Wandering around the city this week, I took a few pictures of some graffiti. Now to me, I don’t like tagging, but a good bit of street art in graffiti style murals will make me pause and enjoy. It can be a political statement, a decoration, or just a bit of abstract art – and viola – it simply adds a bit of “alt-culture” to the area – and to me, enriches the entire experience of city life. Basically, it breaks up the grey concrete that is urbanity and replaces it with… COLOR!

The thing is that street art – proper street art – while created with the basics of a design and spray paint – is actually proper art. It takes practice, it takes vision, and it takes a certain amount of balls to go to a business owner and ask hey, do you mind if… (or even more so if you’re doing an entire mural in the dark of night). Note that I don’t agree with illegal activity – nor with vandalism in general. That leads me to the quesiton – is art vandalism… well. That’s not for me to decide. I suppose in this case, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. (Or is it in the case the “bolder?”)

My advice to those that are in cities – be bold, work with the community, and put up more street art. 🙂