Shock Troop of Excellence
Everyone can appreciate quality.
The damaging tragedy in regards to graffiti is the complete disregard, ignorance or inability to recognize quality in graffiti. There is a naive and detrimental trend to mistake technical prowess or artistic merit with excellence in graffiti.
While these characteristics are often in abundance with many a graff writer, they are not necessarily required toward producing interesting, provocative and sincere graffiti. In fact, these characteristics have become inhibitive due to widespread overreliance and overuse. So what if you can paint your name in interesting ways, what are you saying?
The beauty and appreciation of graffiti comes from a combination of factors; technique and artistic validity are not high on the scale (if one even bothers to include them on the scale). Factors such as shock, surprise, transcendence, resonance and yes, location should certainly take precedence in the evaluation process.
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