Celebrating Forefront of Graffiti Article

Kennedy, Randy. "Celebrating Forefront of Graffiti." New York Times 22 Jul 2011. Web. This article focuses on a graffiti writer known as Taki 183. He was one of the most popular taggers in the late 1960's and early 1970's. He was Greek-American,his real name was Demetrius, and he lived on West 183rd street. At the age of 57, he was invited to a a signing party for "The History of American Graffiti." Demetrius had lived a normal life, and had went to college. He claimed to have been doing graffiti because it was easy and fun. Also, he stated that early graffiti, while he was a teenager, was simple tagging and considered it a  form of vandalism. However, later on real artists starting doing graffiti and it became a true form of art.

Graffiti Art and its purpose - HipHop Network

Stowers, George. "Graffit Art." HipHop-Network. Fall 1997. Web. This essay focuses on the reasons graffiti is a form of art and the purposes it serves on society. Graffiti has existed since historic times when people lived in caves. Those cave drawings have been preserved and are important to historians and artists who study them. When graffiti became popular in the 1970's, graffiti writers improved their tags in size, color, texture, style, and form to compete with others. Soon, tagging turned into skillful art drawings on private and public spaces. Graffiti artists started to acquire pleasure and honor for their pieces while they also desired fame. They initiated to express themselves through their pieces, just like other type of artists such as musicians and authors. Since graffiti continually improved over the next decades, artists started forming crews to complete larger and more complicated pieces. Therefore, graffiti served as one of the best ways of connecting people of all different racial backgrounds. Graffiti enhanced their creativity and planning abilities.

Graffiti Hall of Fame

Graffiti Hall of Fame is one of the most interesting places in New York City for me. A variety of legal graffiti are displayed on the walls of the Jackie Robinson Educational Complex's courtyard, in Harlem. They are some of the best graffiti I have ever seen. Kramer's article, "Painting with Permission: Legal Graffiti in New York City" correlates with the Graffiti Hall of Fame in multiple ways. They both illustrate how some graffiti artists have turned to legal graffiti making in the past twenty years. Also, they both affirm that graffiti artists are mostly interested in creating fine pieces and not making any sort of profit out of it. They spend a lot of money on paint and sprays out of their own pocket just so they can create graffiti for everyone to enjoy.

The Art Newspaper article

Humber, Larry. "Graffiti: is it art or vandalism?." Art of Newspaper [Toronto] 07 Nov 2012. Web. Some officials in Toronto started to notice the artistic elements of graffiti around the city. For that reason, they set up a committee which would take pictures of the best graffiti they could find and they would decide which ones the city would keep. This became a controversial issue with private property owners who had a different opinion about graffiti. They did not want any sort of graffiti on their property even if they were marvelous.

Brochure

City of Saskatoon. Reducing graffiti in our Community. Saskatoon: Safer City, 2013. Web. This brochure labels graffiti as vandalism. First it states that graffiti is a criminal act, and that it does not belong in their neighborhoods because it lowers their standard of living. The brochure mentions all the people that are economically affected from graffiti, such as property owners and taxpayers. It tries to persuade citizens to remove graffiti from their properties, and it lists a lot of methods which can remove graffiti from many different surfaces. Lastly, the brochure states that graffiti only disfigures their city buildings and makes their community look bad.

Personal interview

Blerim, Markos. Personal interview. 13 03 2014. I interviewed my friend Markos, who has been doing graffiti for the past 5 years. Markos is in a group which does graffiti and produce rap music. There are five members in his group, and they have been best friends since elementary school. Markos stated that the reasons he does graffiti are personal pleasure, and to send across meaningful messages to the youth. For him, doing graffiti is well-spent quality time with his best friends. Also, graffiti allows him to write what is bothering his mind and relaxes him. Markos believes that there are kids out there who feel the same way as him about certain things in life, so he hopes his messages will inspire those those kids and will let them know they're not alone.

Any type of source citation and annotation (article)

Lueck, Thomas. "Graffiti Back in Subways, Indelibly This Time." New York Times 25 04 2006, n. pag. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. The article addresses the rise of a new graffiti movement which involves the subway trains once again in the history of New York City. However, this time the writers use etching acid to write on trains which costs a lot more money to be removed meanwhile it cannot be removed completely. Some reports state that etching acid is harmful to passengers and can burn the skin if it is not dry. Mayor Bloomberg passed a law which banned the sale of etching acid and other graffiti instruments to anyone under the age of 21. Moreover, high school and college student supported by a fashion designer, Marc Ecko, are filing a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the ban. The lawyer representing these students in Daniel Perez.