Graffiti In New York City

In the summer of 2013, a graffiti artist by the name of 'Lady Pink' had police barge into her house in Queens and arrest her husband for vandalism. They took her art supplies, photo archives, and many of her prized possessions. She had to sit there, helpless, watching police take away her things. In today's world right now, expressing yourself creatively is one of the most important things you can do to help figure out who you are. A part of creative expression is art. Art makes people happy. Graffiti falls into the art category. For some people, graffiti is what they do to express themselves. Graffiti is art and shouldn't be illegal. Expressing yourself creatively shouldn't be a crime.

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

In 1974 in San Francisco, California a civil right case was brought by American Chinese students who limited English proficiency. Students claimed that they were not receiving the appropriate education to learn English. Furthermore, students claimed that San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) violated their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause. The U.S Supreme Court heard the case under these grounds. While this case was in court American Chinese students were denied they claimed two times: however, they appeal to have their case hear again. In the final ruling the court ruled in their favor granting them stating that schools districts need to correct students’ linguistic deficits to ensure they receive

The policy investigated throughout this project concerns graffiti. Graffiti is seen as a negative gesture towards communities as it signals the presence of gang activity and intimidation. The populace believes that graffiti causes neighborhoods to look unclean and disrespected, allowing others to think it is

While society may view graffiti as a negative aspect in communities even if it isn’t harmful, it also receives praise from many people. In “The Making of Space, Race, and Place” Dickinson stated that “Graffiti writers would be referred to as vandals, thugs, and criminals in the mass media, and their own voices would be largely shut out” (29). This is not completely true because even though graffiti writers are considered “vandals” and “criminals”, people are still treating them as people they can invest in. Graffiti writers are actually being acknowledged and paid to write. For example, “High profile graffiti writers and crews form relationships with spray paint companies through ad hoc and more enduring paint contracts, can be sponsored to attend invitational events and are often the subject of articles in the graffiti magazines that have grown with the subculture” (McAuliffe and

From the early humans who painted on cave walls to the angst-ridden teenager getting their kicks from spray painting profanities on the side of a small business, human beings seem to have an intrinsic desire to paint images on the walls that surround them. This has led to many individuals painting on walls without permission. Although the walls cannot speak, city officials and the owners of businesses can and when they do, “Graffiti” is usually one of the words used to describe the images produced. However, although often overlooked, a line does exist between graffiti and street art. Christine Graff writes “Graffiti is defined as ‘writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public

The graffiti scene in Connecticut is growing as more walls are being sprayed painted with graffiti art and tags.

There are many associations with graffiti writing, Hip-hop being the first. Though the emergence of graffiti can be attributed to street gangs; which, they used to mark their territories (Chronopoulos 2011, pg. 79), graffiti began to merge with hip-hop culture in the 70s (Chronopoulos 2011, pg. 82). Ultimately, this combination promoted the public domination over public spaces in New York City through the use

While waiting for on a train, the mobile art museum known as graffiti passes you. Graffiti has been integrated into the everyday life regardless of city size or laws. By definition, graffiti is any type of writing or drawing scribbled, scratched or sprayed onto a surface in public. Freehanded graffiti has evolved into a premeditated version known as street art. Graffiti and street art allows artists worldwide to express themselves in their entirety. However, these forms of art are considered vandalism because the majority of graffiti is painted on buildings without permission. This causes debate on who owns public space, expressionism, and consent.

There is a lack of supporting evidence about graffiti information such as why people engage in vandalism and how it impacts on communities and so on. This article is useful for my research topic because this book’s focus is on street artists and legal street art. There was a lot of information about street

Generally most people look and take graffiti as a form of destruction and wanting to cause violence, but in the artist’s mind they want to be creative and help the people around them by making art to cheer someone up or create a sense of creativity in others. They don’t do it to go to jail or because they want to pay a fine they do it because they are open minded and creative. For instance, “A lot of attention is given to the ‘broken window’ theory, which says that signs of disorder like petty vandalism, fare jumping … and yes, graffiti, open the window to larger crimes,” Verel told The Huffington Post. “But little is paid to the ways graffiti is harnessed for good in a form that’s both constructive and authentic”(Patrick Verel). They are taking this broken windows theory too far and only saying it can cause bigger crimes. Some graffiti artists are trying to uplift the neighborhoods and the people they live around with creative art. Also not all graffiti is bad enough to want artists to commit a crime. While making this art or graffiti I don’t think that these artist are trying to harm the buildings in any way, but they should ask for permission if they aren’t allowed to be painting on these buildings. This is to let the owner of the building know that they mean no harm to the environment or their workplace. For example, “Adam Cooper, cultural strategy officer for the mayor of London, thinks

Since the late 1980s, various public and private-sector actors in the United States who do not write graffiti have practiced anonymity and sought fame to suppress and promote graffiti. Most non-writing public-sector actors have cracked down on graffiti as a criminal act that blights urban surfaces, while, in response, many non-writing private-sector actors have promoted graffiti as a profitable consumer good and art form. In the public sector, police officers and politicians in New York and then Chicago and Denver have prosecuted graffiti as the illegal vandalism of property walls and other surfaces; over time, police officers have learned to adapt plainclothes dress to patrol environments, capture writers, and destroy graffiti. In the private

The origin and history of graffiti is not what one might expect. Believed to have been created by a Philadelphia high school student named Cornbread in 1967, it was a bold effort to catch the attention of a girl (De Melker). In this same time period, graffiti sprung up in New York as well. It was “one among many forms of social protest” during

We seem to come into contact with a form art every day. It is all around us and sometimes we don’t even notice. One of those art forms is street art, better known by the name graffiti. Graffiti can be recognized for having a bad connotation associated with it, for example some people view it as offensive, vulgar, a nuisance or a form of vandalism. For some people graffiti is a way of life, a culture per se. There are many ways that culture can be defined for example culture can contain the use of symbols, it can be learned and shared, it has values and purpose. Graffiti as a culture contains all of these things and in this paper I will be looking at some comparisons and contrasts of graffiti culture in America from when it started and its evolution to mainstream artistic culture.

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