Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
There is a graffiti tag on a sign right outside one of the parking lots at Tallulah’s school. The tag does not seem to have any purpose or form but it does obscure the text on the sign. The sign says “No Student Drop-Off” aka “Don’t skip the car line and come over here. What could possibly be so important that you need to endanger the life of a child by zipping through this parking lot?” I’m a parker and walker iner, so I get a little frustrated with this behavior, and with the people who park in the driving areas when there is a parking space available RIGHT OVER THERE and it only takes 20 seconds longer to walk from the parking space. I have control issues.
I also think the graffiti on the sign should be removed, because if people could read the sign then they would obviously know that they were doing something horribly wrong and they would stop. Of course they would. There are some other places where graffiti should probably be removed. Phallic images on playground equipment, for instance. Not cool. There are other places where I don’t mind so much seeing graffiti.
Some graffiti, like the stencils above which were photographed by Zen Sutherland and posted on Flickr, makes me laugh or makes me think. Some of it is not that deep, but it looks cool. It’s not been that long since I thought otherwise, but I now see a fair portion of graffiti as legitimate street art. The problem being of course, who does this space belong to and who gets to say what is art?
The local rag has a story about some kid going to jail for spray painting walls. That must be an acknowledged hazard among graffitos, or whatever they are called. I do think it is a bit of a shame. Sure, I want to be able to point to the sign at the school and yell, “Can’t you f’ing read?” when someone whips through, kicks their kid out the door, and zips off. But I also want to continue a personal treasure hunt that could turn up a new little artwork just around the next corner.