Article by Midori Oxford

Midori O xford

Graffiti tends to be a very controversial subject, some consider it to be deliberate destruction, while others think it’s artistic. For example, in Melbourne, van drivers compete to see who has more graffiti on their vans. As polarizing as it is, it can allow people to express themselves and get a message out in an abnormal and interesting way. Graffiti may have good and bad sides but because it allows people to express themselves in such a unique way, I think we should accept and destigmatize it as an art form. As hip hop culture rose with the ’80s, so did graffiti. Because of how recent it was, hip hop was a form of empowerment for minorities and people of color, especially young people, who did not have access to conventional fine arts. Poorer schools didn’t have good art programs and kids didn’t have that outlet for artistic expression and graffiti filled that void.

Megan, the first person I interviewed, got into graffiti by being interested in both hip hop and art. In high school she took an art class and was introduced to set design by her “bananas” art teacher, who would take her out of class to make sets for the school’s theater productions. Which got her into putting her art in the public eye and thus, graffiti. At first, Megan explored stickers or paste-ups. Artists would take a paper drawing or print out and use a flour and water paste to glue it to a wall. Megan would put up posters and artwork outside rave parties, and got into spray paint shortly after. She tried throw-ups, or complex spray-painted lettering art designs, for a while, but was worried about getting caught and did not want to end up in jail. She still tagged with her friends and was caught a few times, but was usually let off with a warning. She did find places where walls had been set up for legal graffiti, but she explained that “Pieces get covered over with other pieces pretty quickly when there are legal areas...you loose your hard work.” And these walls even get torn down in some cities, like Petersburg, Ottawa. Megan expanded on why she thought graffiti has become more mainstream, “one of the artists who really broke down some walls and started including some political activism, was Banksy. He may have sparked a movement that made it slightly more acceptable to throw your art up if it had meaning...rather than just tagging your or your crews’ names.” Banksy is a very well known artist today for pieces like balloon girl and its famous shredding. He pioneered the world of graffiti into a more ac-

“Pieces get covered over with other pieces pretty quickly when there are legal areas... you lose your hard work.”

2

cepted place and helped make it mainstream. Other artists like Shepard Fairey, whose works are so popular they are displayed in classrooms, also helped graffiti be taken seriously with his political messages. Shepard Fairey is most known for Former President Obama’s campaign poster titled ‘hope’, and for his poster of a woman with a rose behind her ear called ‘We the people defend dignity’. Because it has become more mainstream, graffiti has become less stigmatized and more respected as a form of expression.

My second interviewee, Melissa, took a college class on street murals and made many murals in San Francisco with her classmates. They did commissions for museums and building owners. She often organized and ran projects, making sure the right steps were done before and after the mural was painted. One of Melissa’s works was 9,000 square feet, many of the murals were on buildings with several stories and they would have to use scaffolding to paint up high. Covering someone else’s work is disrespectful to the artist who spent time putting the art up and money to get the supplies.

Melissa learned that in San Fransisco much of the graffiti that goes over other people’s art or murals is usually done by people from outside of the bay area. While most of the graffiti done in a non-destructive way is done by people who live in San Francisco and know the unspoken rules. By tagging someone’s artwork one says that their name or tag is more important than the artist’s work.

“Graffiti can get a bad rap if the artist isn’t respectful of the craft.”

-megan

3

Teez, my final interviewee, got started by writing on the walls in Korea town, Los Angeles, and was inspired by Mister Cartoon and the cholo art around him. Mister Cartoon is a famous hip hop tattoo artist. When someone showed up at his spot with better art than what he had been doing, Teez knew he had to step up his game and started to invest more time and effort into it. Along with trying out new ways to paint, Teez started to team up with other artists.

He also started to catch some heat from the cops in his hometown and a detective had even been sent after him. Teez recalls one time he was taken into court in San Francisco, “Luckily i had been working with the city to paint murals over ugly graffiti buildings. So when i went to court i called every friend i had and they all showed up teachers fellow artists it was amazing. So they said conflict of interest and the cop they assigned was flabbergasted. Not guilty.”

the cop they assigned was flabbergasted.

Not guilty. ” Because of Teez’s connections, he was able to defend himself and his art, where others hadn’t. And it begs the question, was Teez’s vandalism that big a deal? Was he really hurting anyone? Teez has said that he paints “mostly big buildings that no one cared about the back most stuff was not meant to be seen as more discovered.” Was it going to hurt anyone if the back of an abandoned building was painted on?

Teez remarks “By then i teamed up with a young artist named sesk or tie one and we wrote far and wide. San Francisco was our

4

favorite place to go becouse[sic] the heat was on in our hometown.” Teez had mentioned Tie One multiple times and told me to look up his story. Teez had piqued my curiosity and I found that Johnathan Lim was a graffiti artist who went by Tie One and often went to San Francisco to do art. He was in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, one of the most dangerous places in the city with some of the highest crime rates, in March of 1998 when he was shot dead by William Porter. William Porter is a well-known architecture photographer in San Francisco who was described by locals before the event as the

“Fucked up crazy white guy who will shoot your ass!”

When the police looked into the murder, he first tried to say Tie One had broken into his home. When this was disproved, he continued to lie by saying Tie

One had grabbed the gun and it went off which was also disproved. A witness later recalled William Porter hitting Tie One with the gun as he yelled: please dont shoot. Tie One fled down the stairs where William shot him in the back of the head. William was painted as an overall peaceful man by authorities, greatly contrasting to his record of violent incidents which includes another time he shot a man in the leg and his description by neighbors. Struck by the tragedy of their friend’s murder at just 19, Tie One’s friends tried to put up a small memorial 5

near where he had died. As they lit a candle for him, William came out of his studio and yelled that he had killed their friend and would kill them too. The police and firefighters showed up, stomped out the memorial and told the kids they could be charged for arson. Tie One’s friend, Saber recalls that “We weren’t even allowed to light a candle in honor of our buddy’s life in a neighborhood where there are steady torches of blazing crack pipes.” The situation is highly corrupt and extremely disrespectful to Tie One. William Porter got away with zero charges for shooting Johnathan Lim in the back of the head as he ran. This was not self-defense, but murder. Letting William Porter get away with zero charges simply because the person he shot was doing graffiti is blatantly unjust.

Who is really hurt by graffiti? Is death an appropriate punishment for that? Are the stereotypes and stigmas about this art so blown out of proportion that we’d let a kid die because of how he chose to express himself?

6

From the early 90s to the 2010s as hip hop became more accepted and respected, so did graffiti. Artists like Banksy, Futura 2000, Lady Pink, and Shepard Fairey, helped make the art more mainstream and taken more seriously as an art form. Cities like San Francisco, London, and New York have such a history with graffiti, there are even tours to see some of the most famous works. Teez noted, “I have visited many cities and all major ones have some sort of street art, they are what i call a live city.”

Megan is now a teacher and sticks to regular canvas art, but her appreciation for graffiti and street art hasn’t faded. When Megan travels, she keeps an eye out for graffiti tours or spots and likes to photograph them. “I think the old subway art of NYC is amazing to see because of its colorful contrast in an otherwise grey city.” Teez now has a degree in journalism, has worked for several newspapers, and does computer graph-

ics as well. He still does graffiti and has participated in a few contests. He and some friends later opened a hip hop store called Bomb Threat, where you can get shirts airbrushed, mixtapes and anything to do with graffiti art. Melissa is a pet groomer and does her own art and composes music independently. She still does murals from time to time but not as often as she’d like to.

7

Megan closes her interview by reflecting on why she volunteered to be interviewed and she says

“I think empowering young people in the art world is im-

portant. Graffiti can have strong messages and welcoming those who want to gain knowledge on it is second nature to anyone who is really passionate about it. Those elements..breakdancing, dj, graff and MCing..create my culture. We should all want to inform others of our culture.�

8

Works Cited Graffiti: Street Art – or Crime?” The Independent, 16 July 2008, http://www.independent. co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/graffiti-street-art-ndash-or-crime-868736.html.

Feldman, Dominique. “10 Quick Facts about Graffiti.” Vox Magazine, https://www.voxmagazine.com/arts/art/10-quick-facts-about-graffiti/article_bf0e70c8-91aa-5302-a049037cc195e323.html. Accessed 1 May 2020.

Graffiti Facts - 33 Interesting Facts About Graffiti | KickassFacts.Com. 25 Nov. 2017, https://www.kickassfacts.com/graffiti-facts/.

In Praise of Graffiti: The Fire Down Below | The Village Voice. https://www.villagevoice. com/1980/12/24/in-praise-of-graffiti-the-fire-down-below/. Accessed 1 May 2020 Juxtapoz Magazine - Saber Remembers His Friend, TIE ONE. https://www.juxtapoz.com/ news/saber-remembers-his-friend-tie-one/. Accessed 1 May 2020.

Teez. Personal interview. 24 april 2020.

Melissa Recancia. Personal interview. 20 april 2020.

Megan Balciunas. Personal interview. 23 april 2020.

9

Midori Oxford is a student

at Freestyle and Los Altos High School, she hopes to go into advertising in her future and learn many useful skills for that at Freestyle. She is currently learning about independence and autonomy. Outside of Freestyle she enjoys gardening and videogames. She wanted to write about graffiti because she felt it goes largely unappreciated and gets a worse reputation that it deserves.

Special thanks to:

Michelle Lodwick Dustin Oxford Hazel Oxford Melissa Rickansia

10

Teez Megan balciunas the people of freestyle Academy