Being an old country boy I have not been exposed to too much graffiti in my life but we did visit some areas in our recent NYC trip where it was plentiful. Some of it was very lavish and sophisticated, some of it quite crude. That got me to thinking that isn’t graffiti just modern-day folk art? Maybe we should be preserving it instead of painting it over?

I kind of think of graffiti as some young men’s (and I’m sure women’s) creative outlet. The big art studios and such won’t hire them because they don’t have a “proper” education or they happen to live in the wrong area. Why are the paintings as shown above painted over while some artists work, such as Andy Warhol’s, cost thousands of dollars? Part of the reason is probably because the kids who make street folk art don’t have a wealthy patron to support them and to recommend their work to their wealthy friends.

Are we destroying the 20th and 21st century folk art that will be valued by future generations? I kind of think we are…..

Graffiti or folk art. I kind of think it is both….