Essay about Graffiti Artists: Silent Writers

Graffiti has been used many times in history to preserve and show political and religious ideas of the past. Street artists are preserving the history that is deemed “illegal” at this time. Graffiti itself is history, and it tells stories as well as preserving cities and adding a creative aspect to everyday life. The “...first forms of scripture and storytelling … were through drawings on walls. Stories passed through generations… were preserved on rocks or walls.” (Lloyd, Alexis). Now street artists are simply doing the same, whether it’s murals, tags, or people just messing around; They are preserving the unique cultures that we have today, or trying to make a name for themselves through art, or portray a political message. 85% of graffiti is just tags. (Akbar, Airfa). People's names or words made to look interesting. People trying to preserve their name through art. And this is considered a crime. Splashing your political views on a building through a mural to some people is offensive and the fact that this is illegal is a violation of the 1st amendment. Making graffiti or street art illegal is limiting an expression of people's ideas and religion.

Graffiti has been around for more than half a decade and practiced worldwide. However there is debate between whether it is a form of art or vandalism. Graffiti artists’ debate that many do not understand the reason most graffiti artist take the risk of incarceration, fines, injuries, and in some cases death to paint a wall. A graffiti artist can have the simple desire to become recognized, or to create a piece that speaks to their audience as a form of self expression. Because graffiti is associated with gangs and acts of destruction to some many cannot see the history and importance graffiti can have on a worldwide scale. Due to the fact that graffiti is usually produced illegally, meaning it is

Graffiti portrays contemporary sub-cultured art through its versatility and bold attractiveness on the communal grounds. In the 1970s, graffiti was blatantly acknowledged as territorial graffiti where

If you walk through almost any city, the buildings, bridges, and any other available spaces are seemingly filled with colors, picture, and words that are not part of the original architecture. This graffiti, which is a mix of tags, stencils, pieces, and freestyle, seems to have almost taken over cities across the world. Some of this graffiti, such as tags, are eyesores, but some pieces, such as the High Line “Love Is the Answer” and “Kiss” murals in New York City, are sites that have become iconic pieces of artwork. Unfortunately, pieces like these are also starting to be covered to a seemingly astronomical rate, which is causing outrage among those who visited to them.

By definition, graffiti is illegal. It is also considered vandalism because public or private property is intentionally destroyed, but in Alex Boyd’s blog “In Defense of Graffiti”, he clearly conveys his argument about how graffiti shows qualities of value and shouldn’t be criticized on impulse. Even though many people have seen graffiti as something to be condoned, punishable, and terrorizing, it is actually just another form of expression, communication, art, and point of view.

According to Boyd, through Graffiti is essential to understand as a form of art that crosses the boundaries of location, method, and motivation. He acknowledges that graffiti might include “racist remarks, empty slogans and illegal signatures.”(Boyd 251) Boyd’s piece is also very informative because according to the author, there are two methods for creating this form of art: murals and tagging. The most popular one is tagging because it can be found almost everywhere from fence posts to trains, street walls to buses. The main goal of graffiti writers is to put their signature tags in places to be recognized by their

The roots of graffiti started about 1971 by a Greek American who tagged “TAKI-183” in all New York subway system, he declared that he “used graffiti to create an identity in which he is certain about” (Fortuna 3), then it emerged all around America and the world. (David 72)

As stated by Taki, an influential graffiti artist when addressing the concern authorities held about his graffiti writing, “Why they go after the little guy? Why not campaign organizations that put stickers all over the subways at election time?” (Chronopoulos 2011, pg. 81). Though, graffiti is deemed as legitimate when it is used to generate profit, which is seen through the recent increased demand for graffiti with the purpose of beautification and gentrification. Evidently, the growing concern over graffiti in public spaces is driven by the conflict graffiti creates when obstructing advertisements, which generate increased consumption and profit. It also demonstrates the lack of tolerance the dominant class has for the promotion of dominance by the lower class. Moreover, constant “public proclamations” which urged people to see graffiti writing as a social safety issue, has certainly influenced the demand for anti-graffiti efforts and the attitudes upper and middle class whites had towards Blacks and Latinos (Chronopoulos 2011, pg. 87)

This aspect of hip hop culture became so engrained within “codes of behavior, secret gathering places, slang, and aesthetic standards,” and thus had the most racially ethnic artists, which is why these people were mostly targeted by police for these actions. Taki 183’s graffiti was an act of political resistance against the “cleaning up” of New York City streets, which was a euphemism for whitening these neighborhoods economically and physically, with the displacement of poor, people of color. Specifically, his work is called tagging because the artist is “making his or her presence known and proclaiming his or her identity through a unique mark” (Orejuela, 2015, pg. 17). The artist of this graffiti artwork, and others like it were also a blatant display by people of color peacefully fighting back the state for its intended demise and who at the time, spent thousands of dollars to rid the streets of these pieces of artwork because of its direct connection to people of color. This work of resistance was so successful because other graffiti artists would try to compete with Taki 183’s work and thus, they too would create their own piece of work. This then made it almost impossible for the city to paint over every piece of work, but this also made it more dangerous for the artists themselves, as the penalties for graffiti became even more severe as people of color became even more policed. This artist specifically, made this artwork most popular as he performed it during such a tense time and received major exposure by the New York media. Phase 2 was infamous for creating bubble writing, also known as softies, but was also a b-boy. He also rapped and graffitied during the 1970s when the state of New York was in a war with the residents of color and the lower class. Phase 2 art is referred to

The cutting edge of the public art development, connected with the hip-hop society of breakdancing and rap music, began with African-American and Latino teenagers in Philadelphia and New York in the late 1960s (MacDonald 1). At that time graffiti to most, was considered to be a form of art work. Regardless of those that thought of it as art, there were and are still numerous individuals that loathe the graffiti movement. Works of art have been dependably charming for ages, as it is a method for self-expression and inventiveness. Artistic expressions have advanced in many ways, such as public canvases offering an approach to modern day unique artwork. Graffiti is progressively turning into a hobby. Although one of the major controversies of graffiti surround the statement that it is not art and considered vandalism, graffiti allow artists to display grateful meanings, skills and expressions to the public.

The term graffiti art essentially describes the post-1960s for decorating the urban environment through the use of aerosol spray paint. The development structure links with the underground hip-hop culture and b-boying. The B-boys, the first examples of hip-hop used graffiti as a way to express frustration with life.

In the 70s graffiti was just tags or small pictures but it quickly turned into and “art movement” (Eickmier). This means that the young and the old artist had finally found a way to express themselves and were spreading it around cities like wildfire. In other countries the amount of graffiti shock american tourists, it is seen as a good thing. “Instead of walls being used to separate people from each other, graffiti brings people together and keeps conversations going.” (Wark) Graffiti has value as art and it tells a story worth reading. (Wark) Most teens resort to graffiti as their last option, and most people see that as wrong, but it lets them express themselves in a really different

Going by the traditional definition of graffiti, simple writings or illustrations on walls, the art can be traced back to ancient times with cave paintings and hieroglyphics and such. The need to communicate through visuals has always been ingrained in all types of human culture; evidence of graffiti can be found everywhere, from ancient Pompeii to early 20th century America. However, the modern form of the art, characterized by tagging and complex personal expression, emerged some time around the late 1960’s. At this time, kids in urban communities had no voice, no way to express themselves and their ideas to the world. They began writing on walls, subway cars, ice cream trucks, any surface they could reach with paint. Initially, most graffiti was made for rather simple purposes: to get the attention of a girl, or just to be able to write your name somewhere, but eventually escalated into full-blown murals and artworks used by artists to express themselves. This trend grew and spread, quickly

Many cities view graffiti as dirty and worthless; for example, the city of San Antonio has arranged an anti-graffiti campaign in which the city boldly states “graffiti is ugly” (“Graffiti”). This attitude towards graffiti and the obsession with ridding cities of graffiti sparked the ever-present negative outlook on the craft, spoiling its artistic value.

Graffiti has put a major impact on the way people look at their everyday life. It was not used so much here in the United States but was used overseas. Overseas, graffiti, or street art, was used or played as a sport, just like baseball is Americas sport. There are different laws that are put over there than what there are here. They can get away with some of the things that they paint or make over there. If we tried some of that type of work over here, we would get in trouble and possibly serve time for vandalizing someone else’s property. There are many biased outlooks on graffiti, but it should be considered art in all places because of all the time, effort, and design the artist put into their work.