Graffiti

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Graffiti

When you hear about graffiti you usually just think of vandalism or gangs but that

is not what it is all about anymore. It now is becoming more of a modern art form, a

illegal art form. Next time your driving into a bigger city or watching a train go by,

maybe look for some of this art, you might be surprised with what some of these people

can do with a spray paint can. In this paper I want take a look into the history of graffiti,

the way it is done, and who does it.

Graffiti began as a form of communication on cave walls of early man.(Historyof

Graffiti). It used pictures and a form of letters to tell a story. The Egyptians used it a way

with hieroglyphics. But what graffiti artists do today is traced back to the Roman Empire,

where graffiti was applied as the writing on the wall. Modern graffiti started during the

late 50's and early 60's, and was used by political activists and street gangs to mark

territory. But in the late 60's it took a whole new identity. It is now the underground art

movement, artist like TAKI 183 where making big noise in NYC. He was gaining fame

by just writing his nickname on cities walls and on the subway trains. In 1971 New York

Times published an article on him. He was wasn't the only one gaining fame through

graffiti, many people from all over the world where starting to do it. In New York the

subway systems proved to be a line of communication and unifying element for all these

separate movements (@149st). People from all five broughs became aware of each

others efforts. This established interbrough competition. At this point it was a battle to

have the most tags as possible. This created the style of bombing. Bombing then led to

pieces and wild style.

Graffiti is done in many different ways. It has developed to script and calligraphic

styles. Writers, which is graffiti artist, enhanced their tags with flourishes, stars and other

designs. Some designs where strictly for design while others had meaning. For instance,

crowns were used by writers who proclaimed themselves king (@149st). Writers can also

use different size nozzles for thin detail lines or fat size for bigger tags. Which now they

could fill in the letters with color and paint more of a bubble letter style, and inside the

letter they can add even more detail like polka dots or crosshatches. Soon arrows, curls,

connections and twist of letters would be added.

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