I'm No Artist

My job has taken me all over Central Alberta the past few weeks. I've been to Stettler, Lacombe (3 times), Sylvan Lake, Olds and somewhere between Olds & Didsbury at a sulphur plant. With all this driving I have seen many trains and lots and lots of graffiti. Every time I see graffiti I am in complete awe at the talent of these artists. I get totally inspired. Weird right? It makes me want to buy an expensive camera and go out and shoot all these trains and graffiti and make some sort of gallery display exploring graffiti... and I'm not even an artist.

Now the majority of people (local citizens, council, businesses, police) HATE graffiti. "It's vandalism" they say.

Graffiti is an art form. The people that create these amazing tags on buildings are artists and don't get any recognition for their art. Now I need to clarify here, I do not in any way support anyone spray painting other people's property. But what I would say is that there is a time and place for everything.

Let's look at this a different way for a moment.

WHAT IF? We as a community set boundaries and gave a venue for graffiti? Do you think it would still happen everywhere else?

WHAT IF? We allowed the street culture to express themselves at the local skate park with spray cans?

WHAT IF? By doing these things we were able to engage a segment of the population that is seen as negative and delinquent and gave them a sense of belonging to the community?

WHAT IF? Some downtown businesses that were all located beside each other allowed people to tag the back of their buildings and every month would repaint over it all so they could start again?

WHAT IF? This became an accepted art medium that the community could come together and enjoy and photograph?

What I am trying to get at is that if we want to be proactive about crime prevention, crime reduction, community engagement and the like, we have to start thinking differently about how we get to the end result.

Change is much more likely to happen with positive reinforcement than with negative criticism.

Just a thought.