Have you ever wondered why some graffiti remains forever as part of the city while other graffiti is quickly removed? Is it the quality, the artist or the message? There are many reasons that some graffiti remains while others are quickly painted over or washed off.
Quality actually is a big factor, quality graffiti has been socially accepted as urban art. Some would even argue that graffiti when done right can add décor to many urban streets, buildings and even vehicles. As artistic as some graffiti pieces are there are others that just appear like random scribbles, usually done in a single color, often black or red.
Although written names or more commonly three initials also known as tags have often remained even in cases where the graffiti is no more than a tag. This is usually the case when a tag is found on another artist’s graffiti art. One of the main reasons that a tag would remain is that the tag belongs to a graffiti artist that is respected and well known.
There are times when graffiti remains merely as a message. In San Francisco one of the early graffiti artist, using typical graffiti alphabet style of the early days wrote beach along a wall that was in fact along the beach. This graffiti still stands and has become part of the beach. Another example is the message to get well on the delivery truck pictured, a message to Diar, a well-known graffiti artist who had become paralyzed after a severe car accident in February of 2008.
There is still a huge population that doesn’t see graffiti in an artistic light. In fact some still see it as vandalism and technically against the law. Graffiti as an art will always have differing views attached to it, however more and more people are coming to see graffiti as an art, a part of American culture and the rawest form of expressionism.