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I was reading an article in the Star Tribune yesterday, when on the front page I stumbled upon an article about graffiti in the metro area. (Read it online here: )I think I could say that I am pro-graffiti as long as it looks nice, isn't gang related, doesn't use profanity, and doesn't vandalize peoples homes/garages. That covers a small portion of the graffiti problem in our city today. I've seen "GD", Bloods, Crips, and MS13 gang tags near the Franklin Avenue light rail station. I've seen tags saying things like "_____ is a f*g" or "_____ has a small di*k". People who are doing these; How old are they? I hope they grow up someday, and stop defacing our city with filth. In my neighborhood, near Brackett Park we have graffiti of people, most likely high schoolers, writing "SIB" and "CAPONE" and more I can't remember. We recently has a skatepark put in at Brackett and there is already graffiti covering it. I don't know, but I hope graffiti isn't becoming a bigger problem.
The gang tags in my neighborhood are everywhere. Garages, dumpsters, sides of houses, and fences are just a few of the places that local hoodlums love to tag around here.
I read that article too, and it annoyed me, as do most articles on graffiti, with its focus on the "hip-hoppish, artsy" side of it. I have seen nothing even remotely artistic in my area - it's all GANG NAMES over here on 31st Street.
That's another vapid Strib piece. The paper can churn out one of those every couple years. Same storyline. Same idiotic reasons for why kids turn into vandals.
The new twist is the earnst parents who support their son's "artistic" inclinations by allowing their him to vandalize their garage.
God help us.
I thought the picture in the paper was artful, but writing "CRIPS" or "____ is a f*g" isn't very artful at all..
Yeah, of course it's stupid to spray gang names or derogatory terms on someone's property, and the article was pretty lame, but this "shock" can do some pretty neat stuff. I was surprised to see that picture on the front, and I've seen some non-graffitical(is there a real word for that?) work of his that's really good. I mean this kid has actually done some great stuff, made money, and is actually going places with his art. Still, I feel like the Strib piece was dull and didn't really have a purpose, a little like my posting this, but oh well...
There are gangs in S. Mpls that go up and down 38th and 35th Streets, tagging pretty much every house, bus station, and business along the way.
Graf isn't quite so pretty when you see a working-class family spending their Saturday trying to scrub 3'-high words off the side of their house.
"I mean this kid has actually done some great stuff, made money, and is actually going places with his art. "
You're easily starstruck. Someone with marginal talent and no discipline.
Pencil, paper. classes and a sense of direction with a teacher to kick his ass would help the kid of helluva lot more. Then you'll learn if he has talent.
I often feel pretty torn about this issue which is rife with contradictions. The gang graf is particularly despicable and I've seen it on the rise here in Cathedral Hill, Capitol Hill, and Dwnt. SP. Lots of GD stuff. That's BAD. The Strib actually has a better article on that problem (Gang graffiti give officials plenty to worry about).
But at the same time I loved the big beautiful eye that showed up mid summer on Westbound 94 near 280. So artful. But it got covered up very quickly and has been re-tagged with "you see, you see, you see." Which has managed to stay up there for months?! Graf is a weird issue that I find hard to have a single opinion on.
Yeah, of course it's stupid to spray gang names or derogatory terms on someone's property, and the article was pretty lame, but this "shock" can do some pretty neat stuff. I was surprised to see that picture on the front, and I've seen some non-graffitical(is there a real word for that?) work of his that's really good. I mean this kid has actually done some great stuff, made money, and is actually going places with his art. Still, I feel like the Strib piece was dull and didn't really have a purpose, a little like my posting this, but oh well...
fok you shock. hack.
Anyone who thinks there's anything positive about graffiti anywhere else beside designated graffiti walls is completely disconnected from the real world and deserves to be given the rubber hose.
Graffiti's value is completely subjective, while some may find it artistic, others do not, especially when these punks treat the world as their personal canvas to destroy. The simple fact is it's vandalism and does not need any encouragement. What needs to be encouraged is getting these kids to use their artistic talents legally.
I think graffiti has a bad name because the "artists" have no imagination, creativity nevermind poor grammar and spelling skills.
For politically relevant graffiti with biting satire, check out Banksy (UK).
http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/index.html
Allow me to repeat:
I don't give a crap about some dude making a mural on the side of a freeway wall. Yay. Whatever. Doesn't bother me at all.
What sucks is having my garage wall painted with a crappy blue "GKAE" on Monday, and then to have it crossed out in red with a corresponding "R.I.P." in red on Tuesday, and then to paint over the effing crap on Wednesday, only to find my dumpster decorated with "Sur 13, La Lady Loca" on Thursday.
And then I pay fifty bucks for a new dumpster, which is delivered by the following Monday, and start the whole damn dance over again.
It is seriously THAT BAD in south Minneapolis along Lake Street and environs.
I'm sick of this shit. Good thing I'm moving.
The vast majority of the graffiti that I walk or bike past, rises to the level of nothing more than simpleminded infantile scribblings, most likely from uneducated and ignorant gangmembers who wanna "be cool and be a bad ass" on someone else's turf........YAWN!
I'm torn about this issue too. I'm a huge fan of 27, Shye, Aimes, etc. - we have a burgeoning graffiti artist scene here that's probably invisible to most people. Now I walk by the former gas station on Lake St. next to Bryant Lake Bowl and say, "Oh sweet, there's a 27!" These artists generally use spaces and structures that are abandonded or public, such as those gray/green electric boxes or a telephone pole. Or, yes, a dumpster. In my book they are making the uglier corners of our urban landscape more colorful and interesting.
That said, defacing someone's private property is most certainly vandalism - regardless of the intent. And from what some of you are describing, and stats from the city, it's become rampant.
Still, intent *does* matter -- if not in the eyes of the law, in my own eyes. I support urban explorers, dumpster divers, and (non-gang) graffiti artists. I don't know how to say this without sounding pretentious, but some of those people are more deeply engaged in the city than I'll ever be, and in a way are a scintillating evolution of urban life.
Nothing more noble than wild dogs pissing themselves ... marking whatever random territory they can claim without getting their asses kicked something fierce ... glorifying the "artists" in the "scene" ignores the fact that 95% of all urban graffiti is not creative or beautiful ... it is destructive and utterly forgettable ...
The older I get, the more I like the idea of Siberian gulags.
Or at least Singapore-style cainings.
You'd better double-check those percentages. Either way -- Minneapolis graffiti art deserves high praise, both because of how good it is, and to counteract the prevailing attitude lumping all graffiti into the "bad/illegal/hateful" category.
Brilliant. The older I get, the more I like the idea of death camps.
Seriously, have you people no shame? Gulags?
How about we flag people who think graffiti artists should be sent to concentration camps... somehow, to mark their property... that would be apt dontcha think?
I dunno about gulags, but I've always reminisced fondly of that scene from Colors where Sean Penn's character catches the kid tagging a wall and sprays the spraypaint in his face. If the MPD announced it was going to assign all its "thumpers" to anti-graf duties, I would consider it a good day for the people of Mpls.
On a planet so overrun with the vile and destructive species HomoSap how else are you gonna cull the herd? I'd really rather have plague, since it hits the stupid hardest, but mass murder may be the only fix. Arm Palestinians and Israelis and Tamils and Christers and let them all have at it.
"All humans are vermin in the eyes of Morbo".
let's make a distinction here, ok? graf != (does not equal) tagging. tagging is when people spray stupid shit like 'so and so is a fag' or 'bloods' with no artistic merit on whatever surface is handy. graf is usually put places that are otherwise ugly and disused (think railroad overpasses, old industrial buildings, etc) and is typically more artistic. sometimes people try to put graf in inappropriate places, and then it's no better than tagging, but when kept to proper places it can be a wonderful art form. Unfortunately the stuff that's kept where it belongs isn't often seen because it's usually in run-down industrial areas (hence why no one really cares enough to remove it).
I also make a distinction between graffiti that contributes to urban blight and graffiti that exists in response to it. Taggers are doing nothing more than marking territory, while graffiti artists use eyesores as an opportunity for art.
The graffiti artist who painted the flower stand or whatever you call that thing that's parked near the corner of Franklin and Hennepin does some very cool stuff. Yeah, it's public property (I think?) but it was super ugly before this person came around and made it more visually compelling. I've seen his/her stuff on random objects along the Greenway, along electrical boxes and dumpsters near Lyndale/24th. I appreciate this kind of work, not gang-related scrawl on garages.
The Wooster Collective gives air to the thought that a city gets the graffiti that it deserves. Since I heard that, I've been much more comfortable with graffiti.
Wooster Collective: A Celebration of street art, stickers, posters, grafitti and culture jamming.
I find it unfortunate that this forum seems to consistently degrade into hateful comments. Get's boring...
When I was in NYC last month I noticed a huge reduction in graffiti since I was there last in 2000. The tagging crap is crap but Banksy rocks!
what was the outcome of that guy that shot (and killed) the dude he caught tagging his house?
murals, we need more murals. graffiti is definitely on the rise - especially along e. lake st. however, ingebretson's swedish gift store NEVER gets tagged because they have a beautiful mural covering their building. everyone around them gets it, but the gangs and artists won't touch her walls. is it out of respect for the art, or because their catchy slogans don't show up as well? whatever the reason, it works.
yeah...what did happen to the guy who shot the Harvard student who was tagging in MPLS. Also, what happened to the dudes who defended themselves from would-be robbers with a sword?
Also, i'm tired of all the preaching about murals from those who think that they are murally superior.
I'm kind of sad that they keep painting over the cool graf someone keeps putting up over bibelot on E Henn&Uni. I can see it out my window and it brings me joy until it gets painted over ): It's just on the side of an old brick building and you can't really even see it from the street.
However, whoever the fuck "birdie" is needs to stop their annoying tags around my hood. Your tag is stupid and ugly and adds nothing to the neighbourhood, so stop.
Where the eff do you people live???
I don't see any of this pretty stuff.
All I see is gang-related, semi-literate garbage.
Oh, and Chuck? I PAY for a dumpster, thank you very much. Every artsy-fartsy tag (or scribbled, shitty, ungrammatical gang tag, whose color doesn't EVEN match) cost me fifty bucks to fix or a shitload of hassle (via the retaliation it incites.)
Let's do something productive here, shall we?
Let's make up some new words to SEPARATE the artsy-crap from the territorial, violence-related gang tagging.
Because I am SICK to death of having the garbage sprayed on my stucco (or my neighbor's new fence, or my other neighbor's retaining wall) equated to something like art.
THERE'S A DIFFERENCE.
Cane the little bastards.
It ain't 'art'.
It's a failure of parenting, pure and simple.
On the Southside of Minneapolis, especially near Anne Sullivan School, I've seen many tags such as "CAPONE" and "SIB" and it's getting really bad. Tagging is getting worse with these people tagging shit.
HAHAHAHAH BITCH AND MOAN ALL YOU WANT GRAFFITI IS HERE TO STAY! WE'RE HERE TO TERRORIZE YOUR NEIGHBORHOODS AND MAKE YOU CRY WHEN WE WASTE YOUR HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS-HAHAHAHA NOBODY CAN STOP US!!! GRAFFIN' TILL WE DIE!! A.M.CREW MOTHAFUCKERS-YOUR NIEGHBORHOOD'S NEXT 2006!
this is the opitomy of some teens today. what is the point of purposely wasting peoples tax dollars. someone should tie them up and spray paint down their throats until they choke and die and then someone should drop them in the river.
=/
[a little to violent?]
oh and by the way, the AM crews graffiti isn't very good whatsoever is someone wants to argue about artisitic graffiti. try shock or solo.
i meant the comment above mine. from graffiti-bomber. just to clarify.
also, above someone was talking about designated graffitiwall..go look at the old riverside market. riverside and franklin.
I wrote SIB i do not tag it anymore. I look at graffiti in a better way now i do tag still but i put effort into my art i dont just throw some words on a wall with some color i try and make it as beautiful as it can.
"The new twist is the earnst parents who support their son's "artistic" inclinations by allowing their him to vandalize their garage. " - Rat
how do you vandalize your own garage?...
i agree: AM produces Animal Mucus... hit the books kids
quote from Bud jr."Cane the little bastards.
It ain't 'art'. It's a failure of parenting, pure and simple."
so youre a psychologist? you got something to back that statement up? im sayin, what do you mean failure of parenting!?
you wouldnt want to say something like that to a graff writer, face to face. youre talkin bout my family there, "bud." and we aint all kids...
that aside, there are bigger things to worry about. come on people. theres a war goin on! i mean, people are dyin... and you have nothing better to do than talk about kickin the shit out of youngsters painting on your building. you should be feelin shame... oh im sorry, it seems your parents failed to instill that value in you...
i wish we could just get along, and i wish i could keep it civil, but you people make me sick. talking about caneing and spraying paint in kids faces. if jail had any real use, it would be closing you people in there. your minds are already closed enough...
gkae
Not only "kids" are in gangs. So what if they want to be a Blood or a G let the do them. For one its not your life now is it?? Didn't think so!
for real. who really gives a flying fuck if i bomb an overpass along 94, or way up in a bridge above the mississippi like the underside of washington ave, or whatever. in all actuality, EVERY MOTHERFUCKING WRITER THAT IS NOT IN A GANG KNOWS THAT THERE ARE JUST SOME PLACES TO LEAVE ALONE. Such as:
churches or other places of worship
schools
PRIVET property such as homes, garages, fences, cars, etc.
its like an unwritten rule. so basically, until all of you whiney motherfuckers actually know a writer who follows these rules, step off.
and im pretty sure that my grammer is fairly well. so dont even start with this under educated shit.
and paron my incomplete sentences, but whoever it was saying that the parents fail, my mom found my paint and thought i was huffing, i told her what i do. she was not thrilled. so basically now i do it behind her back. it has nothing to do with parenting. i have a job, i go to school and i know whats expected. so seriously, fuck off.
and im pretty sure that my grammer is fairly well. so dont even start with this under educated shit.
You have just made exactly the opposite point of the one you intended.
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