Anti Graffiti Essay

Graffiti is a form of art. The art of graffiti is probably the most common form of art found in the world. Whether it is your “tag”, or a mural on the side of a building, graffiti is present worldwide. Even in our town you can walk around the middle school and find some form of graffiti. But how can you define graffiti? Graffiti starts at the bottom level, the “tag”. A tag is a graffitist’s signature that is usually an alternate alias. It is written so that the reader cannot read it easily. Tags have a flow and style that defines what graffiti is. Graffiti can be anything written on a building or wall.. The next step up for graffiti is usually called a mural. It is a tag, or picture on a larger scale. Instead of plain letters, the word usually takes on a 3D or bolder form. Block or bubble letters are a good example of this. (EXAMPLE) The next step in graffiti, and the rarest is a full scale painting that you would find on an alley wall. These pictures are usually paid for by the land owner, but on occasion you can find one that was done overnight secretly.

Graffiti first got its name from the Roman Empire, when it applied to ‘writing on the wall’. In the late 1960’s political activists first used tags to make statements or mark territory. When the 70’s started, pioneering graffiti artists were writing their names on subways, trains and city walls. New York City was a haven for this graffiti, and it is found wherever you walk around the Big Apple. As artists tried to enlarge their tags, they discovered that the regular aerosol cans could not make the writing to scale. They discovered that highlighting the outlines of their signatures made more notable signatures, and enhanced the look. Soon they adopted other nozzles from different aerosol cans. This was a turning point for graffiti, and these methods are still strongly used in today’s graffiti and art.

Artist Alexis Smith says “…no matter what kind of art you create, it will always be criticized…” This