I’d rather you didn’t
.. but then, what would you do?
I sat down on the bus this morning and someone had scrawled some graffiti on the window beside me.
I’ve always been ambivalent on the issue of graffiti. I agree wholeheartedly that as a practice it’s wrong. It’s not about art, it’s about using something that’s not yours to use. It’s not the same as sidewalk chalk artists temporarily using a public space. At best it’s impolite. At worst it’s malicious vandalism.
At the same time, it’s all well and good to refute the practice, but how much consideration is made of the options available to a young person (and graffiti as far as I know is the domain of youth) who has something to express via graffiti?
I wonder what the lifespan is of the average graffiti artist after all? Is it a phase? Something life-long? If they are given the option to express themselves in legitimate circumstances, do they take it or stay where they are?
This might be a stretch to some, but I do not think it that dissimilar when I look at my kids and what it took to get them to understand that books and paper are available for drawing and writing and not the walls. I wonder how long it would have taken (if I could have at all) to get the point across if I hadn’t provided them an outlet for self-expression?
