OFF THE WALL

Graffiti steps up as a respectable art form

For a slideshow tour of Broad Ripple graffiti art, check this out. The audio slideshow was produced by Y-Press editor Meher Ahmad.

 

A class of young graffiti artists stood in an art studio, painting, airbrushing, and observing one another create art. Canvases, paint bottles, T-shirts and sculptures filled the tables and counters. “Get Low” by rapper Flo Rida blared in the background.

This was the scene at the Herron School of Art and Design at Indiana University-Purdue University on a recent Saturday morning. The graffiti class meets 9 a.m. to noon for 10 weeks. Students, ages 12 to adult, learn graffiti airbrushing and techniques from their instructor, Nathaniel Williams, an accomplished graffiti artist. He’s been commissioned to do graffiti murals, including one about teenage life and sports. The class will be offered again in September.

“When I tell people I’m taking a graffiti class on Saturdays, they ask: ‘Really? Why?’ said Emily Schenkenfelder, 23. “I don’t think people often think about it as a class you go to take.”

She said that too often people view graffiti artists as trouble makers. But graffiti art is not limited to gang symbols and scrawls. Instead, it is a diverse medium of self-expression that is gaining respect in the art community and society.

“I personally think it’s an art form that’s often overlooked and usually talked down upon because it is illegal most of the time,” Schenkenfelder said. “But I think there’s a lot of beauty in it that should be recognized more often.”

Kyle Vest, 18, a senior at Lebanon High School, said he appreciates the speed and skill involved in communicating a message with a broader method.

“Study the piece because it seems like most graffiti artists have something to say.” he http://www.ypress.org/advised.

Kelseyanna Sisko (cq),16, and a student at Perry Meridian High School, agreed. She said she likes to use words as the centerpiece of her art, including her graffiti. She plans to major in graphic arts in college.

“I don’t come from a troubled home; I’m not in gangs. I just love how graffiti looks and love the expression of it….My definition of graffiti is emotional design through words.”

Unlike these students, Chad Smith, who now owns his own silkscreen T-shirt company, had never taken an art class when he picked up a spray can about a dozen years ago when he was in high school and a friend invited him to try graffiti.

Matt Lawrence, also a local graffiti artist, began his graffiti career around the same time.

“I was already into advanced art since 6th grade on up, so I was already involved in art… I just got really addicted to the graffiti aspect,” Lawrence said.

The two men said they expressed their teenage angst through the art’s rebellious energy and the rush that came from spray painting walls.

This rebel side of graffiti triggers many to believe that graffiti is a form of vandalism. “Early on I would say most of the graffiti artists in the city, they’ve come across legal troubles at some point in their career,” Lawrence said.

Locally, IMPD doesn’t keep graffiti statistics, but spokesman Sgt. Matthew Mount reminds artists to think about how they would feel if it was their property. And if citizens have unwanted graffiti, the Marion Country Prosecutors office runs a program called Take Away Graffiti (TAG) to remove the undesired artwork. The program, most active in the spring and summer months, uses adults on probation and donated supplies to tackle the removal job (TAG 327-3522).

In the most recent legislative session, Ind. Sen. Ronnie J. Alting, R-Lafayette, introduced a bill that would take away driver’s permits or licenses from youth involved in gang or graffiti activity until they reach age 21. The bill failed to pass into law during the recent state legislative session.

This legislation lumps gang-related crimes and graffiti into one group.

Lawrence, however, said that not all graffiti is gang related.

“Gang graffiti is territorial. But graffiti artists, they try to go everywhere. Not too many people really know the difference unless they’re involved with it. They all consider it gang graffiti, which it’s not,” he said.

Another term for gang graffiti is “tagging,” which is when a gang scrawls words on a wall to mark its territory, often with offensive or vulgar words. Just as any other art, some graffiti is sloppy and appears to be unfinished.

Smith calls these amateur attempts at graffiti art “toy.” “That’s a slang term we use to describe it. ‘Toy’ is horrible. It looks awful. You don’t have any hand control.”

In fact, graffiti classes have helped some kids turn their lives around. Consider Barrett Moore. He’s a San Francisco high school student enrolled in an after-school course called “StreetStyles.”

In a phone interview with Y-Press, he said he’s loved learning graffiti and the versatility and free expression it offers.

“It’s really affected my life and family too,” said Barrett, 16. “It’s been such a positive thing because through graffiti art, I’m not using drugs anymore. Before I didn’t have any focus or anywhere I wanted to go after high school, and right now I have a goal of where I want to go and what I want to do.”

Graffiti artists want their art in public places and never want it confused with taggers’ work.

“I always had a philosophy, my boundaries were that I wouldn’t do it on actual personal property,” said Lawrence. “I wouldn’t do it on religious churches, mosques, anything like that. But anything as far as like the city or government was concerned, like mailboxes, stop signs, flood walls, that type of thing, those were all fair game.”

Now that graffiti art is becoming more mainstream, Lawrence can approach building owners for permission to paint and fund it.

“We actually talk to the owners and build relationships with the community and try and build off of that,” he said.

Previously seen as hoodlums, graffiti artists now can land jobs in the corporate world.

“Pepsi’s putting it on their cans. McDonald’s putting it on their cups,” Smith said. “It’s all over TV, Comedy Central hires graffiti artists to design their commercials. The graffiti artists are pretty much doing almost all types of art forms for everybody now.”

The Herron class exemplifies the change in graffiti’s role in mainstream art, Kelseyanna said.

“It’s fun to take something illegal and find a away around it and make it legal and it’s still art.”

REPORTERS: Kyren Winfrey, 12; Hrishi Deshpande, 12; Isabella Baranyk, 11; and Sarah Panfil, 12.

Copyright 2008 Y-Press