Painting the Town Grey

Photo via Caruba

‘Art’ or ‘crime’? That’s the debate going on in art galleries, communities and city governments about graffiti. With artists selling ever more popular work in galleries and some major players such as RISD grad Shepard Fairey even creating iconic pieces of art inescapable to the public eye. However, even with the positive perception of graffiti and street art growing, city governments continue to mishandle the issue as it stands in the streets. San Fransisco, a major hotbed in the United States of street art, still spends $22 million dollars annually to clean up graffiti. That’s $22M with a capitol ‘M’. A huge chunk of change by any measure.

But with graffiti on the rise and considered a major present day art movement, is that money really doing anything? By painting over pieces of graffiti (also known as ‘throw ups’) many times you’re actually encouraging an artist to come back and write again, in the same spot. Prompting the city to slop even more grey paint again. This cycle seems to achieve little except keeping the makers of grey paint in business.

San Fran may also have a solution to the problem, however. One that has the potential to set a precedent for every city in America. The idea: turn the crimes legitimate by paying well known and respected artists to paint. At first it might seem counter-intuitive but to spend that $22 million on graffiti might solve much of the problem in the end.

Paying the Painter

Mural by Mac. For move of his work, check out his blog.

The main argument of this method is to use writer psychology against other writers. Underneath the art and vandalism that makes up the scene, there are unwritten rules between writers (also known as taggers). Foremost is that you never ‘go over’ another writers piece with your own. Doing so is a major sign of disrespect. Graffiti ‘wars’ can start up over occurrences of this sort (See the Banksy/Robbo war developing over in the UK). This is usually one of the first lessons that a ‘toy’ (a term for a new writer of no

standing or respect) learns when tagging. By paying a well known (and well respected) artist to paint, you’re discouraging many artist from going over that piece.

As well as discouraging future vandalism, you are also putting money directly into the community these artists come from. Rare are the well-off writers living in mansions, many can hardly cover their cost of living or buy supplies. They often live in the same communities that they write in. Paying a writer puts money into supplies, food, families and local businesses. And $22 million dollars is a lot of money to spread around a city.

Art in the Community

Along with money, the community also gains an improvement in their aesthetic space. There is no argument with me that a grey wall, often already covered with grime and uncared for, looks better than art such as the work in Osaka, Japan done by Brazillian-born writer Tittifreak or the amazing, photo realistic murals of Mac (shown previously). Imagine all the grey, ugly walls in your city covered by color, shape and form. To me, that is a beautiful scene.

Argue with me that this wall was better off unpainted in the comments. [photo via Toban Black

Philadelphia is a great example of art in the community. There are literally hundreds of murals in communities around Philly. There are even tours that bring people to see many of the best murals. The community takes great pride in them and rarely will you see one of these murals (depicting everything from MLK Jr and community figures, to community values and historic events) defaced by a tagger. Recently, Philly partnered with Steve ‘ESPO’ Powers to paint buildings in his iconic Coney Island sign painted style. Amazing work by an amazing guy and artist.

Let the Kids Write

Art education in schools always suffers first. That’s even more true now in a shitty economy, and especially true in the inner city. Activities suffer as well, sending many kids home, unsupervised by parents who work long hours. Without anything to do (and often with no father figure, still a major problem among the poor of America, even now in 2010) many of these kids get into trouble. Using money that previously would have been spent on cleaning chemicals and anti-graffiti paint, you could start programs that bring writers and kids together,  helping to improve their neighborhood through art.

Not only are you giving the kids something to do as well as a place to be away and out of trouble, you are putting them into a situation where they have a role model to look up to – all the while spending time learning about color, form and expression. Once a piece is done you also end up with a piece of art the local community can be proud of.

So, You Get a Choice In the End

With all these benefits and who-the-hell-knows how many more, it seems at the very least something worth trying. Are you going to stop every writer in a lifestyle where rules are largely ignored? Probably not. But instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to paint American cities more grey than they already are, a change can’t hurt. In the end it comes down to what you would rather look at: A concrete wall with patches of grey paint and a few scrawlings, or a mural full of color and life.

If you ask me, I’m obviously going to pick the later.