Essay On Graffiti As Art

Can graffiti be considered as art?
Art is an expression of one’s mind or imagination through drawings and paintings on a canvas or words written in a book. Graffiti is an expression as well of one’s imaginations or feelings through words, or drawings displayed on a surface such as a building, wall or subway train.
Graffiti can be traced back to the beginning of time with the cavemen. Many caves have drawings done by cavemen. The cavemen used what they had available, whether it was a rock, a stick, or a bone to crave or draw on the inside of the caves to communicate. The drawings were a way to communicate or to express themselves. When discoveries of the drawings were made, no Archaeologist, I believe, thought these drawings were a form of vandalism. Now let’s, fast forward to modern day today, graffiti artist uses spray cans to display communicate versus the traditional artist who uses a paint brush. But, does this make a graffiti artist less of an artist just because he/she uses a spray can and a building to express inner thoughts? I think not.

Those colors can make a dull brick wall beautiful or an unsavory part of town more appealing. Some do not see the reasoning for this type of beautification claiming underlining messages are being sent through gang signs or just a lack of respect to public property. People express themselves in many ways, graffiti is one way.
The flip side of graffiti is that it can become a noisome. During the mid-1980, the city of New York was faced with a big problem of graffiti. The graffiti was displayed all over subway walls, trains and street corners. The city tried to crack down on graffiti artist by fining or jailing if caught spray painting public or private property without permission. This action did not detour the artist. They just found clever ways to get around the police or neighborhood