Confessions of a Reformed Graffiti Artist

Fairfield Daily Republic
October 20, 2011
Lessons from a reformed graffiti artist
by Kelvin Wade

This week, the City Council debated what to do about the problem of graffiti in Fairfield.

First, prohibiting minors from possessing graffiti implements on public property would be a good start. When I was a kid, the only time I used a can of spray paint was in my garage painting my bike. There’s no reason for a minor to have a can of paint in public.

Councilwoman Catherine Moy is reluctant to extend the ban to markers, but it should be done. Police will be able to tell if someone is carrying art supplies to school. Look, kids aren’t walking around with markers altruistically, just in case a homeless person needs to borrow one to write “Will work for food” on a piece of cardboard. If a kid has markers in public, most likely the point is to use them to deface property.

I know this because I did it. The city put in a park near my house in what was a vacant field. There were nice off-white picnic tables and I, stupidly, used one to draw an elaborate picture with markers.

The second thing is graffiti must be covered up quickly. The tagger wants his handiwork seen because he or she is proud of it. Painting over it rapidly deprives them of the point of tagging. When I went up to the park and saw that the city had painted over my drawing, I was shocked. In my stupid juvenile mind, I thought, “I can’t believe they ruined my art.”

But I didn’t do it again because it was a waste of time to do it if it was just going to be quickly painted over.

Next, a proposed ordinance that property owners must remove graffiti within 48 hours and match the paint puts an unfair onus on a tagged property. Let them cover it the best they can and worry about paint matching later. I can understand Councilman John Mraz’s concern that a property owner may not have the money to pay for graffiti removal. While requiring owners to reimburse the city for graffiti removal does seem unfair, it has to be done. If some dirtbag tagged my garage door, unfortunately, it would be my responsibility to remove it from my house.

Parents must be held accountable when we do find minor perpetrators. If I’d been caught and the city sent my father a bill, you can believe I would’ve never defaced anything again. To make my dad have to open his wallet for something ignorant like that would’ve left me begging to be taken to juvenile hall.

Lastly, the perpetrators need to be the ones cleaning up the city. I’m ashamed of it now, but one of the things I did when I was a freshman at Armijo was write on the bathroom walls. Well, ironically, years later I worked for the Fairfield-Suisun School District maintenance department and found myself in those very same bathrooms cleaning the walls. Poetic justice.

It’s important for the perps to clean walls and fences and sidewalks so they can see the other side of the coin. And we shouldn’t stop with graffiti. They should be cleaning the parks.

So banning the carrying of the implements, covering up graffiti quickly, holding parents accountable and making perpetrators clean up is the best way to fight graffiti. Peace.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: It's always a tough call to decide how much of yourself you share in a column. It probably helps that the statute of limitations has expired for some of my past indiscretions. But still it doesn't feel great to hold yourself up as a cautionary tale. I was hell with markers. Never spray painted anything because I couldn't paint.

Years ago I was speaking to a class at Sam Yeto and they were talking about vandalizing property. It was awkward because I was a teenager once and did some stupid things. And the only way I was able to get them to see that it was wrong was to put them on the other side of it. One kid told me his mother had a store and I told him, 'What if someone decides to break your mom's window? Spray paint her door?" He got mad. Thieves hate to have their things taken.

For the really talented (I'm not talking about someone who is just tagging their gang name or symbol), they need to pursue that creatively. Find a creative outlet for that passion.

In jr. high and high school I used to write stories during glass. Writing is something I always wanted to do. And be on the lookout for my upcoming books. I'll keep you posted.