21 Things You Didn’t Know About Street Art

By Section 2

Edited by Maria Aristy and Evanilde Semedo

1-Age does not kill passion. Huffington Post published an article entitled, “Charles Wesley Arrested: 71-Year-Old Graffiti Gran

dpa Identified As Florida Street Vandal”, explaining how a grandpa got arrested for doing graffiti. However, he could have gotten away, but because of a witness who saw him writing on a pole, he got in trouble and was charged $5000 bond for his action. Isn’t that crazy? (Section 2)

2-Tony Silver, the director of the 1983 documentary Style Wars, argues whether graffiti is art or vandalism by discussing people’s points of view of how graffiti writers used graffiti to express themselves in New York. (Section 2)

3-According to the author Robin Newton of  “Graffiti and Street Art-level” written in the British Council, during the 1970s in New York, Demetrius, a boy, wrote his tag in the train, which motivated many teenager to start expressing their own tags in the subways. (Aissatou Barry)

4-Nothing activates adrenaline production like fear. According to the article “Graffiti- Art or Vandalism” by Bernd Riebe, he admits that some graffiti writers are motivated by an adrenaline rush, a sensation produced by fear. (Maria Aristy)

5-According to the article “Got The Graffiti Bug? Artists Have Long Used New York City as Their Canvas,” by Miriam B. Wiener, where she discusses about how people in New York are making graffiti on the street. Moreover, she explains how teenagers became crazy about graffiti in New York. (Marilia Spinola)

6-Based on New York Graffiti laws, Published by the Mayor’s Task Force, the sale of aerosol– a type of spray mostly used as a painting tool– has been prohibited to minors under the age of 18. Would graffiti makers protest about this law that is basically taking away their rights to show their talent by making graffiti in streets? (Skarlen Sabaris)

7-According to the article “Globalization of Street Art” by Emily Colucci, graffiti started decorating small towns then it ended up covering street art in New York City then globally. In addition, the author also said that graffiti artists from different race, culture and countries are having the same type of motivation to show their art in the street, and everywhere possible. (Mariza Spinola)

8-According to the article “Arab Graffiti: Vandalism or Art”, by Mohamed El Hebeishy, published on September 9, 2012, many people from the Middle East and North Africa believe that graffiti is art because it helped them protest for their freedom during the Arab Spring, while others believed it was vandalism. (Section 2)

9-According to “Graffiti: Art or Vandalism?” published by the British Council, it is illegal to paint on somebody else’s property. It describes how Banksy, a British man, started painting in the summer of 2009. Being a mystery man hiding in the dark, nobody is able to see him. (Daritza Suero)

10-According to the article, “An App to Search for Street Art” by Jonah Bromwich, the author informs street artists and people interested in graffiti about a new app, where people can search for famous, inspired and motivated graffiti and other street art from their cellphone, include places such as the Bronx in New York and many other places around the world. These possibility of having an app where to found street arts all around the World, it will give people and graffiti fans quick and efficient opportunities to expose their messages and feelings to other people. (Airton Depina)

11-According to Yankee Magazine’s article “Graffiti, Street Art or Vandalism?” by Edgar Allen Beem, Portland, Maine is in the middle of a public debate about the pros and cons tagging or street art. In April the Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance started a discussion that put taggers against the property owners. This shows that the property owner and street artist are debating about the negatives and positives actions that are going on in their situation with graffiti. Who you think is right? (Agnelo Pires)

12-According to Yankee Magazine, “Graffiti, Street Art or Vandalism?” by Edgar Allen Beem, the author concedes that people who recently dislike graffiti after seeing an exhibition of graffiti in Portsmouth Museum of Art, started to like graffiti and classify it as an art. (Lina Guzman)

13-On March 25, 2011 the article entitled “Street Art: Second Thoughts,” published by Hector Tobar in the Los Angeles Times, explained how police only fined artists in Los Angeles, depending on how offensive is the art. Do you think it should happen in Boston too? (Maria Rivera)  

14-Sometimes in life, things can be harder than what you expect it to be. According to the article “Street Art Stages a Comeback in L.A as Public Mural Ban Lifted”, by Los Angeles Times, many people believe in graffiti as an art, and by having so many supporters, those that do street art started feeling important. While, some others in the LA disliked the painting and they had no way that they could resist it, because nobody agreed with those that think graffiti is vandalism. (Cesar Depina)

15-According to the article “Mural Capital of the World” published by Los Angeles Times, citizens argues about The Mural Ban Lifted a decade-long, whether painting outdoor walls will be permitted or not. Are the artists satisfied? They believed they still don’t have enough freedom since new rules about murals came out. (Johenny del Jesus)

16-In 2008, Arifa Akbar, the author of the article “Graffiti: Street Art- or Crime?” argues her point of view about graffiti, which explains an argument whether graffiti is art or vandalism. Depending on a group of South London graffiti artists that were jailed said, graffiti for some people is walking on the “sky-blue,” so they questioned “why should they be punished, if they just want their art to be on NYC gallery?” If a dream is included, do you believe it should be diluted? (Evanilde Semedo)

17-“Bomb It: The Trailer” by Jon Reiss affirm that street art is taking place everywhere. All graffiti writers have similarities and differences, which are basically focused on the culture and the graphic design. (Marcos Soto)

BANKSY IN NYC

18-The article “An Artwork a Day Keeps The Big Apple at Bay” published by the Associated Press, explains how a street artist named Banksy became famous by doing surprise exhibits, sculptures and stencils spray-painting graffiti in public spaces, such as buildings and street walls. Somehow many people in NY believe Banksy is a street punk and not an artist, because of a quote he wrote in a building about 9/11, “It so clearly proclaims the terrorists won.”  (Fedia Lafortune)

19-According to the article “He Came, He Spray-Painted, He Got New Yorkers Talking”, published by Associated Press, Banksy, one of the most famous street artist that didn’t make everyone happy because it is illegal to practice graffiti. Banksy put picture of his work on a website and gave New Yorkers clues where it was in the city. The problem is people is not happy to what Banksy’s was putting in the streets. (Rossiany Barbosa)

20-“Street Artist Banksy Plays in, and with, New York City” published by Associated Press explains how people see Banksy in New York City as an artist, and some see him as a punk. Moreover, the New York citizens been posting on social websites like Twitter, telling him to go back to England where he came from. (Claudio Depina)

21-According to the article “He came, He Spray-Painted, He Got New Yorkers Talking” by published Associated Press, explains how talented Banksy became after doing graffitis, even though that nobody recognized him as an artist. (Rafael Soto)

18 Things You Didn’t Know About Street Art

Written by Grade 11, Section 6

Editors: Edilson Gomes, Rosa Payano

1-According to the 1983 documentary film, Style Wars, directed by Tony Silver, graffiti originated in the subways of New York City. Style Wars shows the opinions of the public and authorities as to whether graffiti is art or vandalism: the government was against graffiti because of the cost of cleanup, however graffiti writers ignore this because they view graffiti as part of their lives. (Written by Section 6, edited by Edilson Gomes, Rosa Payano and Christopher Reynoso)

2-Graffiti in Arab countries is a significant problem because they are a very conservative people. According to Mohamed El Hebeishy, author of  “Arab Graffiti: Vandalism or Art?” eL Seed, a calligraffiti artist, spray-painted a political message of free expression on the most important  wall of Tunisia, the wall of the tallest minaret. It was also a religious message about intolerance, which he took from the Qur’an, the text that Muslims believe in, with the purpose of changing conservative’s perception of graffiti and tolerance. (Written by Section 6, edited by Edilson Gomes, Rosa Payano and Christopher Reynoso)

3-The article, “Charles Wesley Arrested: 71-years-old Graffiti Grandpa Identified As Florida Street Vandal” posted on Huffington Post’s website, informs how Wesley pointlessly painted his group name ”SLA,” on a utility post in Florida, thinking that Sane Liberation Army would take over the U.S economy once it collapses. The article demonstrates that even when some people turn old they don’t lose their childish acts, and Wesley is an excellent example of how you’re never too old to be young at heart. (Written by Section 6, edited by Edilson Gomes, Christopher Reynoso and Rosa Payano)

4-According to the article “He Came, He Spray-painted, He Got New Yorkers Talking” published by Associated Press, the author explains the controversy with the graffiti artist called Banksy from Britain, who went to New York to paint graffiti. Some people like it because it inspires them to share opinions and stories, but some people don’t because they see it as vandalism. (Ashly Torres)

5-The article “Graffiti on Stockholm Mosque,” published by the Boston Globe, informs that Nazis had painted their symbols on the walls of a Muslim mosque, where they pray. The police say that the graffiti is considered to be a hate crime and that the Nazis made the symbols on the mosque wall because they hate Muslims. (Elisa Depina)

6-According to the article “Graffiti: Is it Art or Vandalism?” by Larry Humber, graffiti is art and the Toronto’s graffiti alley demonstrates it. All of the colors and different, amazing graffiti paintings made graffiti alley an attraction for many tourists in Toronto. (Giselle Aristy)

7-According to the article “Banksy’ Ruining People’s Property” by Jon Swaine, “Banksy has been accused of defacing New York and ruining its residents’ property” says Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City. However, many people disagree with this. If you’re one of these people, how would you feel if someone vandalized your property? (Elian Ventura)

8-The article “Graffiti: Art through Vandalism” talk to us about how most of the people think of graffiti they imagine tags or gang names, but the most popular form are tags. (Bryan Rodriguez)

9-According to the article “Graffiti Back in Subways” by Thomas Lueck, transit officials in New York said that most subway windows pose an expensive problem because cleaning up graffiti cost up to $130 per windows. Due to this, now windows are protected with Mylar coating, a plastic that can be peeled off and replaced, so they won’t spend more money replacing the whole window. The plan is to extend it to all trains in New York City, so it can be easy to clean the trains’ windows. (Moises Teixeira)

10-The article, “He came, He Spray-painted, He Got New Yorkers Talking,” published by Associated Press, informs us about what the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, thinks about graffiti. He stated that he cleaned up all public places in the city because they were all contaminated with graffiti, and also that graffiti is a sign of a city without order and control. (Gleny Minino)

11-According to Ben Burrow’s article, “Roger Lloyd-Pack Graffiti Tribute on Passenger Train…” published on Mirror News Website, a graffiti memorial with the message “Rest In Peace” to the death of a famous British actor, Roger Lloyd, brings a smile to commuters. (Edilson Gomes)

12-According to the article “Artists Bid Sad Farewell To 5 Pointz, New York City’s Graffiti Mecca” published by the artist Mallika on Huffington Post, the author informs how Marie Cecile Flageul, a graffiti writer, has been petitioning the Federal Court for weeks to stop the landlord from knocking down the 5 Pointz building in New York. However the landlord, Jerry Wolkoff, knocked down the building, destroying all the artwork and any chances of the building becoming a landmark. (Kevin Teixeira)

13-You might be asking how graffiti artist get their materials to do what they call art?  According to the article “Graffiti: Art Through Vandalism” written by Noel Sanchez, he informs that the U.S Department of Justice reported that street artists often shoplift the materials they need to create graffiti. (Vaenc Xheblati)

14-According to the article “Women Artists are Gaining Ground in the Graffiti and Street Art Scenes” written by Elizabeth Nolan Brown, graffiti tends to be a male-dominated field and this machismo causes females to take a man’s name as a pseudonym to gain respect. Even in an illegal field, this article demonstrates a huge competition for equality between women and men. (Rosa Payano)

15-Even famous people are getting involve in the graffiti field, according to the article “Bieber Got Clean-Up Request After He Painted A Hotel Wall in Australia” published in the New York Times, the author informs that Justin Bieber spray-painted graffiti all over a hotel wall in Gold Coast, Australia while he was on his Belieber tour. The event was posted on his Instagram which reached a huge number of likes. Bieber did not have permission to spray-painted and the mayor charged him to clean his mess.  (Eliseu Depina)

16-Five alleys were created to allow street artists the practice of graffiti, according to the article published on November, 07, 2012, “Graffiti: Is It Art or Vandalism?” by Larry Humber. It seems that Toronto has begun to open its eyes to graffiti. (Angel Troncoso)

17-The article, “Can the Can,” reported in The Economist on November 20th, 2008, which is about a criminology study conducted by George Kelling, a former probation officer, concluded that places where walls are covered all over with graffiti or places where there is low maintenance causes a negative psychological effect in people. The study also concluded that people who see other people breaking the laws, are encourage themselves to conduct bad behavior. (Christopher Reynoso)

18-The article “Graffiti: Art or Vandalism? published in Los Angeles Times, on August 24, 1991, talks about how Orange County allowed aerosol painting in spite of laws that make graffiti illegal. Therefore, Orange County cleans up graffiti that symbolizes gangs. (Elianny Rodriguez)

12 Things You Didn’t Know About Street Art

 Written by Grade 11, Section 5

Editors: Enrique Nova, Veronica Fonseca

1. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word graffiti has Italian roots: graffito, which is the singular of graffiti, and means “scratch”. A word with roots from such a beautiful and romantic language is been use to describe an act of running and jumping walls to do secret paintings, which is everything but romantic–this is pretty funny and ironic. (Veronica Fonseca)

2. For how long do you think graffiti has existed? According to the article, “Graffiti Art Through Vandalism,” these emotional and expressive paintings were used in ancient Greece to promote prostitution, and nowadays, there are different types of graffiti from the Greeks and Mayans in exhibitions all around the world. (Jennifer Hernandez)

3. According to the article “The History of American Graffiti: From Subway Car to Gallery” by Saskia De Melke, she explains how graffiti’s popularity was increasing in the 1970s and also how young people were the key in the contemporary graffiti movement. (Erika Nunez)

4. In the 1983 documentary, Style Wars, directed by Tony Silver, he explores the historical origin of graffiti in New York City, the different styles, the lives of graffiti artists and arguments for and against how graffiti’s culture affects the community in a positive or negative way. (Section 5)

5. As the article, “New York’s Graffiti Mecca, 5Pointz, Was Whitewashed Overnight” by Eyder Peralta, explains how the owner Jerry Wolkoff allowed graffiti artists to use his building, 5Pointz, to do colorful pieces on the walls that are about 200,000 square feet. Wolkoff then decided to whitewash the building because he wanted to build new apartments and stores. Also some of the painters erased the works themselves and today 5Pointz is gone. (Nadia Monteiro)

6. According to the article, “Graffiti: Is it Art or Vandalism?” by Larry Humber, he explains what graffiti looks like to the eyes of people from Toronto. There was a controversial argument in between the city’s panel members who are supporting graffiti and the property owners who are against graffiti. The author describes how the city of Toronto is accepting street art as art, and not as vandalism. For example, there is one place in Toronto where graffiti artists are allow to express their talent with their drawings. (Eber Moreno and Abdulfeta Aman)

7. According to the article, “Who is Banksy?” by The Huffington Post, Banksy is a pseudonymous United Kingdom-based graffiti artist, who got famous because of his mysterious pieces of art. Banksy used graffiti as a weapon to influence art and culture in a positive way, even though some classic viewers see graffiti as a type of vandalism. (Edwin Matos)

8. The cultural critic James Panero, and author of the article, “Taking It Beyond The Street,” published by The Wall Street Journal, explains how Banksy was able to do 30 graffiti in 30 consecutive days, where he went all around New York City creating his master drawings. As well as adding some Nazi details to a landscape drawing that changed it into a distinguished art, and then it was sold for $615,000 during an internet auction. (Enrique Antonio Nova)

9. According to the article, “British Graffiti Artist Leaves His Mark on New York City, Controversy Too,” people in New York have different ideas about Banksy, a British graffiti artist and one of the most famous graffiti artists in the world. Is he a true artist or just a regular vandal? Banksy’s paintings, estimated at $74,000 originally, were sold in an online auction for $615,000, about six times what was estimated, proving that Banksy’s paintings are not just ordinary graffiti, but true street art. (Geraldo Diaz)

10. As the article “Arab Graffiti: Vandalism or Art?” by Mohamed El Hebeishy explains, graffiti evolved during the Arab Spring and was used to spread messages of tolerance, by expressing and exposing the political issues on the cities’ walls; the messages gradually changed the public perspective of the Arab Spring. It was, as well, a way to influence people to join the upheavals. Words are powerful, so we can imagine how much stronger they become when they are combined with art. (Written by Section 5)

11. The child inside never dies. According to The Huffington Post article, “Charles Wesley Arrested: 71-Year-Old Graffiti Grandpa Identified As Florida Street Vandal,” Wesley tagged ‘SLA’ (Sane Liberation Army) on light poles  for six years, showing his beliefs on what will happen when the government and economy declines. The graffiti artist, surprisingly, turned out to be a 71 year-old senior from the area. It’s funny to imagine your grandparents jumping walls and spray painting all over the city. (Written by Section 5)

12. According to the article “Graffiti as Art” by Noel Sanchez, the author argues that graffiti is an art form. His opinion is based on a research called “Concerning the Recognition of Some Forms of Graffiti as Art” by Stowers, a student of Miami University, who explains that graffiti cannot be disqualified because of the fact that it is illegal, but it should be qualified as art because of its planning, imagination, and use of colors. (Keila Gomes)