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Graffiti

Earth Heals Herself said:
What makes you think I'm pretending to be ignorant? What are the obvious applications? Spell it out for me.
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You first. Think about what the invention of portable aerosol paint could possibly be used for, then list the first thing(s) that come to mind. Don't be shy.


Edit: you have the entire internet at your disposal. Just a reminder. And don't use doug's post, think for yourself.
 
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Earth Heals Herself said:
For painting a wall?
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Eureka! An application for spray paint! I'll speed things along at this point by expanding "a wall" to "virtually any hard surface."

Now, what advantages would a fine, uniform mist of paint have over, let's say, a paintbrush loaded with paint from a can? Let's consider some scenarios:

1) You need to create a number of signs to indicate something (anything). You could use stencils and spray paint, or paint letters/shapes with a brush. Which would be the quickest, easiest way to do this?

2) You want to paint some car parts with a thin, even coat of paint with no ugly streaks. What's a better way to accomplish this? A brush? Spray? Perhaps you could heave a bucket of paint at them?

3) There is an entire realm of fine art involving spray paint. This one's free: it's better to use spray paint for fine art made with spray paint.

And now, after all that effort, you'll most likely be banned for that homophobic comment. That's a bit frustrating, to be honest.
 
I would disagree with the idea at first, but if those who advocate for graffiti don't want it...

I honestly believe that stopping graffiti is a matter of willingness to clean up things promptly. There's a reason why there isn't graffiti in university avenue, the financial district, or for long stretches of King st. West or even Liberty Village.
 
I had lunch with a friend in Kensington Market last Wednesday and I couldn't help but notice the amount of graffiti everywhere, though not unexpected. Afterward I walked down to the Dragon City mall at Dundas Street and was shocked at the amount of graffiti on Spadina Ave., it's as bad as Queen Street W. with nary a property untouched.
 
RC8 said:
I would disagree with the idea at first, but if those who advocate for graffiti don't want it...

I honestly believe that stopping graffiti is a matter of willingness to clean up things promptly. There's a reason why there isn't graffiti in university avenue, the financial district, or for long stretches of King st. West or even Liberty Village.
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....true, there is a reason why there is almost no graff in the areas you mentioned, but that has almost nothing to do with promptly cleaning it up.
 
Not true. It has everything to do with it. U of T has NO GRAFFITI whatsoever in its property.

Every other month I see one come up, but days later it's washed off. Consequence? No graffiti.

If people know their work will go away in hours or days, they won't bother - simple as. Specially if it could get them into trouble.
 
The places that promptly remove graffiti have no graffiti???.....shocking!

If you're arguing this angle, maybe you should investigate the number of incidences of graffiti, rather than the current presence of graffiti. Does prompt removal actually discourage tagging? Is that cost effective? I don't know. Even if it doesn't, and isn't, I'd rather live a society that spends a few extra bucks to tidy up its public realm.

That said, I'd also rather that be voluntary. So kudos to a small number of vigilant BIA's. And kudos to UofT. But if the entire battle-plan for this War on Graffiti consists of fining the victims of vandalism?...then nope, that's not cool with me.
 
See, people say that this can't be fought. Places that have decided to defy that notion and that are serious about it have succeeded, however.
 
There is a lot of understanding we need to do in order to understand graffiti art. We should not be lumping all of it together. Banning people from buying spray cans of paint? That's ridiculous and shows a lot of ignorance. Not all graffiti artists vandalize private properties. Just as all spray cans of paint are used for graffiti or street art.
 
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TorontoArtsGirl said:
There is a lot of understanding we need to do in order to understand graffiti art. We should not be lumping all of it together. Banning people from buying spray cans of paint? That's ridiculous and shows a lot of ignorance. Not all graffiti artists vandalize private properties. Just as all spray cans of paint are used for graffiti or street art.
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What's to understand? Unless it's commissioned by the owner of the building it is vandalism, pure and simple. Tagging City owned and other properties that belong to Toronto Hydro/Bell Canada/Canada Post/TTC etc. along with scratchiti is also vandalism.
 
Listen, all this talk of fines and bans and jail time etc. is fairly pointless. There are only two things that can reduce the amount of tagging and graffiti etc. 1) Greater vigilance in dealing with the clean-up 2) The act becoming less popular amongst young people.

As someone who has to deal with the clean-up issue personally I find that individual taggers etc. will give up after two removals. Luckily the kids are lazy. In a way I should be thanking these guys for helping me to commit to a regime of vigilant maintenance of property.

And MTown, I realize it's not easy being one of the only defenders of this on the forum. If you want to continue seeing tags and graffiti on buildings I would be happy to comply on a section of building if you raise the funds to pay for any fines issued to me.
 
That's very generous of you. What are these fines you speak of though? It'll be a commissioned piece and I'll tell Rob Ford himself to go suck it. :)
They can't honestly tell someone that they have to remove a piece that was allowed to be put up. Though, come to think of it, fining the "victims" is already balls-deep in madness so I wouldn't put it past them.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the hysterics regarding banning paints and licensing for paints purchase are, pardon my language, just plain fucked up. Do some of you people yell at neighbourhood kids that make "too much" noise as they play? Or shoot at barking dogs with pellet guns? Shit, I'll wager you kick homeless people seeing as they're "mucking up our streets" as well. Little wonder Ford got elected though, innit?

As for graff being the playground solely of "young" people....define 'young'. You'd be surprised, I think, to learn the age of some of the street artists kicking around.....and very, very disappointed. :p


and a big PS: One of my favourite things in Toronto right now is the simple yet beautiful I <3 You and I Love You! scrawls I've seen of late on otherwise boring pieces of grey wall. Or the two hearts holding hands on a post in the lane behind MacPherson Avenue! So bloody cute and uplifting. Jesus would approve. You're not against Jesus, are you? :p
 
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MTown said:
That's very generous of you. What are these fines you speak of though? It'll be a commissioned piece and I'll tell Rob Ford himself to go suck it. :)
They can't honestly tell someone that they have to remove a piece that was allowed to be put up. Though, come to think of it, fining the "victims" is already balls-deep in madness so I wouldn't put it past them.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the hysterics regarding banning paints and licensing for paints purchase are, pardon my language, just plain fucked up. Do some of you people yell at neighbourhood kids that make "too much" noise as they play? Or shoot at barking dogs with pellet guns? Shit, I'll wager you kick homeless people seeing as they're "mucking up our streets" as well. Little wonder Ford got elected though, innit?

As for graff being the playground solely of "young" people....define 'young'. You'd be surprised, I think, to learn the age of some of the street artists kicking around.....and very, very disappointed. :p


and a big PS: One of my favourite things in Toronto right now is the simple yet beautiful I <3 You and I Love You! scrawls I've seen of late on otherwise boring pieces of grey wall. Or the two hearts holding hands on a post in the lane behind MacPherson Avenue! So bloody cute and uplifting. Jesus would approve. You're not against Jesus, are you? :p
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This is exactly the problem with graffiti.. You have these people who are so damn sure they're entitled to not only paint over private property, but tag it, scribble and write nonsense on it. I don't know about you bud, but when I was 4 I drew a nice piece of 'art' on the hallway wall. I got such a beating that I never even dared do it again. Maybe some of you need to grow up, that's all.
 
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