff I knew in my short time with the company- and it looks like they’ve been taken over of restructured under another name, while retaining the original name under that title. I found no news on them more recent than a couple years old. From this vantage point it doesn’t look too good.

By comparison Graffitti Park is not about technology or about taking an established medium and transforming it into something else for consumption by the masses. Instead it’s about taking a medium that is undeveloped, still mainly underground in the United States (as opposed to it’s marketing and development abroad), and legitimizing it not only for mass consumption, but also formalizing (and legalizing) the production process of this art form so that it can be taught to the young people drawn into it (no pun intended) and so it can take it’s rightful place in the art world.

There is less a margin for failure for an idea that takes what’s already out there, struggling to survive under the wire and underground, forcing it’s producers to commit crimes and endanger their lives to be able to express their art form- and legitimizing it, giving it a place to live, to be made safely, peacefully, openly- and taking that product, preparing it and packaging it for the benefit of those artists and the business investors involved- than there is for an idea that is trying to change the world outright.

The world will be changed because of Graffitti Park- make no mistake. But it will not change it by inconveniencing the producer of the product (the artist) or the consumer (art enthusiasts, museums, galleries). It will change the world by improving the connection between both those entities, and improving the platform for new artists, as well as a plethora of improvements to the community surrounding it.

But I can’t force people to see it. All I can do is make it available for it to be seen. I can’t convince people, investors, that there is not only a high rate of return in this type of business, but also a high rate of community benefit to it- meaning the world becomes a better place when something like this comes into play.

With my head buried in the sand of productivity, I admittedly can’t see straight. So I hope that as things move forward, they become clear to me on how to proceed. I need to find the words. The magic words. If not the people to soldier on with me, who believe int he project and want something like this for New York, Los Angeles, or any city with Graffiti, and vandal-artists.

this is how it should be done