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Spray paint is his medium, and the city is his canvas.
Saul Cruthirds remembers stealing a notebook from a locker in high school and filling page after page with words and graffiti-style drawings.
The University alumnus is one of only a handful of graffiti writers in Baton Rouge. They describe the scene as slow but a good place to paint. Graffiti is prolific in the downtown area and can even be found on campus about six times a year. "Every nation has a military," said Cruthirds, 29. "America has a military. Graffiti is just a military of visual artists."
MOVING AGAINST MODERNISM Graffiti started as a reaction to modernism in New York, said Paul Dean, art professor. "Modernism is where the buildings were perfectly clean cubes and no ornamentation or anything," he said. "And it was to set up to be a perfect world. Well, it turned out it didn't work." Dean said the buildings and other modern art could not be appreciated by a lot of people because they created a "sterile and boring environment." "The interesting thing about the style of graffiti is that it's usually designed so that it's not legible unless you're another graffiti artist or affienado," he said. "Unless you're a fan - unless you follow it - you can't read it, so it looks like a martian writing sometimes." Stuart Baron, art professor, said graffiti has changed over the years. "Graffiti has kind of, in its own way, degraded into tagging," he said. Cruthirds said many graffiti writers choose tag names that are short, easy to write and aesthetically pleasing. "Between your handwriting and your tag, you can say a lot about yourself - what you're feeling," Cruthirds said. Baron said political graffiti is more interesting because there is a message attached to the work. "It's not about the person; it's about something larger," he said. "And I wouldn't call it art, but it is what art intends to be, which is that art is not about the person doing it; it's about what the artist is thinking in terms of the rest of the world." He said the overabundance of graffiti in cities can create "a depressing view of an urban landscape." "It doesn't enliven the location," he said. "It really degrades that location, and it almost looks like it's a hopeless situation because the graffiti just simply covers these buildings or trains or abandoned cars and trucks. It tends to highlight the worst of the city, unfortunately."
LOUISIANA LAW The Louisiana House of Representatives voted unanimously this past month to approve a bill favoring stricter laws against graffiti. The bill targets criminal damage to property by graffiti. The offense graduates to a felony level if more than $500 in damage occurs. Ken82, who asked to be identified by his tag name, said he had been picked up for writing graffiti by police while living in New York and New Orleans, but said there are no convictions on his record. "You go to jail," he said. "New York has a fast system, so I was out in 24 hours, but I did the standard [Orleans Parish Prison]-72. Seventy-two hours, and you're out." Ken82 said a lot of people drop out of the graffiti scene after their first arrest. "It's a game where the strong survive," he said. Although he doesn't think graffiti should be legal, Ken82 said the 10-year sentences given to some graffiti writers are out of control. "A lot of them probably won't get back on their feet," he said. "Over graffiti - when you have government officials stealing money from each other and from the people and get no time." Cruthirds said there should be more opportunities for people to be creative and more public walls reserved for artists who want to express themselves. "But just because [graffiti is] on the crack house that our government left there, doesn't mean the graffiti artist is to blame for that crack house," he said. "It's not connected. Like we said, anybody could be doing it. It could be a college professor out bombing at night or hitting some trains." Ken82 said most graffiti writing occurs at night. "You don't want to see your career come to a demise, so you paint when they're not looking and catch them when they're slipping," he said. Ovek, who also asked to be identified by his tag name, said he is an on-and-off graffiti writer, but he wants to keep up with the style no matter what kind of art he is doing. He said he gets a rush from the risk he takes with graffiti. "You know that you're doing something that's frowned upon by most of society, and you're doing it anyway," he said. "Knowing people could catch you, there's a risk factor."
CAMPUS CALIGRAPHY From anonymous quotes inscribed on desks in Middleton Library to messages scrawled on bathroom stalls, students see many different forms of graffiti on campus. Paul Favaloro, Facility Services director, said graffiti is not a major problem at the University, but when graffiti is discovered on campus, the department wants to address it as soon as possible. "If you have a building where people break windows [and] you don't address it, they're going to continue to break the windows," he said. "But if you change those windows as soon as you discover they're broken, eventually people stop breaking the windows. And that's the same with the way we go about dealing with graffiti." Favaloro said he remembers when there were private facilities north of campus where graffiti was more prevalent. "That's gone, so that venue for people to display their art disappeared," he said. "I thought more of that would move on campus, but it hasn't, which is a good thing." Eric Norman, associate dean of students and Office of Judicial Affairs director, said he has never received a referral regarding graffiti at his office, but if someone is caught writing graffiti on campus, the punishment would depend on the degree of what occurred. He said the punishment would be probation with an educational element attached. "Most often than not, it's going to be our ethical decision making workshop, which is a three-hour workshop," he said. "We often give reflection essays, which is about a four-page essay, which asks questions related to the incident and their commitment to community.
FREEDOM OF ART The passion graffiti writers have for their medium speaks for itself, Ken82 said. "People sit up in churches and paint ceilings, and you're out there in train yards and subway systems getting down," he said. "If you get caught, that's it unless you beat the case. There's definitely more heart." Cruthirds echoed Ken82's sentiments. "A lot of art is about different things, but I would say the central theme of graffiti is freedom," Cruthirds said. "And we exhibit freedom of art. And if art is a crime, God forgive me." Cruthirds, who has a permanent installation at The Spanish Moon, is translating his graffiti style art into the professional realm. He recently sold two of his paintings for $750, a price he bases on his work's popularity. "People like them," he said. "I'm trying to do a lot of gallery shows now."
FAMILY FEUD The artwork on the walls of abandoned buildings speaks volumes for the bond graffiti writers share. Cruthirds said there is a code of honor among most graffiti writers. But he said some feuds begin because of writers painting over each others' work. "But if somebody comes over something I did with something better that they put more into, then I'm not going to be mad about it," he said. "I'm just going to come back and battle them fair and square and beat them at the game rather than getting mad." Ken82 said people can think of graffiti crews as a fraternity. "It's a family," he said. "You don't just jump into it. You have to pay your respects and pay your dues to that crew. And once you get into this crew, you take on all their problems and all their rivalries."
'LIFERS' For Cruthirds and Ken82, graffiti is not merely a hobby - it's a way of life. Ken82 said he will always be involved with graffiti in one way or another. "I'm a lifer in this game," he said. Cruthirds agreed and said he has no reason to ever stop creating art.
"There's a lot of people who just want to sit in front of a television all day and absorb, but it's always good to put something out there for everybody, so that's what we do," he said. "We try to motivate ourselves and give something back, try to do something for everybody [and] have something of interest that's not hurting anybody."
---- Contact Angelle Barbazon at abarbazon@lsureveille.com
