Graffiti Art Or Vandalism Essay

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The first question that comes to mind when people mention about graffiti is whether it is a crime when people paint on the walls, trains or subways or not. A great number of people assume that graffiti is a type of crime because art belongs only on canvas. However, these people seem not to know what the definition of art is. What is more, they do not care about talented graffiti artists. For this reason, graffiti is definitely a type of art. So, graffiti ought to be agreed as a kind of art rather than vandalism on account of two crucial factors: graffiti is an artistic expression, and concurrently it has an aesthetic value. Some opponents claim that graffiti ought to be perceived as a kind of crime because people who create graffiti, …show more content…
To start with, graffiti makes our surroundings more beautiful and aesthetic; hence, it is art because this is the function of art. In spite of the fact that graffiti artists do not use canvas or painting brush, they use a wide variety of colors in order to make our world more aesthetic. Stowers (1997) mentions that graffiti is not only communicating with others, but also it makes our community more than beautiful. To illustrate, graffiti artists paint on obsolete buildings and abandonment walls with colorful spray (App.3). Thus, the only discrepancy from other types of art is that graffiti artists do not exhibit their pictures in galleries or museums. As it clearly seen, graffiti artist purpose is to make the environment more livable in terms of beauty. In short, if everybody wants to live in beautiful surroundings, they ought to find graffiti as art. What is more, just like art, graffiti moves people to positive emotions so it is definitely not vandalism. A large number of people feel positive emotions while they are looking at pictures. This also happens when people look at graffities. Naar (n. d.), from University of Manchester, argues that artwork arouse emotions in audiences. It is obvious that fictional characters evoke emotions like sadness and pity or fear in honor movies or joy from songs. This might be why art does not leave people emotionless (App.4). This evidence shows that art is a fundamental factor for people emotions. Moreover, it might even affect people’s characteristics. In shorts, graffiti is not vandalism because, just like art, it moves people to feelings. So, it is art and people ought to accept of as a type of

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