Monday, October 22, 2012

Artfully Engaging Taggers

Living in a neighborhood that gets graffiti tagged almost every night, I can honestly say that I don't understand the psyche of someone who would spend so much time, energy, and money, and risk the chance of civil and criminal penalties, all in the pursuit of ruining the beauty of their own neighborhood and having their neighbors hate their behavior?

I sometimes catch myself wondering what would happen if those taggers' artistic energies were redirected in a positive way, such as creating neighborhood murals that they would be proud of, and everyone in the neighborhood could enjoy. Who wouldn't want that instead?

Perhaps the problem of tagging in Phoenix needs to be addressed in different and positive way. While the Police Department and the city's Grafitti Busters program does it's best to fight tagging, it doesn't seem to be working. If anything, I've noticed more taggings in my neighborhood in this past year.

So, when I discovered the collaborative efforts of the Tucson Arts Brigade, I thought THIS is the way we should be addressing the problem of unwanted grafitti in Phoenix.

5 comments:

  1. Perhaps Phoenix has already embraced this paradigm shift in attacking it's graffiti problem?

    Watch this News Channel-12 report of mural painting in the City of Phoenix.

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  2. Here's the link to that City of Phoenix, Graffiti Free Phoenix: Wipe It Out event mentioned in the news report.

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  3. I think the Phoenix mural scene rocks! And those guys started out as taggers themselves.

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  4. Let's hope the trend catches on Candace. I already see that you're great at promoting it on your blog.

    I went down to the Roosevelt District to take a look at some of the murals. I was impressed with the "Jesus Saves" mural myself.

    It was a little difficult to find as it was on the "side" of the building, and is facing south on 15th Avenue. It's easy to miss if one is driving south on 15th Ave.

    Great job though - it really is a beautiful piece of art work, and located in a neighborhood that could really use the improvement.

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