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Ka Yin Lau

Ms. Stephanie

English 8

24 may 2019

Graffiti art

Imagine you have a dog, this new member of your family ​spend most of his time

running around playing with anything that he can bite. He ruined your school project and no

matter what you do, there is no way to stop him. You spend lots of time and money on

repairing the furniture and redoing you project. But this is what your puppy like, playing

around and bite. In this case, the graffiti artist is like the puppy and the government is “you”.

The graffiti artist is just keep creating artwork while government removing their painting at

the same time. But the government have no way to stop them. What will you do now? Did

you think of buying the puppy a toy for him to bite and chase around? why waste the money

or time on cleaning and banning the graffiti art ​instead​ of giving them what they need?

If you ​often​ go drive around the old city in chiangmai, you will probably find plenty

of interesting graffiti artwork all around the town. Some people seems to like it so I think that

the government should provide a public space or area for the graffiti and street artist to draw

and create their art piece. Here is why the graffiti have an important role in the society and

people should accept them as a form of art.

First​, many people don’t like how artist drawing symbol or picture on private

properties. Lots of them think this what graffiti is. ​But there is actually two types of artist and

drawing. There is tagging and graffiti (kim, 2018).​ Tagging is when people drew nickname or

symbol illegally, while graffiti is when the artist draw art and send important message to the

society. Many graffiti have deep meaning and message hide inside them. Some graffiti is
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even legally drawn and became a unique culture. The people shouldn’t mix the two type

together because even though they look and feel like they are similar, they give the society

different impact.

When you see colourful painting and drawing, do you felt happier and more exciting?

A graffiti artist said, ​“Art in the street makes people happy; it makes their day and their

commute more interesting. It adds character to what would otherwise just be grey and

boring” (10 reasons, 2018).​ Sometime just a few little artwork can bring a city back to life. In

some places, graffiti have even became a tourist attraction and people can here to take photo.

But sometime even though the painting look colorful and dreamy, the meaning inside can be

deep and harsh. ​But just because there can be so many meaning in a graffiti, ​huge amount​ of

people enjoy it and think this is a form of art. (kim, 2018)

Next​, this might be the biggest impact graffiti gallery have in the society. ​Every since

the exterior of the danver lumberyard became a “permission wall” for the street artist to draw,

the owner of this lumberyard have make some changes in the area (McGhee, 2011). ​In the

article, the author talked about the different artist that contributed in this project. ​“Joseph

Marchitti, 24, who did some illegal tagging when he was younger, jumped at the opportunity

to create legal artwork at the former lumberyard ” (McGhee, 2011).​ Like this example​, most

graffiti artist probably don’t want to do illegal things but that is their only choice. ​But​ if there

is a chance for these artist to draw legally, the probability of illegal tagging and vandalism

will decrease, causing less trouble.

People think graffiti is causing some teens or young adults to started doing illegal

activity and other more serious problems. Some might even think that the area is unsafe when

there is graffiti (Kephart,2018). ​ This problem can be related back to the first reason, tagging

and graffiti. Some people confused the two of them together, and caused them to think in a
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different perspective.​ According to a article on graffiti, the author, grace kim, pointed out that

she, “understand[s] why some may think that graffiti is considered vandalism, but I believe

with the right restriction and rules it can be categorized as art. All in all, with the right

message and the right placement of graffiti, many will come to an conclusion that graffiti is a

form of art ” (kim, 2018).​ Like what this quote said, some graffiti is not legal and the picture

or drawing didn’t actually give people the feeling of art. But if government control where the

artist can paint, like giving them a area, graffiti can soon became an art for people to feel.

In some places, the government and people are already taking action to help stopping

vandalism and support more graffiti.​ In places like buenos aires, the capital of argentina,

government have made all of the public space and area into a canvas for the graffiti artist

(McClintic, 2015).​ This give the artist to create artwork on anywhere they want in the city

and express their emotion. An author of silver city daily press pointed out, ​“Buenos Aires

originally made graffiti legal because it was so rampant throughout the city that it was

impossible to control” (McClintic, 2015). ​Since the government can’t ​take​ any control of the

street artist, they give them the freedom of drawing anywhere and creating a new modern

culture to the city.

Street artist are passion in drawing artwork that can help them to express their feeling.

But the people don’t appreciate their hard work and didn’t give them a chance to present their

work. Even though some of the artwork is illegal, but the graffiti artist put so much effort and

people don’t see the beauty of the work. I hope the government and other can think about

giving the street artist a chance and enjoy their artwork.

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Reference list

Kim, G. (2018, June 4). Can Graffiti Ever be Considered Art? Retrieved from

https://ylhsthewrangler.com/15619/features/can-graffiti-ever-be-considered-art/

Kephert, T. (2018, April 06). 5 Ways Graffiti Vandals Damage Your Community. Retrieved

from

https://www.ruralmessenger.com/kansas-news/family/5-ways-graffiti-vandals-damage

-your-community/

McClintic, S. (2015, September 4). Graffiti event gives artists legal concrete canvas.

Retrieved from

http://www.scdailypress.com/site/2015/10/04/graffiti-event-gives-artists-legal-concret

e-canvas/

McGhee, T. (2016, May 04). "Permission walls" help create a canvas for managing graffiti.

Retrieved from

https://www.denverpost.com/2011/02/09/permission-walls-help-create-a-canvas-for-

managing-graffiti/

10 Reasons To LOVE Street Art. (2016, August 19). Retrieved from

https://graffitikings.co.uk/10-reasons-love-street-art/