Graffiti All in Eye of Beholder

June 10, 2010 • LaNaesha Meredith  
Filed under A&E

Artists or vandals?

While some students at Skyline may have fun writing tags and graffiti on walls, it takes away school district money that could otherwise be used to fix and improve school buildings and classrooms, say school officials.

“Graffiti is not an easy problem to solve,” said Skyline custodian Larry Rogers. The equipment that is used to clean graffiti is very expensive, he said.

However, for members of the graffiti art club which meets regularly at the Youth Center, all graffiti is not necessarily bad.

“It is vandalism [to some] but to graffiti writers it’s just either expressing yourself or just doing it for fun,” said Jose Lozano, a freshman. He says the difference between graffiti as art and tagging “depends if you do it on a legal or illegal spot.”

For Saulo Avuil, a junior, the difference has more to do with the approach. “Tagging is when you go around and just write your name around and graffiti art is when you take your time on it with your style and creativity,” he said. “Nobody can decide what is vandalism.”

For our custodians, however, it is all about location. If it is drawn in an artist’s “black book” of sketches or in an approved mural, it is not their problem. In the bathroom, however, aesthetics are not the issue – it is all bad, and the result can be lasting. Rogers said that when the graffiti is painted over or cleaned there is still a reminder of the damage left behind. The paint will not quite match the original paint, or may now be a spot that is darker than the rest.

There is a mixture of different types of graffiti “tagging” around Skyline’s campus, like names and gang signs, slogans or symbols. Graffiti can also include threats and challenges to rival gangs who all attend Skyline.

One sophomore, who wished to remain anonymous and was not interviewed as part of the Youth Center club, admitted that his tagging has no purpose beyond “just making my turf known and for people to respect it.”

Suspended for the activity in middle school, he has not been caught at Skyline despite writing on walls here.

Describing himself as “a true gang-banger,” he explained that he began tagging because “well, all my uncles and cousins does it.”

Others, like Avuil, say graffiti is a way “to express yourself in creative ways.” While he mostly “sends” his tag name and that of his “krews,” “I also be sending positive messages and political messages.”

Some students believe tagging is going to happen no matter what and creative solutions should be found to decrease the damage it causes. “Chalk walls [in the bathrooms] were better because the students are just going to replace and increase the graffiti,” senior Michael Nelson said.

Most tagging seems to be written during class-time, with the bathrooms being the most popular place to do it. Beyond locking up the bathrooms, it is difficult for school security officers to stop this behavior ­— it isn’t as if we can put cameras in a private place such as this.

Security Officer Garret explains that “first they tag in school-course class books and that leads to the walls of Skyline’s buildings.”

While some people say that graffiti is art, but most times it is vandalism because of swear words, gang banging, and cruelty to buildings.

Tracey Christian, a Skyline parent said, “Even though vandalism is a growing national problem, [it] doesn’t mean it is appropriate for a high school or anywhere else.”
For sophomore Armando Maldonado, the issue is not so simple. “There is graffiti all over the world,” he notes. Asked why he is interested in graffiti, he says it is “the thoughtfulness that people put into their pieces.”

Tags:

 Email This Post        Print This Post