Global Graffiti

Someone tagged a small part of the brick wall near my store about a year ago.  The lettering is pretty small, but it's tagged nevertheless.  There is a tree trunk nearby that has been tagged as well.  Who tags a tree?  Ugh.  I can't stand graffiti.

No matter where I go in the world, I see graffiti littering the sides of buildings.  But on a recent trip to Martinique, I saw a huge abandoned hotel with what I found to be some beautiful artwork sprayed everywhere (see below) and it got me thinking:  When is graffiti art and when is it...I dunno...just plain vandalism?

Abandoned hotel in Martinique

I see you with my telescopic lens.

Pretty Brown Girl

What I know about graffiti is that the ancient Romans carved graffiti on walls and monuments and that this practice of putting art on (other people's) property walls has not let up since then.  I also know that graffiti art is a cult phenomenon and tradition in places all over the world including Brazil, Europe, Asia, Canada...oh, and of course, pretty little islands like Martinique.  Ancient graffiti displayed phrases of love declarations, political rhetoric, and simple words of thought compared to today's popular messages of social and political ideals.  (Wiki)

There is certainly enough information about global graffiti and global graffiti artists (like 1-British graffiti artist Banksy, 2-Brazilian twins Os Gemeos, 3-Parisian graffiti artist C215, and 4-female graffiti artist Pixnit, etc.) to write a series of posts about this worldwide art craze, but I'll end this blog post with a few photos for now and circle back to this topic in the near future.  In the meantime, I'm curious.  What do you think about graffiti?

An example of the highly decorative graffiti typically found in Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil.

Graffiti by Miss Van and Ciou, Plaça de Sant Josep/Mercat de la Boqueria, Ciutat Vella (Barcelona)

Banksy

By Anokayer - Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) [Source: Fatcap.com]