Street art, I love you.

I love street art, LOVE it. What I don't like are the random scribbles on every flat surface in the city that people call "tags". Any person can scribble a "tag" on anything, hell, I've seen children do it on their parents coffee tables, but for one to physically take the time and effort to write their name on something in a "graffiti" style for whatever reason is beyond me. Majority of the time people cant even decipher what the person has written, so to me this process of trying to be famous, or "getting their tag noticed" is a large waste of time. Why would you ruin a good thing? By this I am talking about how graffiti artists are getting a bad rap due to this nonsense "tagging" that non-artists are throwing up all over the place. If you have the creative inclination to do something, then perhaps you should take a few minutes more and create something that people will enjoy seeing, or maybe something that actually has some form of meaning or visual interest?

I am one that has never had the need to spray or marker my "tag" on anything as I have never understood why one would deface something with something worse. I have seen some really creative stuff around town, since the recent popularity of Banksky and his wonderful use of stencils I have noticed that some artists out there have taken a page out of his book and make something worth looking at. I really like a lot of the "sticker bombs" that I have seen around town, and again this is proof that people are getting creative and applying that to ways of "getting their art out there" for people to see. I am not saying its right to do so, I am stating my opinion as to what I find more visually appealing in comparison to "tagging". Besides, stickers are a hell of a lot easier to remove for the city, and I have seen people actually try to remove sticker bombs for their own personal use.

So if your one of those folks out there who enjoy "tagging" your name or alias all over the newspaper boxes, sides of peoples homes, signs, etc. Please step back before doing so and think about this first, "what can I do instead of a scribble that people might want to see and maybe even keep posted for a while?", curse words are never good for such things, sure you may think its funny and get a kick out of it, but unfortunately for you the people in this town are highly educated and need more than a for sale sign with "bitches" written underneath it. Capture your audience by using a larger vocabulary, it takes nothing to write profanity and cure words, children do this for giggles, but it takes creativity and thought to produce something that will captivate your main audience, the people who walk by and see it daily.

Please take what I said as an educational tool for the future of all graffiti artists, because if this nonsense "tagging" continues, the laws will change and future artists may not get the opportunity to have the freedom of expression that some are continuously taking advantage of.

Live Life, Love Life, just don't piss people off in the wake of your doing so.

Thank you.