Graffiti: Art or Vandalism Essay

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.

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”.

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.

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

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

You see it everywhere. You see on buses, on walls, on trains, everywhere. It has made many gawk while others just don’t see a reason to it. Graffiti has many connotations, some good and some bad. It’s the thrill that drives these crazy risk-takers to get their names known. Seeing graffiti through the eyes of an artist who only sees his masterpiece. Graffiti has been here longer then you think. Though you may see destruction of property he only see his art and freedom of expression. Being a graffiti artist is about feeling the rush of a finished masterpiece and not getting caught. Some are the quieter type but are still well-known. It has been here since the 1960s.

Art has been around ever since the ancient city of Pompeii. The people of Pompeii used graffiti as a way to display their cleverness; from poetry contests to playful recombinations of the letters that form Roman Numerals. In the early ‘70s, graffiti was used as a way for young teens to mark their territory. During that time, many people – especially in New York City – saw graffiti as vandalism and prohibited it. Even though graffiti has been misused in some occasions, as long as the purpose is not to deliberately mischievous or malicious destruction, graffiti is art.

Is graffiti seen as vandalism or a notable art that is used to voice the opinion of many artists? Many are quick to conclude that graffiti is an act of defacing public property, but few are in understanding of what real graffiti is. Graffiti is defined as art that is displayed or created in public spaces. So this presents the question of why some critics believe that graffiti should not be classified as a real subcategory of art. Below is the explanation as to why graffiti needs to be considered among the most prestigious and notable art forms.

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

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 portrays a message whether it’s spelled out on the concrete or hidden behind a sort of code. It lets unheard voices, be heard. There are many different forms of graffiti, tagging is the form of street art that most often results in consequences (Eickmier). This is because tagging is basically signing your nickname on a wall, and once the police figure out your pseudonym they will most likely find you. Graffiti is not always considered to be ugly though, some artists work actually ends up in museums (Wark) A manchester artist who goes by the name “Banksy” ultimately avoided jail because his work was deemed “artistic” He was later given an opportunity to showcase his work in a museum. Graffiti does not

Graffiti can be found everywhere and anywhere. It is a way for people to express themselves and be creative in a public manner. It shows how passionate and talented they can be when it comes to drawing or tagging and have it displayed as a piece of art for everyone to see. Graffiti goes way back to the ancient times and is now very well known in the modern days which makes more and more people interested and fascinated by them. It can be used in different types of ways. Many artists can either spray paint, carve, paste, or stencil them on a surface. From how we see them today they are usually images of random cartoons, big bubbly letters, vintage black and whites or inspirational quotes. Virtually anything colorful or not and big that can be easily spotted. Graffiti is more superior to be known as art than vandalism because it is a self expressing act. People need to be open minded about the images they see and look at the message behind it or else they will immediately criticize and say it is vandalizing property.

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.