I define art as a way to express your creative skill and imagination. This long going debate about graffiti being considered art has gone on for years. In my opinion, graffiti can be considered freelance art when it is used for the right reasons. Graffiti is mostly seen as either street art or just illegal vandalism, but many free lance artists use it to be known or just a way to show off their talents. Your view on graffiti also all depends on your aesthetic towards what art is or is not.

I have noticed that once someone brings up graffiti, everyone automatically thinks vandalism or something gang- related. Yes, people have used graffiti to be damaging, but because of this assumption, many talented street artists are overlooked. I do not think is fair especially for artists like Banksy, Plantrees and Meek who take their “graffiti” or street art very seriously and see it as something beautiful. I see street artists as people who have potential to make it into the museums and have their artwork shown like the iconic artists, such as Leonardo Da Vinci or Vincent Van Gogh.

I think graffiti or street art has been adapted by the youth of the world to channel their creative abilities. In my opinion, many adults have viewed this is as some urban cultural epidemic. Older graffiti artists merely practiced “tagging,” which was just a way to paint your “street artist” name in several places, but now graffiti has become something more complex. People have to become so used to the Renaissance paintings that we have learned in history classes, which no one has noticed the techniques and creativity put into street art.

Graffiti has evolved from just being words scribbled onto brick or concrete walls of a subway, to being complex murals, and now to being recognized in art capitals such as London. This style of art is very fluid with its changes. I see graffiti as art because it is a self-expressing act of creativity and imagination. Although everyone may not feel the same, I do think that eventually the world may be able to view this new and innovated way of expression as art.