[Lev]

I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m younger than most other people posting in this thread. I found this looking for a listing of free walls. I moved to Oregon from Colorado recently and when I lived in Colorado I took full advantage of the free walls there. You could look at painting over a beautiful piece as disgrace or disrespect, but when you’re a graffiti artist you realize that these free walls are exactly what someone earlier said, a “community board”. It’s a place for people to come together, to learn new skills, to express themselves, and to meet new people. I’ve read in many places the argument that these walls only inspire people to deface the area around them, but that only makes sense in the thought that many graffiti artists think that the urban world be beautiful if we could freely express ourselves on every visual object in our lives. If we could see opinions everywhere we turn how amazing would that be, to be surrounded with the ideas and views of others. But after a certain point you realize that it’s no more than an idealistic view. And so I understand that it’s a generally misunderstood and disliked art form. Because of this I believe that free walls are the best middle ground to meet between those who dislike graffiti and the artists who seek an escape from their lives and a way to express themselves. I mean there’s nothing better on a shitty day to go and stand with a 6′ x 9′ canvas and just go to town. To put on headphones and just zone out, to let yourself explode over a wall. It is the most liberating feeling! I totally promote free walls.

And I agree with the general idea of the thread where there’s a difference between graffiti and vandalism, and most graffiti artists do. Those who just desire to spread a simple doodle in as many places as they can are usually refereed to as “Toys”. People who have no desire to hone a skill and create works of art. Individuals who seek merely to destroy and push peoples level of comfort rather than create and share and idea and a work of art. I’m glad to see that something like this is out here and generating this much talk.

[Lev]

WOW! I love this idea. The only thing is, watching that Youtube video you see how they take down what he’s done afterwards. It kind of boggles my mind. Here someone’s gone around cleaning the city and creating a work of art at the same time what yet authorities feel the need to take it down. He hasn’t damaged the area, and as time goes on and cars drive through the tunnel it’ll get covered up and go away. He’s taken something that would generally be over looked and made it visually stimulating and interesting and only got punished for it. Why must people be punished for thinking differently? Society really strives to reach uniformity. We chastise diversity to promote conformity and thus crush creativity and individuality. Thanks for those links, definitely bookmarks!

[Author]

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