By Courtney Stevens
Title : Graffiti as an Art
I used to be an insane fanatic over graffiti. I acquired a ‘Piece Book’ and a variety of sharpie markers and essentially spent every class, spare, and evening plastering different words, pictures and colours across this book. The steady incline of my talent lasted throughout the entire year of grade nine, and it peaked at the Canadian Heritage Fair where I did a display on Graffiti in Canada, and how the youth can use it as a creative outlet. Unfortunately, despite the wide range of articles, posters, graphics, slideshow, and effort I put into this, the mark that I received back was less than satisfactory, and that was when the art I had so dearly poured my life into for the entire year simply vanished. My passion for graffiti has reduced to embers at the bottom of a once magnificent fire.
However, I will still strongly support the art-style and defend anyone who says graffiti is a useless mess of garbage. You cannot possibly tell me that drawing a design in a creative and imaginative way across a city wall is anything but art. Yes, the actual act of defacing a building is considered inappropriate, but I would like to produce the following; how does graffiti really hurt anyone? Does the actual site of a wall plastered in colours really harm people? Why is it that kids are getting locked away for expressing themselves in the only way they know how?
While I have not actually gone out on the streets and tried to paint a wall, I can say that graffiti artists don’t only consist of jerks. You have the sensible artists that acknowledge that there is a giant, beautiful piece before them, and to do a piece beside it or, God forbid, over it is considered being a ‘toy’. Have you ever noticed, while driving through the lovely slums of Winnipeg, that walls with a painting on it sponsored by the city, or lots that have a large piece that clearly was paid for, are rarely defaced? As an artist, you respect other people’s works; otherwise you will be slandered and disrespected by your fellow brethren.
Graffiti has changed the world in remarkable ways. You have an artist like Banksy who does stencil graffiti across the walls of London, all consistent with the theme that the government is corrupting us and we need to be liberated. You have graffiti on t-shirts and hats. Graffiti is actually recognized as art in some places and is not just getting tossed to the side as ‘useless kids.’ Graffiti is an art, and people need to stop hating and judging on anyone who thinks differently than they do. If you don’t believe me… Just watch this:
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