Pictures from a local park.

graf·fi·ti

 [gruh-fee-tee]

noun

(used with a plural verb) marking, as initials, slogans, or drawings, written, spray-painted, or sketched on a sidewalk, wall or a building or public restroom, or the like: These graffiti are evidence of the neighbourhood's decline.

I really don't get graffiti. I understand what graffiti IS, just truly not the WHY of it. I have heard the reasons from people who do it but I still don't get it. I freely admit that some of it has artistic merit and is often referred to as "Street Art" and/or "Urban Art". Some of our local 'artists' are pretty good at it and do their best to make it appealing. When it fits in the realm of true art then I appreciate it.

There is a bakery downtown that hires out to local artists to have a couple of the outside walls redone in some pretty awesome graffiti art every few months. It is something the bakery has become known for and it shows in a small way their support for the local people and community. That is one thing that does make some of the graffiti cool.

Unfortunately I find that most of this 'art' is pointless. You see it all over the place. In the pictures here you can see some of the graffiti in a local park. In a park setting that is more untamed than tamed you don't really want to see stuff like this. We go to this park (and a few others) to relax and have a brief moment or two where we can escape the sights and sounds of the city. It is much harder to do that when wherever you look you see graffiti. The natural landscape is spoiled.

It is on the rocks, the trees, the paths, the safety barrier, building walls; pretty much everywhere. It is annoying and sad. It is especially sad when someone has done a nice mural on a wall and it has been ruined by graffiti. Even the bakery wall where the graffiti is encouraged others have come along and ruined it from time to time.

In my mind it is a sign of no respect for your environment or for your fellow human being. I don't like it.