Cultures of all kinds want to be understood. The funny thing is watching sub-cultures. After sitting through a talk about graffiti in Portland a few weeks ago I thought about something that was said. “Graffiti is for the other writers and people in that culture.” Now as I have been thinking about that I’m not sure that is completely true. Now I think that the people in the culture and who know the unwritten rules, the stages of graffiti and where different styles come from may have a better understanding. The thing is, is that people in the culture should understand that they are doing it for others. If it was just for the other writers, it wouldn’t be done so publicly.
Now what seems to happen in many cultures and the graffiti culture is no different, is hearing people complain of not being understood. What follows that is that when people from the “outside” try to make an effort of understanding they are pushed away. I do think that for graffiti artists to get some public credit, they need to be willing to talk to the rest of the public or have people speaking out in favor and not put them down. I was well impressed and it was good to have well art-educated people speak on behalf of graffiti at the talks I attended. There needs to be more discussion. An education on this art form is needed and not just how to make it, but its history and impact around the world.
