http://fiutoartv.tumblr.com/

Museums display art, and if graffiti isn't art, then i dont know what is.

Graffiti is the writers expression of their feelings put into the movement of a spray can. They do every thing a normal artist does. We draw many sketches and its not like we just hit up any spot. We take alot of consideration to where to bomb. And people who bitch about it is where I wanna hit up. Everyone who thinks its vandalism just can't handle the fact they don't have the ability to do what we can with a spray can.

WRITERS STAND UNITED.

Graffiti is the writers expression of their feelings put into the movement of a spray can. They do every thing a normal artist does. We draw many sketches and its not like we just hit up any spot. We take alot of consideration to where to bomb. And people who bitch about it is where I wanna hit up. Everyone who thinks its vandalism just can't handle the fact they don't have the ability to do what we can with a spray can.

WRITERS STAND UNITED.

F the BS graffiti is a form of showing the world your art and what do cops do just take it away now that's BS F police

Vandelism is ephemeral art, graffiti is more about the action than the product, the moment not the halflife of novelty and notoriety--once it becomes collectible, sellable, programmable, it is no longer immutable.

I believe that NASA is the first to create 3D sound.There is a box set by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson has been researching the effects of sound frequencies and music on the mind and body since 1981 The sounds are all in 3D its used in brain entrainment.

Speaking of horse paintings, my favorite work from 90s S.F. was a woman that went by Reminisce, who would deftly spray paint images of horses galloping and grazing in empty lots downtown: http://www.youtube.com/user/jgluzifer#p/u/27/Vykm_ng00qI

@Bemused: You make a good point about distinguishing between gang graffiti and graffiti as art. And kudos to you for the programs you've started.

I think I also failed to make the point in my interview that we see lots of "illegal" imagery throughout the course of our day. Interestingly, a lot of it is corporate advertising — yet the authorities are far less likely to crack down on it than they are graffiti. Artist Steve Lambert and the other folks at the Anti-Advertising Agency have long tracked this:
http://antiadvertisingagency.com/tag/illegal-advertising/
http://antiadvertisingagency.com/vandal-task-force-is-dropping-the-ball/

Something to think about when we consider our public spaces.

I was introduced to many graffiti artists while working with offenders. Most were 17-23, had ADD/ADHD and most, not all, were brilliantly talented. One was rearrested for stealing art supplies. The art was inside him and had to come out. I started a program called Justice Thru Art, where offenders could continue their art in a known environment, with the prison teacher. We provided all the supplies and helped them sell their products as an independence even wealth creator. We used sufficiently skilled graffiti artists to paint murals in youth centers as part of their community service. While the unauthorized changing of the exterior of some one else's property is a crime, and should be treated as such, we need to rethink our approach to assessing and punishing the artist. Gang graffiti used to mark 'territory' should receive different intervention to the displays in abandoned buildings, tunnels etc painted for the sake of the art.

Graffiti and vandalism are as old as art itself. In fact, the oldest extant image of Christ on the Cross is a graffito now in the Palatine Antiquarian Museum in Rome. Known as the Alexamanos Graffito, the image dates from about the year 200 AD. It shows a crucified man with a donkey's head, to which a man prays on his knees. A Greek text nearby reads:

ALE
XAMENOS
SEBETE
THEON

which translates to, "Alexamenos worships his god."

The glorification of property damage is so wrong. Arrest and fine them all!
Check out the business and property owners in Atlanta's old 4th Ward mulit-million dollar anti-graffiti lawsuit. How would you like re-painting the place where you live and work every day for eighteen years?

I am always astounded and dismayed that anyone could regard graffiti as 'art'. If a tagger painted his initials on your new car would you still regard it as art? When a person stands on a street corner and shouts obscenities, do you call it street poetry? To compare graffiti to bad paintings in a gallery is ludicrous. The gallery chose to hang those paintings. When someone alters another's property with spray paint, whether some people regard it as an improvement or not, it is simply wrong; it is vandalism, pure and simple.

I was a bit surprised and disappointed by your reaction to an LA Police Officer having an opinion about graffiti.

Why?

Arrested. I can choose to visit an art museum or watch a movie but graffiti is thrust upon me at the whim of the "artist". Unlike your commentator, I do not consider this chaotic vandalism to be worth the occasional inspired product. The article also ignores the use of graffiti to mark gang territory and underplays the fact that it appropriates other people's property with any concern for the owner. Perhaps the graffiti lovers would donate their own property (cars, houses) for use as canvass of random expression. If a purveyor of graffiti is a true artist that provides art of worth, then he/she can do what legitimate artists do, get permission to use the space, gain a benefactor, or spend their own money for an opportunity to show their work. Perhaps they don't because they aren't interested in whether others want to see their work but only in forcing it on the public. Or perhaps they don't because in most cases, it's not art worth seeing.

Graffiti is nothing but vandalism to other peoples' property.

Cops should be allowed to arrest graffiti writers, but only if they're allowed to graffiti cops.