Your views on Graffiti

Hey, I'm testing a theory, and I'd like to know your views on graffiti. What do you make of it, unsightly, interesting, you know. So, come on, you can tell me.

I think graffiti is: Beautiful. Wonderful. Inventive. Culturally pleasing.

I like the nice colourful ones, the illegible tags are pointless. Even my mother likes the nice stuff after we got stuck waiting for a 20 minute train pause at the tracks and I pointed out some of the nice stuff. She had made a comment I assume would have been someone critical so I had her really look at some and now she appreciates it the way I do. There's some rally amazing artists out there not being discovered and worse, being made into criminals for expressing themselves the only way they can. I don't think it should be just anywhere like downtown on buildings in use but there are places that are more than acceptable like those great big "walls" where people put posters all over for events and abandoned buildings, at least there the owners don't have to pay to clean it up if they don't want it there.

I like it, mostly. I would rather have someone spray up something profound or something that strikes a chord,rather than some lame star wars stencil or something (although most graffiti is pleasing to find). I also don't like those illegible tags; I'm not interested in those. Someone sprayed "Smile, things will get better" beneath an overpass that gets a lot of traffic in my town, and it intrigued me. Written on paper it wouldn't have, though. Our town is very prim and proper (they deport homeless people and don't allow tattoo/piercing shops and things like that), so it was kind of like a breath of fresh air, even if it was quite simple. I thought about doing the stuff last September when I hit a rough patch in my life, but never went ahead with it. I would have probably done something similar. Written something that hopefully made people ask why or who might have done that and what they were thinking.

Another form of anonymous art I love is bathroom graffiti. I don't care how crude or horrible it is, I love it cause it's completely pure.

I love the ones that are pictures! I think they are beautiful. I don't really like the ones that are just words- not that they aren't cool but they bore me D:

It looks better than just looking at ghetto-ass buildings. Although the tag ones are pretty stupid, imo. I love stuff that looks like someone put a lot of time into it.

where I live there are many old building that have been painted all over(grafiti'd) and it looks stunningly good, BUT, those quick black mess tags are abhorring.

I think it depends really on the Graffiti, if it's extremely well made then why wouldn't I like it? If it's poorly made, by some kid or some asshole in a gang with the standard bubble letters then it's awful and should be cleaned up.

I like it in all forms. I grew up in NYC, it makes me feel at home in a way. Even if it's just a shitty tag or throw up, it still sort of resinates with me. You dont get to see those beautiful murals if you dont accept the tags and throw ups which are essentially the artist practicing.

Originally Posted by Cover3

where I live there are many old building that have been painted all over(graffiti'd) and it looks stunningly good, BUT, those quick black mess tags are abhorring.

The earliest exposure I had was in Montreal, I don't know if you've been there, but obviously there are a lot of serious art type ones that are ridiculously huge like entire sides of tall buildings, I was always amazed by those.