George,

When I saw Alex Davis on the Mall yesterday afternoon, I had to fight a sudden urge. Based on his comments on graffiti, I found that I had a strong desire to rush up to him, black magic marker and scissors in hand, and engage in a little "guerilla art" on his clothing. Sure, some might consider it an "attack" or "assault," but let's take the negative connotations this would have had one at a time.

* It would have defaced Alex's clothing. So? What about the logo-laden corporate-schill clothing that children wear across the country, promoting mammoth corporations like "Nike" and "Abercrombie & Fitch." What's the difference? Graffiti is art. It's pure self expression.

* It's filmed with negative themes like "attacking Alex," and "fright." Let's face it: fright is a part of life whether we like it or not. Graffiti can be a way of expressing that truth of life. And isn't that what art is about? Reflecting life, self-expression. If fear is a part of your life, what's wrong with expressing that? If Alex doesn't like that, he can change it, go graffiti somebody else's clothing, or DO Something about the fear or "personal decay" you see in the graffiti.

Imagine if we were to go beyond dissing this graffiti as "assault" and started imagining it as art. It's guerrilla art. Whatever its form I encourage all to take the issue of human graffiti more seriously and give it some deeper thought than "simple assault."

Best,

Waldo Jaquith (electronic mail, April 4, 2002)