By: Jalen Worstell and Justina Demetry
Over the years, graffiti has been debated for years: is it vandalism or art? After a recent incident last spring at Westborough High School, all we could think of were the negatives effects of graffiti because it had become a hate crime. However, it is also important to know that it shouldn’t just be looked at negatively. Graffiti art is also embraced by many artists as a way to deliver positive messages or to express one’s feelings.
At the end of the spring, we visited the Quincy Quarries Reservation in Quincy, Massachusetts and the Graffiti Alley in Cambridge, Massachusetts to see how people expressed their opinions using graffiti as a positive expression of art.
The Graffiti Alley in Cambridge, MA first started in 2007 by two artists named Geoff Hargadon and Gary Strack who later on teamed up with more artists from the Boston area to complete the wall in just three days. The wall now changes frequently as more artists or even your everyday people go and paint.
As we were stopping by the Graffiti Alley, we got the chance to catch up with a graffiti artist, who would like to keep his name anonymous but allowed us to use his graffiti name “Froe.” When we told him about our belief that graffiti is art he said, “I agree but the police don’t.”
We also had the chance to catch up with one of Froe’s friends, referred to as “Barky” and he says “Graffiti is a form of stress relief for most graffiti writers it’s a way to get away from life problems and is also another form of self expression.” Although the alley isn’t very big, it was definitely worth the drive.
The Quincy Quarries reservation was first established in 1864 for economical uses and was referred to as the “Granite Railway.” After a couple hundred years, the Quarries flooded with water, and then it attracted many people interested in cliff jumping, but it soon became too dangerous and death rates in Quincy increased. It then turned into an abandoned area that attracted many rock climbers and graffiti artists. The Quarries were absolutely stunning and overflowing with tons of different drawings.
After visiting the Graffiti Alley and the Quarries, our belief that graffiti should be valued as art is stronger than ever. We believe that graffiti can be used to express emotions, opinions, and ideas through just a bottle of spray paint and to us that was beautiful. Graffiti should not be charged as vandalism unless it affects someone or someone’s property and should only be used to be a form of expression. However, we do NOT believe that any graffiti targeting a group of people is art, we believe that is a hate crime and those responsible should be held accountable. We also hope that more and more people will celebrate graffiti art and artists as the art form truly is amazing.
