By Ellen Kobe<\/p>\n
Anyone who has lived in a relatively large city is familiar with graffiti \u2014 paint in public places. But what exactly is the difference between graffiti tagging \u2014 which is often cleaned up \u2014 versus street art \u2014 which is often encouraged by neighborhood organizations? Medill reporter Ellen Kobe asks anti-graffiti activists, a street artist and people in the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods about the issues that arise over these two forms of illegal artwork.<\/p>\n
[soundcloud url=”https:\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/211079432″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” \/]<\/p>\n
\n
Steve Jensen revs up his black SUV on a spring Thursday afternoon. He\u2019s trolling the streets armed with his weapons: two cans of black spray paint.<\/p>\n
He is on the lookout for graffiti tags \u2014 spray painted symbols on public property. Jensen, president of the Bucktown Community Organization and aldermanic aid in the 1st Ward, has lived in the area for 35 years and cares about the presentation of his neighborhood.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s a huge negative impact to the community,” Jensen says. “It depresses property values. It kind of aids in crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jensen drives on one of the most frequently-tagged streets \u2014\u00a0Milwaukee Avenue.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis is the area where it\u2019s problematic,” he says. “All of Milwaukee going all the way out to pretty much Belmont is ground zero for all taggers.\u201d<\/p>\n But Jensen also points out several murals in the neighborhood, which he defines as street art. But what exactly is the difference between graffiti and street art? Technically, they\u2019re both forms of vandalism. But one certainly seems to be eradicated more than the other.<\/p>\n One local street artist, who calls himself Left Handed Wave, describes his purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just looking for something in decay trying to bring, you know, a space back to life rather than, you know, as opposed to like graffiti where you know, if I was catching tags or writing graffiti, then you know I\u2019d be going to screw something up a little bit,” Left Handed Wave said. “That\u2019s kind of the joy of graffiti.\u201d<\/p>\n Left Handed Wave primarily puts stickers and pastes large posters of his graphics on buildings around the city. He said\u00a0doesn\u2019t do much graffiti.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like that\u2019s a lot of younger kids, but they\u2019re basically creating a language that only like another graffiti writer or someone, their homie, would understand,” Left Handed Wave said. “It\u2019s not for the greater community, you know. It doesn\u2019t communicate to your neighborhood. Street art, posters, you know, things with a more artistic nature, like imagery, rather than you know like text, language, communicates on a much higher level and it resonates, so that\u2019s why people are more prone to like street art than tags, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in the car, Jensen describes the average graffiti tagger.<\/p>\n “<\/strong>The typical tagger is either Hispanic or Caucasian male,” Jensen said. “Fifteen to maybe mid-20s. They\u2019re usually on a bike. People that I\u2019ve caught, the people that have been caught on camera, always have a backpack, always have a hoodie with the hood on. Key times for tagger are midnight to 5 a.m.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s one signature tag that Jensen runs into multiple times on his drive around the neighborhood.<\/p>\n \u201cThis tag in front of you, Forgive Yourself, that\u2019s probably enemy No. 1 in the entire city of Chicago,” Jensen said. “Sometimes he writes Forgive, sometimes he writes Forgive Yourself, and sometimes it\u2019s the number four and then give. He\u2019s kind of like, you know, Bigfoot in the forest. Some people have seen him, some people have described him \u2014 he\u2019s a white male with a ponytail, lives in Bucktown, but nobody\u2019s ever caught him.\u201d<\/p>\n Jensen has over 500 photos of Forgive\u2019s work all over the city. It\u2019s evidence that Jensen believes would give this man a felony and jail time if he were caught.<\/p>\n \u201cSo here\u2019s a Forgive Yourself on the black pole,” Jensen says, getting ready to exit his car. “Since it\u2019s on a black pole and it\u2019s right there and it\u2019s highly visible, I\u2019m just going to do a quick, put paint on it. So we\u2019ll get out, and we\u2019ll cover this one.\u201d<\/p>\n He leaves his keys in the ignition and slams the driver door. Jensen approaches the pole slowly, clutching the can of spray paint.<\/p>\n “<\/strong>So usually I would just drive right next to it, hop out, zip zip and back in the car, you know, just as quick as they tag it, I can cover it, right?\u201d Jensen says.<\/p>\n He presses on the top of the can, and black paint blows in the air, eradicating the white “Forgive Yourself” mark.<\/p>\n \u201cBy coming through every couple days and covering up their stuff, it kind of takes the impact, you know, it takes the wind out of their sails,” Jensen says. “Because their whole thing\u00a0is they want their friends who ride by, either on the train or on bikes\u2026When they see their tags are obliterated really quickly, that stops them from tagging.\u201d<\/p>\n But Jensen certainly isn\u2019t the only one cleaning up graffiti in Chicago. The city\u2019s Department of Streets and Sanitation budgeted $3.4 million for graffiti blasters in 2015. Plus, there are also other graffiti activists.<\/p>\n Adam Natenshon runs a company called Graffiti Action Hero, which gathers chambers of commerce, special service areas and community organizations for what are called Graffiti Action Days.\u00a0These volunteer events invite residents to clean up their neighborhoods with graffiti products provided by his organization.<\/p>\n Natenshon points out a mailbox on the corner of Montrose and Wolcott Avenues in Ravenswood. It has several graffiti tags, which he says would be easy to remove.<\/p>\n “It would just take a little bit of the right graffiti remover, a sponge and a little bit of training,” Natenshon says. “It would take not much time at all to get it nice and clean.\u201d<\/p>\n Natenshon says\u00a0that his his graffiti action days can clean up graffiti for a fraction of the cost that the city spends each year.\u00a0He\u00a0thinks putting all this time and money into cleaning up graffiti is worth it.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re the owner of a new business, and you go to different neighborhoods to explore different places to consider opening up your new coffee shop, and you walk down the street, what is your feeling? Does it feel safe? Does it feel inviting? Do you think patrons would want to come to your establishment in that neighborhood?” Natenshon says. “And if the answer is no, then there\u2019s a problem. And I think that again graffiti can send a negative message and one that may not necessarily be accurate to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n But Natenshon isn\u2019t trying to swipe every single drop of paint that he sees on public property. He believes\u00a0there\u2019s a difference between a graffiti tag and street art, and he tries to educate others about this philosophy, too.<\/p>\n \u201cGraffiti tagging is much more about me writing my name on the street,” Natenshon says. “It\u2019s \u2018Joe was here,\u2019 and it might mean something to the graffiti tagger, it might mean something to the graffiti tagger\u2019s friends. It doesn\u2019t mean anything to the rest of us. Street art is very different. It looks different, it feels different. The way it interacts with you, the third party observer, is different. Street art is really focused on the observer, and Chicago has great street art. It can be very creative, it can be very artistic, and it\u2019s very much about getting somebody who\u2019s walking down the street to stop and say, ‘Oh wow that\u2019s really interesting or different.’\u201d<\/p>\n On a Thursday morning, Left Handed Wave checks up on one of his posters in Ukrainian Village. It\u2019s a creature\u2019s head with tusks. The lion-like animal covers the majority of a vacant building\u2019s brick wall with its multicolored mane. It\u2019s been there since this winter, and Left Handed Wave is surprised it hasn\u2019t been taken down or covered over yet.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/strong>It\u2019s lasted a really long time,” Left Handed Wave says. “Someone should have gone over it already. But that\u2019s cool, that means that people like it and respect it, and that always makes me feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n By Ellen Kobe Anyone who has lived in a relatively large city is familiar with graffiti \u2014 paint in public places. But what exactly is the difference between graffiti tagging \u2014 which is often cleaned up \u2014 versus street art \u2014 which is often encouraged by neighborhood organizations? Medill reporter Ellen Kobe asks anti-graffiti activists, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":17613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,30,498],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-17607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-public-affairs","category-summer2015","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\n