PİRİ REİS UNIVERSITY COMPULSORY

READING WORKSHEET WEEK 3

DELTA REGULAR

READING EXAM PRACTICE

From Graffiti to Galleries

Urban artist takes street art inside

1. Graffiti is often defined as illegal painting and drawing in public places. Doze Green,
however, has a different opinion. Green is an artist, but his art is graffiti. Doze once used only
public places -such as brick walls, freight trains, and alleys of New York - as his canvases.
His artistry was not only unknown, it was illegal. Now, however, his pieces line art gallery
walls from Milan to Manhattan, and corporations commission his work. Green says this
transition from street artist to gallery artist was unexpected: 'Never in my wildest dreams did
I think that Painting subway train… would lead up to galleries and museum shows.

2. Green's real first name is Jeff, but he earned his nickname Doze'- which means 'to sleep'-
in junior high because he used to fall asleep or daydream in class all the time. The nickname
has stayed, Green says, because it represents who he is today. 'I'm a Dreamer… I'm always in
the dream state, so to speak, thinking about ideas."

3. Green's love for graffiti began in junior high school when his school sponsored a special
graffiti event. Graffiti artists from Manhattan and the Upper West Side came down to do a
mural. A mural is a painting that covers an entire wall or large part of it, and Green thought it
would be exciting to be part of such a big project. Therefore, he joined the contest. He did not
win, but he says that the experience 'sparked something' in him.

4. When Green was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, many of his classmates joined gangs.
He says: ‘New York at the time was going through a serious recession.’ According to Green,
many kids joined gangs in order to feel like they were ‘part of something’. But everyone
knows that gangs can be dangerous and violent. People even get killed. Green believes that
graffiti prevented him for getting into more serious offenses, such as fighting or stealing.
‘[Graffiti] got me on a more positive direction towards expressing myself instead of
smashing a window or smashing a head,' he says.

5. Eventually Green came in from the street and started painting in a studio in Brooklyn.
One of his first attempts to make money from his art was designing corporate logos However,
he eventually felt that the work became repetitive and didn't allow him to express his
creativity. He began painting again. Gradually, more and more of his pieces appeared in
galleries, and Green got more attention.
6. Meanwhile, Green noticed that graffiti artists were not the only ones who were trying to
reach people in urban areas. Advertisers wanted to reach a younger and more diverse
audience and, as a result, were using some of the same methods he used. He began to see
advertising on buses and trains. Green remembers that when he was still working on the
street, he and others would cover trains with tags and other graffiti, yet it was illegal. The
new advertising technique copied their illegal art, but it was legal because corporations paid
for it.

7. However, this new acceptance has opened doors for Green. For example, Green has
created large murals on street walls for companies who want to reach a new market, including
child, teen and young adult shoppers, only now he gets paid for it. ‘It helps them; it helps us,'
he says. ‘It creates a great publicity for their image, youth- oriented. It's now. It's fresh.’

8. While his corporate work earns him a good income, Green says it can also cause a bad
reaction from fellow street artists if he does too much of it. Street artists believe that too
much corporate work lessens, or decreases, the power and honesty of street graffiti. So Green
is selective about the corporations he works for. 'I won't work with certain corporations
because of their practices overseas in manufacturing certain clothing companies, certain soda
companies.’

9. Green sometimes joins up with a disc jockey to create original works in front of a live
audience. For Green, an audience can include potential clients, customers, or city residents.
The practice, which he has been doing for ten years, reflects his roots - the foundation of his
art. Before he became a successful artist, he was just interested in expressing himself through
graffiti. 'For me, it was almost like being a musician,' Green says. He likes the pure
spontaneity, or the total lack of planning. ‘Just a man, an audience, and his canvas alongside
his music.’

10. Through his corporate work and his gallery work, Green says he has been able to
maintain his creativity. ‘think I’ve retained that rawness,' Green says. ‘That will always be
there. That's not going to leave. What I'm doing, it's a new Vocabulary… new ways of
looking at the same thing... Whether it's accepted by the elite or the guy in the street, what's
important to me is people in general feel my work.’
 From Graffiti to Galleries

PART A: Write the correct paragraph number next to subtitles:

1) From the Street to Wall Street __________

2) Rawness of a Street Artist __________
3) Graffiti or Art? __________
4) A creative Outlet __________

PART B: What is the main idea of the text?

1- Doze Green became interested in painting graffiti sponsored by his junior high school.
2- Graffiti is a street art that many people pay attention to and now there are a lot of artists
who paint graffiti on the streets in New York.
3- Graffiti artist Doze Green has made a transition from street artist to gallery artist.
4- Doze Green, who was a gallery artist, didn’t expect to be a famous graffiti artist.

PART C: Choose T (true) or F (false) for each statement. CORRECT THE FALSE
STATEMENT.

1) Doze Green shows his work from Milan to Manhattan. T F

______________________________________________________________

2) Doze Green used to daydream in class. T F

______________________________________________________________

3) Doze Green joined a gang in the 1970s. T F

______________________________________________________________

4) A graffiti usually covers a larger area than a mural. T F

______________________________________________________________

5) Doze Green worked together on a project with artists

from Upper West Side and Manhattan. T F
______________________________________________________________

6) In his Brooklyn studio Doze Green designed corporate

logos which didn’t let him be creative. T F
______________________________________________________________

7) Doze Green tried to reach urban people as well as

younger audience. T F
______________________________________________________________
8) Doze Green opened his own art gallery. T F
______________________________________________________________

9) Doze Green creates original work in front of a live audience. T F

______________________________________________________________

10) Doze Green doesn’t like planning. T F

______________________________________________________________

PART D: Answer the following questions

1) What kind of art does Doze Green create?

______________________________________________________________

2) When did he start creating his art?

______________________________________________________________

3) Who is Doze green’s work commissioned by?

a) small businesses
b) corporations
c) galleries
d) film companies

4) Write 3 public places where Doze Green used to paint graffiti:

a) __________
b) __________
c) __________

5) How did graffiti have a positive effect on Doze Green?

______________________________________________________________

6) Why did Doze Green not like designing corporate logos?

______________________________________________________________

7) Why did Doze Green start painting graffiti?

______________________________________________________________

8) Why are some graffiti artists against Doze Green?

______________________________________________________________
PART E: What do these words in the text refer to?

1. “he” (paragraph 2, line 1) _______________

2. “it” (paragraph 2, line 3) _______________
3. “they” (paragraph 4, line 3) _______________
4. “him” (paragraph 4, line 5) _______________
5. “me” (paragraph 4, line 6) _______________
6. “him” (paragraph 8, line 1) _______________
7. “it” (paragraph 8, line 2) _______________
8. “their” (paragraph 8, line 5) _______________

Vocabulary

PART F: Find a word from the text for the definitions below:

1. _______________ goods that are carried by trains, trucks, ships or aircraft

2. _______________
3. _______________
4. _______________
5. _______________
6. _______________
violation of law, custom, rule or any public wrong, crime
doing or saying the same thing several times
money you make by working
someone who lives in a particular place
to not have something, or not have enough of something

PART G: Circle the correct version of the word.

1. Tourists usually ask other people for a recommend/ recommending/ recommendation when
they look for a restaurant.

2. Friendships can be extremely complicate/ complicated/ complication in day-to-day life.

3. We should select/ selection/ selective what we wear, what we say and how we behave very
carefully during a job interview.