2008 Woodie Awards
Graffiti art adds flair to bland sidewalks, stairways on campus
By Sophia Pastore, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 9/2/08 Section: Arts & Living
Few would argue against the beautification of our campus. Especially if said beautification came in a form that would not add any digits to our already growing tuition number. University of Massachusetts students seem to have found an answer - graffiti.
The amount of graffiti art on campus seemed to dramatically increase throughout last semester. And these spray-paintings were not the gang tags or oversized declarations of teenage love that most have come to expect.
These were different - portraits of Frida Kahlo on bus stop enclosures, "plant a tree" stenciled onto a dumpster, a globe stamped over with a barcode, a corporate skyscraper disintegrating into dollar bills.
Examples such as these have relevance. They are crafted by students who want to voice an opinion untainted by the need to be known for what they do. For these students, being known for what you do can lead to fines or arrest.
So why risk fines when your pockets are already stretched by tuition bills? And why risk arrest when you are preparing to enter the job market? Why be a graffiti artist?
One UMass graffiti artist, a sophomore who wished to be referred to as Dr. XOXO, said, "Graffiti is a medium that is alive and moving. It has an actual purpose. When I put a stencil up it's because I want people to walk past the same piece of concrete they walk up every day and see something new."
According to Dr. XOXO, graffiti is often misinterpreted because of the light placed on it by popular culture. Not all graffiti art is randomly placed, poorly drawn tags.
"There is other graffiti, from beautiful spray-paint portraits to blow-up animals placed on subway grates," he said. "The latter tend to be placed in harmless places or with the intent to give something to the area and the community."
There are many artists working currently to produce "good graffiti" outside of the UMass campus as well. This medium is one that is growing universally.
Banksy, a British artist whose graffiti ranges from the whimsical to the frightening, is typically named as one of the best currently working. His art sometimes depicts a stenciled person who seems to have created a larger painted work.
The amount of graffiti art on campus seemed to dramatically increase throughout last semester. And these spray-paintings were not the gang tags or oversized declarations of teenage love that most have come to expect.
These were different - portraits of Frida Kahlo on bus stop enclosures, "plant a tree" stenciled onto a dumpster, a globe stamped over with a barcode, a corporate skyscraper disintegrating into dollar bills.
Examples such as these have relevance. They are crafted by students who want to voice an opinion untainted by the need to be known for what they do. For these students, being known for what you do can lead to fines or arrest.
So why risk fines when your pockets are already stretched by tuition bills? And why risk arrest when you are preparing to enter the job market? Why be a graffiti artist?
One UMass graffiti artist, a sophomore who wished to be referred to as Dr. XOXO, said, "Graffiti is a medium that is alive and moving. It has an actual purpose. When I put a stencil up it's because I want people to walk past the same piece of concrete they walk up every day and see something new."
According to Dr. XOXO, graffiti is often misinterpreted because of the light placed on it by popular culture. Not all graffiti art is randomly placed, poorly drawn tags.
"There is other graffiti, from beautiful spray-paint portraits to blow-up animals placed on subway grates," he said. "The latter tend to be placed in harmless places or with the intent to give something to the area and the community."
There are many artists working currently to produce "good graffiti" outside of the UMass campus as well. This medium is one that is growing universally.
Banksy, a British artist whose graffiti ranges from the whimsical to the frightening, is typically named as one of the best currently working. His art sometimes depicts a stenciled person who seems to have created a larger painted work.
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