The ease and quickness of the “tag” style, the complex detail of “stencil,” the blockiness of the “block buster” and the elaborate and often hard-to-decipher “wildstyle” are all forms of graffiti art seen on urban landscapes around the world. Graffiti is considered vandalism by many, but others consider it a beautiful crime.
Joey Monsoon, former graffiti writer turned illustrator and graphic artist, said he has been an admirer and student of graffiti for about 15 years. He said graffiti artists should not paint on someone’s home or business without permission, but sees nothing wrong with displaying street art on public property or signs.
“We live in an environment that is saturated with commercial advertisements on signs, billboards and buildings,” Monsoon said in an e-mail. “We are constantly bombarded with visual corporate messages. I feel that if corporations and other commercial interests have the right to invade my visual space, then so do graffiti artists.”
He said he would rather see an individually created piece of art than a corporate advertisement while walking down the street.
Ian MacConnell, community and public relations committee chair of the University Area Commission, said that in a capitalistic society, businesses are allowed to advertise because they pay to do so.
“That’s the way America works – like it or not,” he said.
MacConnell said graffiti is an important issue, because it deters other businesses from setting up shop in heavily hit areas and it invites criminals by giving them the idea that residents do not care about their neighborhood.
MacConnell works with the University Area Enrichment Association to do three graffiti clean-ups in the summer. Each tag cost $500 in labor and supplies to remove and wouldnot be possible without the association’s sponsorship, he said.
In January 2001, Columbus created a year-round program to remove graffiti on public property. A part of the Keep Columbus Beautiful program, the Graffiti Blasters remove graffiti from public property within two work days of being reported and 24 hours if it is of a hateful, sexual or violent nature, according to the KCB Web site. Graffiti can be reported through the city’s 311 Web site, or by calling 311 inside city limits.
KCB education coordinator Stacy Law said that even though Graffiti Blasters only removes graffiti from public property, KCB provides free graffiti removal kits to private property owners. The kits include everything – (rollers, pans, paint brushes, cloths, safety glasses, scrapers, wire brushes, graffiti-stripper, etc.) – except the paint which owners can purchase at a hardware or home improvement store, he said.
The hard part of punishing graffiti artists is that they must be caught in the act, MacConnell said. The South Campus Gateway has been effective in deterring graffiti and vandalism through the use of its 24-hour security staff and video monitoring system, which includes 100 security cameras.
“Steve Sterrett, from Campus Partners, gave a report that they had caught somebody doing graffiti in the Gateway area,” MacConnell said. “It’s kind of unusual that you catch anybody and have them on video.”
Sterret said the Columbus police will not release any information about the 17-year-old, other than he was arrested for tagging several Gateway buildings.
The young man was allegedly tagging the word “june” before being arrested. Sterrett said there are similar tags that incorporate june in other parts of the university area. Campus Partners and the Gateway property managers shared photographs of the tag with property managers in the University District to identify other tags which the young man might have done. In this way, Sterrett said, they are able to link the incidents for more effective prosecution.
MacConnell said it isn’t difficult to link graffiti artists to their past tags because tagging is like a signature.
“Basically, one person doesn’t use another person’s signature unless they’re trying to copy their style or something along those lines,” MacConnell said. “I’ve had conversations with people who do graffiti and (“june”) not aesthetically interesting in any way, so nobody else would do that tag.”
Monsoon said people dislike tagging because of the indiscriminate targeting of private property and lack of artistic talent by new breeds of taggers. The ability of taggers to move quickly from spot to spot has led to a “quantity over quality” mindset, he said.
“Graffiti as an art form began as tagging, so its significance shouldn’t be dismissed,” Monsoon said. “However, like many other art forms, tagging has been damaged by the mediocre of talent of most of its practitioners.”
The 35-year-old Columbus native said he prefers more developed graffiti such as larger, multicolored pieces rather than tagging. He became interested in graffiti through books like “Spraycan Art” by photographer and documentary filmmaker Henry Chalfant. For approximately two years during his time at Ohio State in the early 1990s, he said he tagged and painted several large pieces.
“Graffiti is an art movement that was basically created by teenagers in New York City during the 1970s,” Monsoon said. “To me, this is very significant. I cannot think of any other global art movement in history that was created and developed by kids.”
But after spending numerous nights sneaking around in the dark and hiding from cops, Monsoon said putting up his work was not worth getting busted. He decided to apply his graffiti techniques to paper and canvas. His work has been displayed in galleries, graffiti and graphic arts Web sites, and on his own site, smartyr.com.
“And that’s where it belongs,” MacConnell said. “I’m not going to discredit graffiti as an art, but graffiti on public and private property without permission is illegal – and that’s where I draw the line.”
Like MacConnell and Sterrett, Columbus prosecutor Bill Hedrick also said the difference between graffiti and art is permission. He said graffiti is not something that goes away overnight and it is expensive to clean up.
That is why the penalty for graffitism is as harsh as it is, Hedrick said.
Classified as a first degree misdemeanor under Columbus City Code 2309.27, graffitism carries a maximum 180-day jail sentence, 100 hours of mandatory community service and/or a $1000 fine.
Hedrick said the average age for people charged with graffitism is between 18 and 24. In the past he has handled cases dealing with students from OSU and the Columbus School of Art and Design. Many convicted of graffitism were shocked to learn they had to go to jail for street art, he said.
“Usually for first time offense, most end up getting 10 days. (For) a second offense, I’ve seen people get 30 days or more in jail,” he said. “And if they’re foolish enough to come for a third time, they usually do 90 plus days in jail.”
Monsoon said even though he’s moved away from the graffiti scene in Columbus, he has begun to notice the presence of new graffiti styles in the city that are already prevalent in other parts of the world.
“Until about 10 or 15 years ago, graffiti was still strictly spray painting letters and characters,” he said. “Now, stenciling, wheat pasting and stickering are just as popular as traditional spray painting. I think these new techniques have really breathed a new life into the graffiti art world.”
Britain’s No. 1 stencil artist, Banksy, said on his Web site (banksy.co.uk) that the time for tagging and signing one’s name over the city for recognition is over. He said if a person wants to be famous they should make something meaningful; fame will come as a by-product of that passion.
Given Banksy’s fame – numerous articles have been written about him in American and British papers – some find it hard to discredit his logic.
In an editorial published in London’s tabloid paper, the Evening Standard, the writer uses Banksy’s elaborate techniques to argue that huge, colorful fresco
es are more appealing than corporate billboards or hastily sprayed tags. Tougher policing, the editorial said, would only end up making London similar to New York City with bland, chrome and black bubble letters everywhere. His article ends with the question, “Would you want to live in a city that looks like it’s overrun by criminals or overrun by artists?”
A stencil piece on Banksy’s Web site entitled “Fallen Angel” is accompanied by words that encapsulate similar sentiments: “Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colors and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a living, breathing thing which belonged to everybody, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – it’s wet.”
