For quite a while now I've been interested in graffiti. Since I was quite young I used to go watch my friends do big pieces down subways in Halifax, otherwise known as 'Smack Head Tunnel' and 'The Hall Of Fame', so I've always been involved (legally, of course!) and loved the free style expression of it all. At school I always ended up doodling in my exercise books and coming up with new designs. It passed the time in those long tedious science lessons. Eventually graffiti became a big part of my life and I started doing a bit here and there myself, and trying to bring it in to projects to keep myself interested. For part of my GCSE in art we were told to do a project about any sort of culture we liked. So, me being me, I decided I'd go all out and convince people that graffiti has its own underground subculture, and that people overlook it because it's not approved of. After a lot of 'umming and arring' I decided on an idea that I thought would stand out from the rest. My idea was to paint a wall in the school, in a graffiti style, but as a mural for the September 11th incident as I felt very strongly about this when it happened.  | | Reflect in my toilet! |
The mural was to be of the New York City landscape. This was to be in two halves - one side with words in graffiti all over the tall buildings expressing my feelings towards the issues of the September 11th tragedy. The other wall indicates the devastation the event caused with an image of the crumbling twin towers after the collisions. There would also be words across this to indicate other reasons and influences on the attacks. I put my plan forward to the head teacher of Brighouse High School, Mr Soles. He had a bit of a think and came back to me. He didn't like the idea of doing it on a wall in the school as it could imply that the kids could just draw on the walls. So we came to a compromise and came up with the idea that I would do it in one of the toilets in the school. The idea was a belter and I went straight ahead and started drawing the plans - I had to change my idea slightly but if anything it was better. I had to paint the toilet with emulsion to provide a base to paint on. Unfortunately I couldn't spray paint the toilet as planned because it was such a confined space - instead I had to do it all by hand in acrylic. I really don't recommend this to anyone as it seemed to take a lifetime! In fact it took me nine months in and out of school time but, when it was eventually finished, I was really proud. It looked fantastic. Much bigger than anything anyone had ever done for an art project before, and I suppose this kinda made my head swell. It was a good feeling!! The overall idea for this project was that all the words on the buildings contributed to the September 11th disaster and these are all the crap things in life. The toilet was meant for people to reflect on these crappy things whilst sitting on the 'crapper'?! Graffiti is about expressing yourself and making people think. This is what I think I achieved.  | | Some sketches for the toilet designs |
When I finished school I lost a little bit of interest but soon got back to it when I started at Bradford Art College last September. I helped out doing pieces here and there and came across the pieces done at Odsal Top which are truly inspirational and are done properly by a proper graffiti artist with council funding. As soon as I got this placement with Blast I knew I had to do something about graffiti as it is one of my passions. As BBC West Yorkshire have already done an article on Rick Shipley, the artist responsible for the Odsal Top graffiti, I decided to have a chat to him and see what he had to say about graffiti in general and whether it should be something legal and what inspired him really. Here's what he had to say... What is it all about and how did you get involved?
"First we went down to the council to see if they had any walls we could paint on, to stop the illegal graffiti in the town centre. We had a meeting and everyone agreed that it was a good idea, so they gave us the go ahead for us to paint at Odsal Top. We've been painting them for about two years now." Do you think there should be more places for people to paint like Odsal Top?
"Definitely, since Odsal Top there's hardly been any graffiti in town." What do people have to say when you are painting Odsal Top and are allowed to do it?
"Every time I'm painting there, there's people in their teens to their 80s who say how good it looks and how it brightens the place up.  | | Cageone - Rick Shipley Graffiti |
What do you get your inspiration from?
"I look at things around me and stuff that happens really." Do you think it should be seen as more of a form of public art?
"Yeah definitely. There are a lot of people out there doing some really good stuff. It's still frowned upon though because it is seen as vandalism, I think if it was all done with a paint brush it would be a different story."
CLICK HERE TO SEE RICK'S LEGIT GRAFFITI @ ODSAL TOP! After I had a chat with Rick I went out and spoke to a few people in Bradford, about what they thought about graffiti in our community
Jay, 22, from Bradford said : "I think graffiti's cool, I don't like the tags and stuff that people just scribble all over the wall but I like the proper stuff that looks like it's been done well. I think when it's done well it should be encouraged...
Different people express themselves in different ways, some people do art forms like writing, poetry, songs, art and some people do graffiti, it's just their way of expressing themselves." David, 67, from Bradford said : "Some of it's quite good but it shouldn't be on the side of public buildings. They should have a special place for the graffiti." Olly and Ian both 14, from Bradford told me : "I think it looks quite nice. I've heard they have allowed them to paint professionally up at Odsal Top, I think this is a good idea because there was always some there anyway and they couldn't really stop it. Least now the stuff that's there is good. Although I don't agree with it around the residential areas where people live and can see it all the time, but I think it should be allowed in certain areas because it is a form of modern art." After talking to quite a few people about the graffiti in Bradford I've come to the conclusion that most people like it. As long as it's out of the way, it's something nice that brightens up those dark dingy parts of Bradford. As long as it's not offending anyone then everyone's happy. There should be more places across the country like Odsal Top or my toilet because it has helped reduce the graffiti and tagging in our city. It has become a type of urban gallery for people with a bit of artistic flair to express themselves publicly. I'm all up for this and think there should be more of it!
GRAFFITI + THE LAW | 
Basically, people caught causing graffiti in places other than authorised areas like Odsal Top in Bradford can be arrested and prosecuted under the Criminal Damage Act 1971. Offenders can be fined up to £5,000 if the damage caused amounts to less than £5,000. Young offenders may be given a community service order.
For much more info on graffiti and the law,
click here for all the lowdown from the BBC Action Network.
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