In modern American society, graffiti is often looked upon as a deviant form of vandalism that destroys the aesthetics of whatever it is painted upon. These claims fail to realize that graffiti has become a form of expression for many artists who wish to pursue a new medium upon which to paint: the urban landscape. In an effort to see beyond the stereotype of graffiti, I decided to interview a person who has had experience painting graffiti. During my interview, I asked questions that ranged from being general to being quite specific, always leading up to the specific questions instead of asking him flat out. In the end, I gained an insight into the world of graffiti that I would never have gained without actually talking to someone involved with graffiti. 
  
The person whom I interviewed, who has decided to remain anonymous, will be called Will. Will began experimenting with public art in middle school, drawing on his desk and on the bathroom walls with a marker. By the time he went to high school, Will began painting with actual spray paint.  Will usually spray paints around his house, on railroad bridges that extend above the street. Will says that when he started painting on the bridges by his house, there wasn't any other graffiti there, but now, the bridges are covered with pieces that he and his friends have done. Will only paints words, and not pictures. The words that Will chooses to paint are often influenced by what he is interested in, as he states: "take a word that sounds good, and make it look pretty." Will says that he often paints the words "deviate" and "oscillate," and that he uses the colors black, yellow, red, and purple to paint the words. Typically, Will says that it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to finish a piece. 
  
There are many things that influence Will when he paints, some of these things he chooses to be influenced by, and others he does not. One thing that he does not want to be influenced by is the law. Will says that he does most of his graffiti work at night, simply because he has the least chance of getting caught at that time of day. Doing work in the dark often makes it difficult for him because of the lack of light. Will says that sometimes he works on a piece during the nighttime, and then when it is light out he returns to the piece to see that it does not look good at all. To avoid being caught, Will and his friends also devised a system which included one of them staying and painting, and the other one being stationed up the road as a sentry. This system was effective because if a car or a person happened to come, the friend up the road would make a noise and Will would be able to duck out of sight in time to not be seen. Will proudly stated that he has been "spotted and chased, but never caught."
  
According to Will, and ideal place to paint is on a train car. There, the artist can take his or her time, and they can also paint in the daylight. When an artist paints on a stopped train car, he or she can go back into the woods, away from any crowded area where one might see them, and paint on the car. One disappointing aspect of painting on a train car is that the artist will probably never see it again, as Will lamented over a piece that he did on a train car once, saying: "it was probably one of the best ones I've ever done, and I never get to see it again." Will also enjoys watching train cars go by, because on the train car one can see graffiti from all over the United States, sometimes dating back to 1987. With all of the risks involved with doing graffiti in public places, train cars provide a safer alternative. 
  
Being spotted by a police officer can sometimes be a dangerous affair. Will told the story of a friend of his who was spotted by a police officer and began to run. As the boy ran, he slipped and fell off of a bridge, breaking his back. Now, the boy is in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. One must wonder why graffiti artists feel the need to run at the first sight of another human being, especially a police officer. Is graffiti so bad that one must risk his or her life to escape punishment? In a situation such as this, we must evaluate whether or not graffiti does as much damage as the police would like us to believe. The only real damage graffiti does is to the aesthetics of a building, which is all just a matter of opinion. Mostly, the aesthetics are determined by whoever owns the building, but when the graffiti is being done to a place that is not privately owned, and is also not frequented by many people, is there much need for a strict policy against graffiti?

Will believes that most of the negative feelings towards graffiti comes from the type of graffiti that is not artistic at all. This graffiti, which Will says is done by "toys," is usually just some obscene words done in all one color, usually around a public place that a lot of people will see. According to Will, this is the type of graffiti that most people come into contact with most frequently. Another type of graffiti, which Will is strongly in favor of, is the type that expresses something, and clearly took the artist some time to paint, as Will states: "the people who are in [graffiti] for the right reasons won't destroy things." These graffiti artists will paint in odd places that not everyone will see. The people who will see the positive graffiti are those that will appreciate the graffiti and not just dismiss it as petty vandalism. "The best graffiti is always in the worst places." 
  
Although some people, like Will, are able to make the distinction between meaningful art and petty vandalism, others are not. "There's a difference between vandalizing and real spray-painting, and unfortunately, the police don't see it that way," Will states. The city often paints over graffiti pieces with no regard to the aesthetic of the piece itself, they do so only with regard to the aesthetic of that which the piece was painted upon. Unfortunately, not all graffiti is positive. The graffiti that is merely empty swear words do not aesthetically benefit anything, but does this mean that we have to condemn all graffiti as useless and deleterious? Graffiti is a new art form, one that will not be immediately accepted by many people at once, but with time, hopefully people can realize that some graffiti has a positive effect on the community.