Graffiti is Not Art

I feel as though graffiti is wrong, mostly because almost every case of graffiti happens on property that doesn’t belong to the artist. Graffiti can be a great way to show who you really are and a great piece of art for a business or city, but some people take graffiti too far and only do it to destroy public property. Which is not legal. This quote explains that there are many different ways of artists doing graffiti. “Some is simply a monochrome collection of letters, known as a tag, with little artistic merit.” (Dolan). Other types of graffiti are very detailed, abstract and beautiful, but still shouldn’t be allowed. Mostly because graffiti is illegal and is considered vandalism.

Many people believe that graffiti is art and “Although many consider the spray-painted pieces a nuisance, graffiti has been gaining recognition from the art world more and more as a legitimate form of art.” (“Graffiti as art” 3). Graffiti may be art if it is looked at alone, but when it is done on property that is owned by the public it is classified as vandalism. There are so many ways of graffiti that can be gorgeous and a great addition to the city, but it should only be done with permission, without that permission, graffiti is vandalism. Graffiti can be done on so many materials it doesn’t just have to be done on buildings and concrete, which is illegal. “It hardly makes sense to encourage these artists to deface public property, and so commit a crime.” (Dolan ). These artists think that it is ok for them to make their art on the walls of public property, but in most cases, “graffiti art, however, is only an annoyance to the property owner, who is more likely to paint over it or remove it than applaud its artistic merit.” (Dolan ). In most cases the property owners try to cover up the graffiti because the artist vandalized their property. The graffiti is vandalism and should not be considered art. The community should not be encouraging the people to vandalize property.” (Dolan 1). Graffiti is vandalism and shouldn’t be done.

“graffiti of cow bones in st kilda” by ajfisher.td is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.