The Art or Vandalism of Graffiti
By
When he gets excited spit follows the words out of his mouth. “Sorry about that,” he said, while wiping saliva off my shirt. He cannot contain himself because of the “beautiful tag” he saw at the Midway bus yard.
The tag that Andy Reiland had spotted was a giant graffiti painting that covered two city buses. To police and city officials, graffiti is vandalism. To Reiland and Gordon Grieve, graffiti is art.
One dollar has gotten me into Reiland and Grieve’s studio. The space is a dimly lit basement room with poor ventilation. No more than three people could comfortably work there. The bass from a nearby stereo rattles the room, causing the lone light bulb to go on and off. One tiny window frame is cracked open as the only form of ventilation.
I am reminded repeatedly to keep my surgical mask on. If I want to smoke, Reiland suggests I “do it upstairs.” Grieve simply pulls his mask below his chin and inhales his cigarette’s nicotine with the paint fumes.
Andy Reiland examines his work in his basement studio.
The one dollar was spent on spray-paint can caps. Fifty cents buys one cap. The caps are used to change the size and style of the spray. Reiland and Grieve both use several caps on most of the work they do. The art is in the cap. “If you have a nice array of caps you can run small lines, wide lines, open spray, the canvas is yours to own,” Reiland said.
The canvas is not on an easel but is instead a concrete wall. This art will not be shown in a gallery but will instead be painted over repeatedly. “This is just a practice space; you don’t get to see the real spaces,” Grieve said.
The real spaces could be the buses that Reiland spotted in the bus yard. They could be the post office mail box or the bus stop bench. Anyone who travels on I-94 or 35W has seen the real spaces all around them. The graffiti on the highways changes almost daily. It is a constant battle between the city and the people who call themselves graffiti artists.
The temporary nature of their work is what makes it exciting for artists like Reiland and Grieve. As Reiland worked on his signature on the basement wall, he went on to explain why the bus yard work he had seen was such an achievement.
“People will see that in their cars and they’ll probably either think it is vandalism or else just a cool tag. What people don’t realize is the amount of work that went into the piece,” Reiland said.
In order for that tag to have been made, Reiland explained, the painters would have needed at least a 10-person team: the two main artists and numerous lookouts with radios. “These guys aren’t gangsters, they’re legitimate artists who put a lot of time and work into a piece that is only going to be visible for a day or two.”
Sgt. Giovanni Veliz of the Minneapolis Police Department does not discriminate between ‘gangsters’ and other vandals. “If they are marking or drawing their work on other people's property without their consent or permission, it is a crime,” Veliz said.
The gangsters are what the city commonly complains about. Gangs in Minneapolis and St. Paul mark their territory with tags of gang signs. The gangs paint over each other’s signs and the cities’ walls look worse with each mark.
Gang graffiti is usually one color and one word or sign. Non-gang graffiti usually uses multiple colors and can consist of multiple words and figures. Gang graffiti can be painted in seconds, while non-gang graffiti takes time, patience and artistic skills.
Reiland is a studio art major at Macalester. Graffiti is only one of the many artistic outlets he uses. He won’t say if he has ever done any graffiti outside of studio spots, but he considers it important work. “It really is taking art back to where it belongs, the people,” he said.
It is unlikely that either Reiland or Grieve are responsible for any graffiti happening right now. “The city is being taken over [with graffiti] so the cops will be out and I’m not messing with that,” Reiland said.
Grieve also does not like much of the graffiti in the cities. Even the graffiti that he does like he still knows is vandalism. “It is what it is and it does destroy buildings, but the penalties people receive are what makes me angry.”
Kristine Arneson of the Minneapolis Police Department informed me that the penalties could become even stricter. A new bill has been brought to the state senate that would force offenders to pay triple the cost of the repairs.
“It really is outrageous,” said Grieve. “In some cities artists are being given stricter sentences than violent criminals.”
Veliz believes that graffiti has a direct influence on crime and quality of life in Minneapolis. “Graffiti is perceived as a sign of quality of life decay,” said Veliz. “It is associated with crime and also increases the fear of crime.”
No one will have to worry about my graffiti showing up any time soon. After the paint fumes finally got to me, I realized there was more paint on my shoes than the walls. “I told you it’s all in the caps, it’s all in the caps,” said Reiland.