Graffiti becomes art in South Phoenix

PHOENIX — Vandalism is the third most-committed crime in Phoenix. So when Luis Miranda wanted local taggers to paint the perimeter of his custom car shop, it was no surprise when city officials swooped in to shut it down.

But Miranda, an artist in his own right, saw things differently. When he refused to sign a form requiring all graffiti to be painted over, he kicked off a graffiti art revival of sorts in the Grant Park neighborhood south of downtown Phoenix.

“The neighbors stop by and say thank you,” Miranda says. “From Latinos to blacks to whites, everybody has great things to say about it.”

That includes residents like Armando Gandarilla, president of the Grant Park Neighborhood Fight Back Association. He says he knows graffiti is a problem downtown, but much of the art has gotten a bad rap.

Like Miranda, Gandarilla sees it as a healthy outlet that could spark life in Grant Park, which is bordered by Central and Seventh avenues, between Buckeye Road and Lincoln Street.

“We need to have artwork (like that on Miranda’s property) in the community,” Gandarilla says. “If people are genuinely trying to do something positive, I would never criticize them. But people who support gang activity is negative for the community. I do not approve of breaking the law, but if that adrenaline could be channeled…”

Though statistics on graffiti waivers were not available, local artists suggest graffiti-to-art is becoming a culturally enlightening trend.

Jim Covarrubias, for example, has created murals at numerous locations throughout Phoenix and agrees that graffiti can be a positive outlet for people but is not a substitute for being a good citizen.

“Public art does enhance the urban landscape and allows for artists to personally identify the city where they live,” Covarrubias said in an email. “Graffiti does the same as long as it isn’t a badge of identity for gang affiliation. Like many new forms of modern art, it is readily acceptable by younger citizens and jarring or maybe even threatening to older citizens.

“There has been criticism of murals,” he adds. “Of more concern to me are elected officials who lump graffiti, crime, gangs and every thing bad into the same side of the fence. We need to be more responsive to art and the transient methods that many young artists feel is their chosen technique, but we certainly shouldn’t be creating criminals from artists. Art heralds change and change needs artists to express the face of that change.”

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