Art from a Can

I grew up in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, and I spent a lot of time in the big city. It’s not exactly New York, but it certainly has a more urban feel to it than Springfield. And, just like in other large cities, graffiti began appearing in Dallas while I was growing up. I have to admit that I’ve always had a fairly negative attitude toward it; most of the graffiti I saw was not very sophisticated—nowhere near as colorful or skillful as the pictures in Spraycan Art—and seemed to mar the spectacular beauty of downtown Dallas. Additionally, the kids at my high school who were involved with graffiti were often the same kids trafficking in drugs and guns (or so it seemed) and I did not understand their need to leave a “mark” on my city. In my mind, graffiti was needless vandalism—an angry kid spray-painting “F*** [Insert rival gang name here]” on a building I had to drive past every day.

However, when I read the introduction to Spraycan Art and looked at the pictures, I felt a sort of awe for this controversial art form. And how could someone not have that reaction to this of book? It depicts how graffiti pioneers turned New York City (and other places) into a giant canvas, risking punishment to spend hours decorating the cityscape with colors, pictures, and words they found meaningful. The images presented in the book truly spoke to me from an artist’s perspective; I don’t know how anyone could deny the creative validity of something like Aerosal Art (on a wall in Paris, p. 70).

I think it was very wise for the editors of Spraycan Art to let the pictures speak for themselves. It is one thing to read academic text about graffiti or to see poor imitations of it in big cities, but the art in this book is calculated and beautiful. I also enjoyed reading about how graffiti became popular in Europe; to me, it always seemed like a very American pastime. Additionally, I was interested to find that some cities have tried to treat graffiti artists fairly by providing them with designated places they can practice their craft without fear of penalty; this seems like a sensible way to reconcile freedom of expression with respecting buildings and public spaces. The only problem with that, I think, would be the question that always follows art: how do we determine what is valid graffiti, and what is simply angry spray paint ramblings on a wall, like what I saw in Dallas? I’m not sure, but I think everyone can agree that the images depicted in Spraycan Art are definite works of art.