The Art of Graffiti, Research Paper Example

All About Graffiti

The very definition of Graffiti has a negative and derogatory meaning. The Merriam-Webster (2013) dictionary defines Graffiti as” To deface with graffiti”. It is also known as a person that illegally paints or sprays art on a wall in distasteful, arrogant manner that is demonstrated in public. The origins of graffiti have been found to be as early as the Rome Colosseum which displays thousands of artist graffiti. In the cleaning of the Rome Colosseum, it was found that the walls had centuries of graffiti that has been covered up. Upon completion of the removal of the calcification has layers and layers of graffiti inscriptions (Williams, 2013, pg.1). The Romans history shows that graffiti has been considered a form of art not a defamation of society drawings. Graffiti is a genuine art with distinct meanings that entails various styles of social expressions. The primary goal of Graffiti is not to destroy property and break the laws of the land. The graffiti is not some child in poverty violating property, tagging garbage gins and desecrating city walls. Their paintings are masterpieces that actual keep them out of trouble. However, the gangbangers and urban gangs that paint the graffiti as marking their territory. Unfortunately, society views of graffiti is not in the kindest nature.

There are some legitimate claims about the damage graffiti can do to a public place, school, or neighborhood. However, the concentration graffiti vandalism is in larger cities but is not the norm for every city in the United States. For example, in Los Angeles, Ca. they spent 28 million in graffiti clean-up (Graffiti Hurts, 2014). Conversely, the same money spent on graffiti cleanup could be spent on providing educational art programs. These funds would be well spent on turning graffiti tagging or artistry into a career or trade. There is a changing in the perceptions about graffiti that searching for platforms for graffitist to paint legally.

Graffiti Social Programs

We often see the cities in the barrios spending millions on new skyscrapers but will not spend money on social and culture program. These social programs allow these children to express their desire to paint in an art school. Some of our greatest Picassos of our times have not been nurtured and groomed for a career of painting or drawing. These same graffiti artist could be the next engineers or drafters that make great contributions to society. The government has cut so many social programs, that graffiti art does not often have community funds to make it apart of the local educational systems. The graffiti art is a social statement that shows the world through the lives of young adults and children that are living it and expressing it on an everyday basis.

Graffiti is a way for a person to express their traditions, culture, and perceptions of the world. There are many subcultures such as street artist, street performers, hip-hop and skateboard cultures. They are contributed to the graffiti art that represents this era (Bartolomeo, 2001, pg.1). The blame can be shared with society because they put all graffiti artist in one category as vandals, thieves, defacers of property and criminals. They are not criminals that paint on walls and garbage cans, furthermore graffiti artists are wrongly penalized when they are not all criminals. There is no denying that society has the existence of graffiti artist. Some are vandals that deface property but not all graffiti artist are criminals. The government should spent more funds to find buildings and walls the graffiti artist can express themselves.

Graffiti Culture

The graffiti culture is disappearing in the United States because they are passing laws that makes graffiti illegal to paint in some cities. There are artist that seeking places to paint graffiti without being arrested or their one of kind art being painted over for a new high rise building. Graffiti painting for many people all over the world believe it is more than just tagging or sketching things with no meaning. To these graffiti artist painting is expression of a way of life. The greatest phenomena about art is the changing over time that defines a culture or community. These graffiti drawings reflect the current social society perceived through the eyes of artist. This individual graffiti art form captures the world in living colors. (Bartolomeo, 2001, pg.2). They have given a piece of their souls to display for the world as they view the pulse of society. The culture today have other avenues to expressing themselves with freedom of speech allow the freedom. However, the culture today has to suffer the enigmas of graffiti artist even when they are doing something positive and beautiful.

Graffiti Modern Culture

The modern culture has a lot to say about war, the economy, the attacks on the United States and the disappearance of social programs to help the poor and disadvantage. The artist that paints for the imagery is not the same as a graffiti writer who writes a culture language like violent gang members writing about their turf. The true graffiti artist has put a great deal of time, respect, and ingenuity into their paintings. In the world today, there is a growing advocates worldwide believe graffitist are a legitimate art form. The world also recognizes that these street movements have presented the world through the eyeglasses of future generations (Mettler, 2012, pg.252). Their paintings reflect cultural, economic, political, and social climates that we live in today. They are not used as brutal warnings about invading a drug or gang territory.

This behavior by gangs is considered the same as a talented graffiti artist. The perception is anyone who paints a mural in the community is a vandal, who is recognized as a criminal, deviant, or gang member. The culture has change concerning the graffiti artist perceptions. Many people have careers as graffiti artists who are contributing to society. Jason Roles, an artist who graduated from Kuztown University in Pennsylvania, has a local and international exhibits of his graffiti paintings. In addition, Jason paints fascinating paintings on walls in abandoned buildings (Featured Artists, 2014, pg.6)

Teaching Graffiti in art schools

The attitudes concerning graffiti has shifted in the modern culture. In the 1960s, you would never find a workshop for street art and graffiti. There are schools like Write of Passage and Mass Appeal that will be teaching six-week courses in 2013 based on the difference between street art and graffiti. The programs such as signature analysis, workshops, and exhibitions will be sponsored by Red Bull (Ryzik, 2013, pg.1). In San Marcos, California, the trend is changing towards the perception of people that are graffitist. They developed an art program at the high school of High Tech North County which addressed a need for the community.

This is a perfect example of how the government, counties, and cities could offer graffiti art schools to address the gangs that have some talented graffitist. The high school began to encourage the community to paint on a canvas. One of the students who was gang member that was experienced at tagging join the program. The instructors viewed this as an opportunity to reach out to the all the artist and graffitist in the county. As result the Writing on the Wall was born. Writing on the Wall is a course that teaches graffiti writing that has left a lasting impression on the gangs in California. (Edutopia, 2014, pg.3). The Writing on the Wall has become one of the most successful projects that reaches out to the graffiti artists in gangs. The impact to the community and to the art community broke new ground that incorporated street art and graffiti to bring a community must closer. The project continue to monitor the progress which showed significant improvements documented in a study of the gangs graffiti in the city. In addition, this program encourage the local students and artist to build their own presentation of art at the local Boys & Girls Club. The teaching of graffiti is becoming more popular in the cities, schools, and communities.

Why Is Graffiti Illegal?

Graffiti is considered vandalism including destruction of property, trespassing, misdemeanor, and call lead to being charge with a felony. There are laws and ordinances that address graffiti which varies from county, city, or state. There is a parent responsibility laws in all 50 states that can hold parents responsible as legal guardians for theft, vandalism, and property damage (Mathien, Wickert & Lehrer, 2010, pg.1). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considers the act of graffiti to be illegal form of vandalism. The graffiti artist usually attack a government or institutional location. There serious consequences to being changed by the police for graffiti such as arrest, suspend licenses, fines and restitution for graffiti drawings or paintings. In California, the gangs defaced some many buildings that California made it illegal to paint graffiti on public property. The legislations included mandatory cleanup and repair of damaged vandalized property. In addition, the probation included the graffitist to keep that location graffiti-free for the next 12 months.

In Los Angeles, CA and Phoenix, AZ, the recovery of cost of repairs has been passed on to the parents of the teenagers for defaming or defacing public property. The City of Aurora is requesting local ordinance that supports a law that will make parents responsible for clean-up cost for teenagers that continue to vandalize and deface public property (Dardick, 1991, pg.3). Taggers are considered vandals who illegally and deliberately vandalize premises without remorse. The taggers are difficult to differentiate from the gangs because they mimic the sketches and works of art of these violent groups. As consequence, the taggers and gang members are armed to defend their territory. The taggers have made the graffiti art potential risks for anybody who is mistaken for a gang member. Many of the taggers are beginning to possess weaponry to protect their interests from gangs or competitor tagging crew. Consequently, the public would generalize graffiti artists as gangsters or villain. The law has indicated that graffiti that is not utilized for advertising and marketing of a small business or painted on community property without authorization is a criminal offense. Graffiti is generally known as a kind of art form, or criminal offense. Graffiti contains writings, sketches, and paintings or painted on a wall surface. The local authorities have attempted to set massive fines in some cities to create a deterrent to encourage graffitist to stop defacing public property.

The most common belief is graffiti is vandalism however, the culture is evolving towards finding places where graffitist can display there are legally. The current prevention methods of vandalism just fuels the tagger because they accept the challenge of tagging until they are caught. The perception of graffitist are is depicted as a vicious illegal act that destroys or defaces public property. There are so many different types of graffiti art, it is unfathomable to categorize all graffiti art as vandalism is not accurate.

In truth, graffiti should not be regarded as vandalism, it should be considered as a form of art. The graffiti artist that paints, tags, or sketches to internally damage property is a form of vandalism. However, graffiti artist that does not destroy or deface public property and not done to intentionally harm or damage is not a vandal. There were times in history that graffiti was out of control in Los Angeles and New York, however, the new generations is embracing the graffitist while trying to change the perception that all graffiti writers or painters are criminals. The greatest challenge is addressing the laws that needs further definitions to separate the true graffiti vandals from the young people that truly want to paint and express themselves in a peacefully and lawful manner. It would be a very smart move to invest in thousands of canvasses and brushes to the graffiti artists to see what they might do.

References

Bartolomeo, B. (2001).Cement or canvas: Aerosol art & the changing face of graffiti in the 21st century. Retrieved from http://www.graffiti.org/faq/graffiti-is-part-of-us.html

Dardick, H. (1991). Aurora parents may be held responsible for spray-paint graffiti. Retrieved from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-05-28/news/9102170611_1_spray-paint-deface-property-spray-paint-graffiti

Edutopia. (2014).Writing on the walls: Graffiti as an integrate study project. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/writing-walls-graffiti-integrated-study-shani-leader

Featured artists. (2014, April). Watercolor Artist, 6. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA358849356&v=2.1&u=20398_pclc&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w&asid=4f05c42858857266dd72a0b941aaa292

Graffiti Hurts. (2014).Get facts: Cost of graffiti. Retrieved from http://www.graffitihurts.org/getfacts/cost.jsp

Mathien, Wickert & Lehrer. (2010).Parent responsibility in all 50 states. Retrieved from http://theprotectors.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Parental-Responsibility-Chart.pdf

Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (2014).Graffiti definition. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/graffiti

Mettler, M. L. (2012, November). Graffiti museum: a First Amendment argument for protecting uncommissioned art on private property. Michigan Law Review, 111(2), 249-281

Ryzik, M. (2013).An educational program for graffiti art. Retrieved from http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/an-educational-program-for-graffiti-art/

Williams, A. (2013 Jan). What does first-century Roman graffiti say? What Does First-century Roman Graffiti Say? Work at Rome’s Colosseum turns up 2,000-year-old scrawling. National Geographic. Retrieved from  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130129-roman-italy-graffiti-colosseum-archeology-photo/