On my way from work to my home I saw this one appeared. I'm sure it wasn't there in the morning. It happened in less than 9 hours.
Graffiti is street art, a symbol of freedom and creative expression that had me hooked during my high school days. Back then, it was on the school desks and corridors where my urge for painting on those giant canvases, such as walls, bridges, platforms, and stand-alone garages, was born.
I was a high-energy teenager,
craving a way to express myself differently from the school routine. I was always fascinated by the colorful, sun-drenched graffiti on the city's walls. But it wasn't just some artistic whim for me; When I saw ugly tag or crooked writing on some wall I Just Had to cover it with something pleasent for an eye. I was bold and cheeky. Spraying the walls was something like pissing for a dog. Often, it wasn't anything profound - we'd tag our neighborhood as our own.
Getting into this world was somewhat illegal
and therefore exciting. Our actions were often spontaneous and not very well thought out at the beginning. I was often surrounded by many different personas, and this one guy, Boogay, randomly handed me a rattling bag one day when I approached him to borrow some music tapes (yes, tapes). He told me to come with him somewhere. We'd roam the city at afternoon with paint, to the spot Boogay found earlier. We did about 3x2 meters without permission, but no one ever arrested us. Sometimes people would stop by to watch what we were doing, and occasionally, someone even praised us, but nobody ever called the cops. From my perspective, we were leaving the place in better shape than before, as we covered up cracked walls, peeling paint, and the unsightly marks on the walls. We often painted over vulgarities, crude messages, dicks and hooligans' slogans. We were hooligans with paint on our hands, but at the same time, we were trying to create something beautiful and meaningful. At least for us.
However, as time went by,
I realized that there was a legal side to graffiti. Together with a group of artist friends, we began to seek ways to obtain permits to paint on walls and other surfaces. Quite often, property owners agreed to let us graffiti their walls just to make their buildings look less like slums. All they wanted was to see the project before we executed it. One job was to paint inside a club, so the owner bought all the cans we needed, but after finished gig he offered us some substances instead of money. Well, I've learned something that day. But I don't remember what.
We were surprised by how many people in the local community appreciated our work, and some institutions (my high school, even), offered us the opportunity to create graffiti legally in specially designated areas. It was a turning point that allowed us to develop our skills and be part of the creative process in a fully legal way.
This graffiti adventure planted the seeds for the path I've traveled to where I am now. I'm a computer graphic designer.
Although I no longer paint graffiti as I used to, I can still appreciate a job well done and the artistry behind it. This tag you see under took me back in time, and it's a reminder of the journey I've undertaken.
Great job!.
