Graffiti

Graffiti as a word should be broken off from vandalism into it's own term. Graffiti should remain as a word for an art form, not the crude script in bathrooms or marring public property. Although the word graffiti has its root from the italian word graffiato and it could be easily argued that the vandalism aspect should retain the name and the art form be re-branded I don't think this is the case as graffiti is already a widely excepted art form and the younger generations feel an easy connection with the word as art. The older members of society are the last vestiges that connote the word with destruction. The piece above is one that I saw at Bonnaroo summer 09 that was a beautiful piece of art that was covering a cheap plywood wall. The characters, colors, and clean lines were all great and made the environment even brighter. The second picture is a piece that I (on left) did at the same festival on a free art wall. Be forgiving of my work as unlike the other was not pre-designed, didn't use stencils or phat caps (for cleaner direction of paint flow) , and of course took much less time (about 20 minutes). The first piece I spoke about was definitely a reason I felt compelled to do one of my own, that motivation is a true hallmark of something that speaks as a art form. My friend from New York (right of the second picture) provided the paint and did the fill on the character.