Graffiti
On my way back from lunch the other day, I saw the Graffiti Eradication Program van parked by the Hwy 99 underpass at Lindo Channel. The hair on my neck immediately stood up. I must make two disclaimers: 1. I grew up in and around New York City where graffiti abounds and 2. my son is a graffiti artist. So it will come as little surprise that the sight of the van irked me and led me to wonder what teenage artist’s work was being erased that day.
In New York where I grew up in the 1960's and 70's, graffiti was everywhere. Most prominently, it adorned nearly every subway car that flew into and through my home station at Broadway and 116th St. I used to anticipate the passage of each subway car in hopes of having the opportunity to see something new. My favorites were always the cars completely covered down to the wheel wells in colorful graffiti. Seeing a car like that was like winning the lottery, though any car with graffiti brightened my day.
Now I have a 20 year old son who finds expression in "tagging." I counsel him to confine his graffiti art to the scrap particle board sheets we procure for this purpose as I am afraid of the consequences if he is caught creating public art in our intolerant community. Apparently the only art determined to be worth preserving is that which has been sanctioned by a group of adults. Unfortunately, I think sometimes this is antithetical to the nature of art itself, which is to shatter our commonplace view of our world and to reconstruct it in a way that offers us a new view, an perhaps some insight as well.