GRAFFITI

We were on an extended tour of the capital cities in Europe. London, Paris, Rome, Athens, all were wonderful. I loved the historic buildings, the museums, monuments, parks. They were beautiful. The graffiti was not. By the time we got to Berlin I was totally irritated and longing for Philadelphia where they had cleaned up the city and instituted a mural arts program. The murals were mostly sterile, but at least the artists, some exceptional, had work and there was less vandalism. We walked the streets of Berlin with our guide, and he pointed out how their graffiti was an expression of resistance to the Russian oppressors. He then showed us the Soviet era propaganda murals. The comparison was not lost on me. I realized that not all graffiti is the same. Sometimes partially obscured by the antisocial gang-related scrawls were some gems. Philosophy, wisdom, love, beauty mixed with outrage on pressing social issues. Now when we travel, we not only visit the art museum districts, we head for the rougher neighborhoods in search of graffiti.