The Evolution of Graffiti as an Art



Posted: Saturday, June 28, 2008

by Mark Traston
Photo to Painting

Art has always been, and will always be, a form of self- expression. Through it, one can convey one's thoughts and feelings to other people. It is one form of self- expression in which a person does not have to be called an artist in order to make use of it. It knows no boundaries and is available to just about anyone. Because of its being limitless, it has taken to many forms and styles. Each of these styles is different from the other and appeals to many different individuals. And since people have different tastes, likes and dislikes, it is not surprising to find them drawn to a certain art form and be less enthusiastic to another.

Of all the art forms created, none met considerable resistance from a lot of individuals is graffiti. This art form, which is dated way back to the cave man's era, is heavily criticized as vandalism and as a contributor to visual pollution. So great is the resistance for this art form that governments in certain countries around the world created laws or policies in the hopes of controlling, if not eradicating, it. Take for example the Clean Train Movement. This started in the late 1980's in New York where they took out all the train cars from the transit system which had graffiti on its outsides and even in its insides. Not just this but certain laws were made and passed that stipulates the capture and imprisonment of the individual in the process of doing the art form. These are just examples of what critiques of this art form did, and of how much length they would go just to drive it into extinction.

The artists of this art form certainly did not take these criticisms and threats lying down and sleeping. Upon passage of the laws stating their capture when caught in the act or thru evidence such as a nearly empty spray paint can while being in the vicinity of a wall full of the art form, they did it at night and wore dark clothes and had watch guards in order to escape easily. When the made over' subway cars were pulled out, the artists went to the roofs of their houses and abandoned buildings. In short, the laws, legislations, policies and criticisms did not succeed in their plan to stamp it out. In fact, they, instead, unknowingly kindled the flame of the art's artists' even more.

This can be seen thru the improvements it has gone through in all these years. It has gone way beyond the simple letters to various styles such as the Tag Style, Throw-up, Blockbuster, and Wild Style. Not only these, but it has even made use of different shapes to make to a bigger shape. Included in this list are the polka dots, checkers, crosshatches and the like. When the critics decided to eradicate it, they thought of just their selves not bothering to remember that it is a way of expressing oneself.

Mark Traston is an associate with Portrait Painting. A portrait artist will turn your photo into an oil painting. Our artists specializes in a specific area including wedding paintings, baby paintings , and CEO portraits.
This Article has been viewed 265 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by straight talk
 3 years 299 days ago.
112 fans. Follow straight talk on twitter!
The art in my opinion is not the issue but what you touched on.That is the destruction of anothers property in the pursuit of art. Where that art form is applied, what it says and does that offends, destroys or is a nagative. Now artists, that is true artrists see it all as art form. Well that is true but values and society must be considered. In my opinion it diminishes from the work when these are ignored and it does not allow a non biased view. It actually takes away and it paints the artist into a negative light. Just an opinion but I appreciate what your opinion.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.