Graffiti in Los Angeles: Art or Vandalism?
Graffiti seems to be painted not only all over Los Angeles’ streets and walls, but on people’s walls and news feeds. In the Los Angeles Arts District, people line up outside of restaurants and stores in order to take pictures in front of painted walls and put them on social media websites like Instagram and Tumblr.
Businesses like the Art Co-op, a retail store in the Los Angeles Arts District, have even profited from the popularity of graffiti says Sandra Perez, the Sales Associate and Social Media Contributor for Art Co-op. The Art Co-op is a retail store that hires local graffiti and street artists to paint murals on their facade. They promote these artists by repurposing their art on t-shirts, merchandise and printed art for sale.
“We see people drive by our store and maybe they can’t tell who we are from the outside, but they are willing to stop for the art pieces on our walls,” said Perez. “We have seen an increase in our sales because of our art. People appreciate the art and love to take photos with it.”
Historically, many Los Angeles residents have associated graffiti and tagging with criminal activity or gang-violence, but with graffiti and street art entering a large part of Los Angeles’ popular culture, should graffiti be considered art or vandalism?
“In L.A. we have a proliferation [of street art] right now all over the city. You can’t drive down any street without seeing some kind of street painting,” said Rochelle Steiner, a Professor of Critical Art Studies at the University of Southern California. “Some of this art is illegal, some of it is sanctioned, some of it is vandalism and some of it is encouraged by the owner.”
“There is this kind of instinct to mark terrain, to want to create something that is even beautiful, in your neighborhood, especially if your neighborhood is downtrodden. How can you kind of create something that has an imagery that shows individuality or personality or your own creativity?”
Steiner teaches a course entitled “Art in the Public Realm” at USC Roski School of Art and Design. The course focuses on the history and context of artists who work outside of museums and galleries.
“In 2001, the city had a ban public murals,” said Steiner. “It wasn’t until 2013, that the ban was lifted, allowing legal making of murals on walls.”
Los Angeles has not always been receptive to street art and graffiti like it is today. There has been a long history of police seeing graffiti as vandalism says Steiner. According to city records, Los Angeles spends $7 million a year on painting over graffiti.
“Many artists feel that if you go to get the permission that it isn’t true street art, because street art, by its nature, should be subversive and should have this kind of transgressive nature to it. Other people feel that, by doing that you are putting your art at risk, so you might as well go and ask for permission, because then your art has more chance of surviving.”
Sam, a 19 year old Los Angeles graffiti writer, says he considers graffiti artists who get permission or are commissioned are “sell outs”, because to him, graffiti is as much about the art as it is vandalism.
“There’s an unlimited amount of variables that go through my head when I see a blank wall,” said Sam.
He and two other young graffiti writers maneuvered themselves under a small opening in the chain-link fence, which led to a dirt lot littered with rusted spray cans and surrounded by expansive walls. For many, this is a decrepit wasteland in the bowels of Los Angeles’ industrial district, but for these three young graffiti artists it is a blank canvas, ripe with endless possibilities.
“Graffiti is strategic, because when you do a lot of graffiti you learn what’s gonna get buffed (painted over) and what’s going to run (endure),” Sam added, pointing to a large tri-colored piece of graffiti which spelled out “MORE”. “Everyone wants to paint on something that’s going to run.”
Sam has been a graffiti writer for over 9 years and says he has seen many of his friends arrested for vandalism. For Sam and many graffiti writers alike, creating art and leaving their mark on a wall far outweighs the risk of getting caught.
In Los Angeles, a graffiti writer who causes more than $400 in property damage can face up to $10,000 in fines, up to a year in jail, or both. According to the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, if a writer causes more than $50,000 in damage, they can be fined the same amount and see up to a year in jail.
Pulling out a wide-tip pen from his back pocket, Sam began tactfully marking the letters of his “writer name” (graffiti name) on the side of the wall. “What a lot of people don’t know is that the [graffiti writing] community is very small, so I feel like I essentially have a personal relationship with each name and each piece of graffiti on a wall…it’s beautiful.”
Kim Secoquian is the assistant director of events at Art Share L.A., a creative community center and low-income living space made exclusive to artists and musicians in Los Angeles. Secoquian is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts at California State University, Los Angeles. A Northern California native, she moved to Los Angeles in order to be closer to what she calls “the graffiti capital of the United States.”
“A lot of people look at graffiti and they think that it is this chaotic form of art or that it is just vandalism,” said Secoquian, who is currently writing her Master’s Thesis on graffiti artists in Los Angeles. “It’s actually very controlled and there is a very strict set of etiquette for graffiti writers.”
Secoquian says in order to achieve fame and recognition in the graffiti community, a writer must follow three main tenements of graffiti: reputation, prolificacy and artistic skill.
“Graffiti will always be vandalism because what helps a writer achieve fame is this audacity of hitting (painting on) a wall that you’re not suppose to.”
“Artistic skill is one of the easiest sides of graffiti to defend,” said Secoquian. “You look at these self-taught artists, who probably didn’t go to art school or who couldn’t afford it. These are people who shouldn’t be able to execute pieces as large and complex as they are, but somehow they do.”
In Los Angeles, graffiti is often associated with gang and criminal activity. According to the Los Angeles County Police Department website, “the more social disorder and graffiti in a neighborhood, the louder the message is sent that ‘nobody cares,’ [setting] off a vicious cycle that encourages further crime in affected neighborhoods.”
Former graffiti writer, Prizm (writer name), says that starting his own “graffiti crew” actually kept him out of gangs and gang-violence.
“I started graffiti tagging in elementary school,” said the 39 year-old Uber driver. “I grew up in a gang-affiliated area, so graffiti writing was basically an escape route for me.”
“Everyone has a writer name,” he said. “I chose the name Prizm, because there are many sides and colors to a prism, just like there are many different sides to a person.
Prizm started WDC, “We Don’t Care”, a graffiti tagging group in the late 1980s with some of his friends in South Los Angeles. He says that being a part of a tagging crew was a form of escapism and also protected him from gang violence.
“There is a type of peace between graffiti writers and different gangs,” he said. “You could have a group of people, that were probably enemies, like one was a Blood and one was a Crip and everyone came together to be a part of a tagging crew.”
“There is a difference between gang tags and graffiti tagging, and as a graffiti artist, you learned that there is a respect level. Sometimes you see certain art and you just don’t write over it.”
Whether you choose to use street art as the backdrop for the perfect Instagram photo or you appreciate graffiti for its cultural messages or you consider it a crime, it clear that graffiti and tagging are embedded in the very fabric of Los Angeles.
“See that right there,” said Prizm, pointing out of the window to a piece of graffiti on a wall. “That would be an expression of art. Someone probably sat down and did that on a piece of paper before painting it up.”
