So far this has been an extraordinary week. The highlight, visiting the old and abandoned Detroit School of Arts...its was awesome.
A modern day Graffiti Museum, it defines American Urban Wrecked culture, completely delapidated. Broken tile, warped floor boards, exposed pipes, random shoes dusted over in corners. And then there are the walls. Beautified with the illegal colors of graffiti.
Detroit has a strong graffiti community. One that I have not yet formerly introduced myself to. I have been recognizing their work in under-passes, along free-way walls, abandoned buildings, on billboards and sprawled over too many facades to count.
A few years ago there was an initiative in Detroit to go after graffiti artists and make them pay for their crimes (after all, it is a defacement of public or private property). But I believe whole-heartedly that they graffitti will never be fully policed...not as long as there are shadows and ladders.
But, graffiti artists are far from being the everyday criminal. They are a band of brothers (and sisters), who have found the way in which they want to communicate with each other and the world. In the pictures that I took with my TREO 700cw, I see the far from instant messages left between artists on once bulletin board clad walls of the Detroit high school. Its awesome...take a peak yourselves.
