Analysis Of Maine's First Graffiti Artist By Mike Rich

In Marcia Brown’s article “Maine’s First Graffiti Artist,” Mike Rich was inspired by the beauty, creativity, and anonymity of graffiti. He has dedicated his life to this art form to allow people to see the beauty behind graffiti by using it for “positive messaging.” When Mike was 11, he was creating traditional art, but started painting graffiti to get away from the simplistic traditional art. Mike’s first most recognized mural was done with a team of 7 other artists that came together to paint a 1,500 square foot mural of the word “Portland” in all capital letters on the back wall of an asylum nightclub. This adventure has become the “brainchild” for Mike. The month long project brought the community together to gladly fund the supplies that his team needed to paint the mural. Mike continues to explain that graffiti’s visual roots derived from tagging, what he describes as the “art of vandalism.” He goes on to say that …show more content…
Mike travels to paint murals for different schools to help spread the awareness to kids and parents to “Dunk the Junk.” Mike believes that young audiences are drawn to this unique style of “rebellious and mystique …show more content…
It can bring to life whatever they can create and design in one night for the world to see the next morning. With what I’ve gathered from Mike’s perspective on graffiti, I feel as if graffiti artists have a sense of freedom to fully express themselves. I respect what Mike is doing with this beautiful form of art to use it for good. On the other hand, some people have a pre-conceived notion that graffiti is distasteful, disrespectful, and useless. It is true that the negative side to graffiti are the few that vandalize people’s personal property and paint profanities, but for the true graffiti artists’ such as Mike, they can create something bigger than themselves and help the world to become a better