When I was much younger, my dad used to take me out to a lake near our house where we would walk our dog or go on bike rides. Just before the main path though, we'd always pass a railroad bridge with some of the most elaborate graffiti I'd ever seen before. One day as we were traveling by it, my dad stopped and said to me something along the lines of, "We've got some real artists around here." That was the first time I ever remember anybody using the word "art" in the context of graffiti, and I don't think I had really regarded it as such before. It made me think though, graffiti was just a form of paint on a canvas, so why not?
I really enjoyed seeing Style Wars. A lot. I knew almost nothing about graffiti culture walking into that classroom, and the movie/documentary really gave me something to think about. One of the aspects of the movie that struck me most was just how comparatively mature the kids doing the graffiti were. I suppose there had always been this nagging spot in my mind that kept telling me that graffiti is vandalism and vandalism is for bored, immature kids. The people depicted in this movie, although not necessarily "cultured" or well-off, seemed to do a great job of sticking together as a community, helping each other out, and fending for themselves out there.
The artists really did remind me of an expansive community of people, and they were. The level of organization that took place throughout the entire movie was really interesting to me, and not necessarily something I would have expected. I always thought of graffiti of just sort of appearing like magic, but these guys spend hours and hours and hours planning it all and making it just perfect, only to have it scrawled over by some opposing graffiti group or scrubbed clean by the mayor. That takes serious dedication. The whole thing really has given me a whole new perspective on and appreciation for the art of graffiti.
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