The Controversy Of Banning Graffiti Arts

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 is a hobby that many people loved to do, but the other half of most people dislike graffiti and want it gone.

Why should graffiti be considered art? There are easily no worthy reasons… Oh, but there are so many reasons. It in inspires people, makes people famous, and has an ancient history. The definition of art states that it is a visual and a form of expressing yourself. And every piece of graffiti is a visual and is a form of expressing yourself. Without it, many people wouldn’t have a way to express themselves. It extinguishes many emotions. There would most likely be more crime in our states and country.

Most people can argue that there is a fine distinction between what is recognized as art and vandalism. The individual is often faced with uncertainty when the topic of graffiti arises. The public often portray graffiti as a destructive act towards his or her surroundings however; graffiti can also be considered a form of self-expression. Many questions can be made pertaining to the graffiti movement, but the main question is graffiti a crime or an art? The answers lie in the complex phrase of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

Art has been around since the beginning of humankind and it has been and will always be a visual form of human expression, ideas, and morals. Art is subjective and everyone will feel differently towards one specific artwork. But disliking an artwork because it offends you does not mean that you must destroy it. Recently, a white artist, Dana Schutz created an abstract painting of Emmett Till, a 14 year old African American that was killed by a couple of white men because he supposedly whistled at a white lady. Many people have deemed this artwork as a form of cultural appropriation and have demanded the artist to take it down. Despite the controversies of this artwork, art should never ever be censored because it violates the artist’s freedom

If you were to go open a dictionary and look up the definition of art, you would see that it has art as “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination…” (“Art” 2017) and “Works produced by human creative skill and imagination.” (“Art” 2017). From these definitions, graffiti is art, yet in most cases, it’s considered vandalism because it is done without permission of the property. When graffiti is done in a designated place or with the permission of the property owner, then it can truly be considered art. But even if these circumstances are not met, if the graffiti goes beyond a simple tag, it is art.

The issue of whether or not graffiti is appropriate for public spaces appears to never end. This is due to the fact that, usually, the rhetors involved do not reach stasis on all levels. There is typically a large gap in the debate stalling the conversation. Heather Mac Donald, Lu Olivero, “Graffiti”, Lady Pink, Gerald Witt, and Heidi Wigdahl throw themselves into the ring and add their own views on the matter. While these six authors agree on the fact that graffiti exists, they do not solely agree on one definition, and once they get to the quality aspect they divide themselves in half and none agree on a specific policy that is the most reasonable.

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 two pieces I decided to review are my “Are We All Becoming Socialnomics?” paper and my “Graffiti Should Be Considered an Art” paper. Both pieces are final module discussions and moderate in length. (740-1050 words)

You're walking down the street and looking around at all the unbelievable graffiti art all over the walls, then realize that people are getting fined and prosecuted for doing it. People of the DPM crew in London were creating amazing art on a lot of regular walls to make a walk down the street more enjoyable, but then they were put in jail for 11 years because of it, and they had to pay 1.3 million dollars for graffiti related damages (Cathcart-Keays). There should not be laws for graffiti, because it can represent a lot more than just a drawing, and it doesn’t affect anyone in a bad way.

Multiple graffiti artists are thrown in jail simply for expressing themselves in a way that very few appreciate. Although multiple areas of cities have set aside certain areas where graffiti art is legal, many artists agree that the feeling is not the same as when they do it in areas that are not legalized. Graffiti artists should be legally allowed to make art wherever they want because it will help cities and the government save money trying to erase the ‘vandalism’ caused to the buildings, and it will allow artists to express themselves without fear of being punished.

People do graffiti for a job or to express their feelings to the world it's a really good job and yet it's illegal for people to do which makes it hard.

This negative shadow on the art form of graffiti has caused the decline of the graffiti movement. As many have predicted, “graffiti may eventually disappear” (“The Writing's on the Wall; Graffiti”). Graffiti has already begun to dwindle from what was once a flourishing art movement, to an almost disesteemed hobby. However, a soiled reputation is not the only culprit in the murder of authentic graffiti. The occupation of the current generation with technology and social media has caused many artists to focus solely on selling their work and gaining attention through social networking platforms. Another, perhaps more common, reason for the decline is the improvement of police work and punishments for those indulging in the illegal form of graffiti (“The Writing's on the Wall; Graffiti”). Because of this decline in authentic and prohibited graffiti, artists have channeled their work into new forms and established their own artistic community.

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.