It’s a form of art that many view as vandalism and is often seen on rail cars, dumpsters, billboards and walls across America. Graffiti, however, is evolving and is no longer a form of vandalism, but a freedom of expression.
“Graffiti isn’t just what gang members use to define their territory anymore. It’s moved on and become so much more than that,” graffiti artist Tai Wilson said. According to Wilson, graffiti is just like any other art. “We’re artists, not thugs. We aren’t the ones who ‘ruin’ cities with vandalism. We paint on canvases just as a painter would. Our canvases may vary, though, from a wall in our house to an 8 x 11 sheet of paper.”
Wilson, now 19, has been tagging and drawing since he was 13. He feels that the art has taught him a lot and are not just colors and shapes drawn, but an entire lifestyle.
“Most of us are in the hip-hop underground alternative movement. And just as with country music comes rodeos, with us it’s our tagging. The majority of us are laid back and are interested in helping out each other and the things that we stand for.”
When asked what his art personally meant to him, he responded, “Regardless of the tools I’m using, my art, and all graffiti art, tells a story. Just like some paintings do. The difference is I believe that graffiti art is more personal because it usually tells a story of our lives or how we are feeling at the time.” Wilson said that through this art he can tell others his story and things that he could not say verbally.
While Wilson draws on canvases and legal walls, he knows people who are still tagging graffiti illegally. “Some artists aren’t into the whole drawing on the canvas thing and displaying your work for money at shows, they’re in it for the adrenaline rush. They don’t want to ‘sell out’ so they’re still drawing on illegal walls and on freight trains and stuff. It’s cool but not for me. The vandalism laws in California keep on getting more strict and just like a drug, it’s not worth the time you’re going to pay if you get caught.”
Wilson, an amateur, hopes one day to entirely make a living off of tagging and to go school to further better his skills in the art. “Right now I’m taking it slow. I have the rest of my life to do whatever I want. Why rush?”
According to Wilson, the industry is expanding, though he hopes it does not become a sell-out art. “There are a lot of professional taggers; it’s cool because people are becoming more open to a different style of art and not just the usual things seen every day. There are taggers getting hired to paint murals in cities, businesses and people’s homes.”
If anyone is interested at all, Wilson urges them to check out www.graffiti.org and look up a listing of graffiti shows they could attend and expose themselves to the art.
“While most people want graffiti to stay very underground, I say the more exposure to graffiti people can get, the more they are educating themselves in a different type of American culture, they might even find out something about themselves they didn’t realize through this tagging.”