This past Friday my friend took a picture that made me realize something: I love graffiti. We were waiting in line outside of Lee’s Palace, just east of Bathurst on Bloor, when she snapped a photo of me and another friend.
“That picture is amazing,” she said instantly. I dare anyone to disagree.
Granted the photo of us may not be the most flattering, but there is something about the wall that jumps out, something that makes an otherwise terrible photo beautiful. Since that night I feel like I’m look at it now for what it truly is: art.
Now I know there are people out there who are reading this (or so I like to think) are shaking their head in utter disagreement, but I have to lay my claim. To my friend Tamas who recently wrote an article entitled, “Extreme Makeover: Toronto” within which he says, “Consider what this city would look like if buildings weren’t saturated with graffiti,” I have to say, “I think they’d be boring.”
I respect that there is a difference between putting a mural on a wall, and tagging someone else’s mail box, but in the grand scheme of the city, graffiti adds some colour, some humanity. And though to some it may mean ownership, to me it’s something I can enjoy while riding the street car or taking a walk. I don’t mind the couple extra minutes it usually takes to read what most graffiti says and I commend the artists for their ability to transform words into images. If you’ve ever tried it you’ll know, graffiti isn’t easy.
I try to imagine what I’d paint if ever handed a can of spray paint and I can’t think of anything. I hope that I wouldn’t be dumb enough to write my name and then try and imagine a way I could do so without it being too obvious. All I come up with is a “tag” that just looks like my name, but kindergarten styles. This is definitely not for me…I’ve never been very good at breaking the law.
The City of Toronto launched the “The Graffiti Abatement Program” under the Mayor's Clean and Beautiful City Initiative (an initiative that hasn’t really been taken in my opinion). On the city’s website (http://www.toronto.ca/) they define graffiti as, “One or more letters, symbols, figures, etching, scratches, inscriptions, stains, or other markings that disfigure or deface a structure or thing, howsoever made or otherwise affixed on the structure or thing, but, for greater certainty, does not include an art mural.”
An art mural…phew. But where is the definition? Who gets to decide what’s art and what’s “graffiti”?
For me the tags and drawings that line the GO train tracks are something I look forward to seeing in the morning. I notice when there are new ones and spend a surprising amount of time trying to picture these people hanging off of bridges, or teetering on a ledge, spray can in hand, and all so someone can see their work. To some, Tamas, my feelings are not reciprocated. He writes, “Daily GO Transit commuters are welcomed to the city every day by eye-offending graffiti that adorns the walls near the tracks.”
Never mind violence on the news, graphic movies and pseudo-pornography in advertising, this is what really offends the residents of Toronto. Never mind the fact that there may be an underlying social issue at hand when a generation feels the need to take their art to the streets, lets just ban it. Let’s fine them, arrest them, and paint over it.
With more and more street festivals sprouting up (Groove and Gravity, The Malvern Mural Movement, The Humanitas Festival), Toronto graffiti artists are finally finding an audience that will appreciate what they do.
I guess like all art, all writing, graffiti is subjective, “of the self, existing in the mind, personal, and a way of displaying an artist’s individuality.” So from the Collins Gem dictionary to you, I say take from it what you will, but try to find a moment of art in it all.
For more on the city’s Graffiti Abatement Program visit: http://www.toronto.ca/graffiti/abatement_program.htm
“That picture is amazing,” she said instantly. I dare anyone to disagree.
Granted the photo of us may not be the most flattering, but there is something about the wall that jumps out, something that makes an otherwise terrible photo beautiful. Since that night I feel like I’m look at it now for what it truly is: art.
Now I know there are people out there who are reading this (or so I like to think) are shaking their head in utter disagreement, but I have to lay my claim. To my friend Tamas who recently wrote an article entitled, “Extreme Makeover: Toronto” within which he says, “Consider what this city would look like if buildings weren’t saturated with graffiti,” I have to say, “I think they’d be boring.”
I respect that there is a difference between putting a mural on a wall, and tagging someone else’s mail box, but in the grand scheme of the city, graffiti adds some colour, some humanity. And though to some it may mean ownership, to me it’s something I can enjoy while riding the street car or taking a walk. I don’t mind the couple extra minutes it usually takes to read what most graffiti says and I commend the artists for their ability to transform words into images. If you’ve ever tried it you’ll know, graffiti isn’t easy.
I try to imagine what I’d paint if ever handed a can of spray paint and I can’t think of anything. I hope that I wouldn’t be dumb enough to write my name and then try and imagine a way I could do so without it being too obvious. All I come up with is a “tag” that just looks like my name, but kindergarten styles. This is definitely not for me…I’ve never been very good at breaking the law.
The City of Toronto launched the “The Graffiti Abatement Program” under the Mayor's Clean and Beautiful City Initiative (an initiative that hasn’t really been taken in my opinion). On the city’s website (http://www.toronto.ca/) they define graffiti as, “One or more letters, symbols, figures, etching, scratches, inscriptions, stains, or other markings that disfigure or deface a structure or thing, howsoever made or otherwise affixed on the structure or thing, but, for greater certainty, does not include an art mural.”
An art mural…phew. But where is the definition? Who gets to decide what’s art and what’s “graffiti”?
For me the tags and drawings that line the GO train tracks are something I look forward to seeing in the morning. I notice when there are new ones and spend a surprising amount of time trying to picture these people hanging off of bridges, or teetering on a ledge, spray can in hand, and all so someone can see their work. To some, Tamas, my feelings are not reciprocated. He writes, “Daily GO Transit commuters are welcomed to the city every day by eye-offending graffiti that adorns the walls near the tracks.”
Never mind violence on the news, graphic movies and pseudo-pornography in advertising, this is what really offends the residents of Toronto. Never mind the fact that there may be an underlying social issue at hand when a generation feels the need to take their art to the streets, lets just ban it. Let’s fine them, arrest them, and paint over it.
With more and more street festivals sprouting up (Groove and Gravity, The Malvern Mural Movement, The Humanitas Festival), Toronto graffiti artists are finally finding an audience that will appreciate what they do.
I guess like all art, all writing, graffiti is subjective, “of the self, existing in the mind, personal, and a way of displaying an artist’s individuality.” So from the Collins Gem dictionary to you, I say take from it what you will, but try to find a moment of art in it all.
For more on the city’s Graffiti Abatement Program visit: http://www.toronto.ca/graffiti/abatement_program.htm
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