While most people associate graffiti with vandalism, some Phoenix business owners have allowed graffiti artists to showcase work on their business’ exterior walls in support of the urban art form.
“It’s not always vandalism,” said Luis Miranda, owner of Miranda’s Custom Cars on Central Avenue and Grant Street in downtown Phoenix. “In some cases it is, but in other cases, it’s artwork.”
Miranda agreed to allow graffiti artists to spray paint their work on his business’ exterior block and cement walls after he was approached more than three years ago by a graffiti artist with the pseudonym DOSE.
DOSE wanted his and his crewmembers’ artwork to positively influence the community, Miranda said. DOSE also wanted to update the artwork on Miranda’s walls every six months to keep the mural fresh.
The words “RISE UP” and “THE RESISTANCE IS HERE” are currently splashed on Miranda’s walls, painted by DOSE about a month ago to support the Occupy Wall Street protests.
“It’s like a circus out there sometimes, because there will be 30 artists doing the artwork out there, and then as people are driving by, they will start parking and watching them paint,” Miranda said.
The artwork displayed on the car shop’s walls has prompted a neighboring business, Queen Liquors, to also offer its exterior walls as a canvas for graffiti artists, he said.
Elizabeth Romo, owner of restaurant Tacos de Juarez on 7th and Roosevelt streets, welcomed two graffiti artists to paint murals of smiling skeletons and a rooster on two of the restaurant’s exterior walls after the City of Phoenix told her the building looked abandoned and needed to be painted, said Miguel Romo, Elizabeth’s father.
“If people have the ability to paint and if there is a way to show it, why not?” Miguel Romo said.
Allowing graffiti artists to paint legally on business walls helps both businesses and the community, Miranda said.
“I’ve gotten comments from people who live here who give me thumbs up,” he said. “They say it makes the neighborhood look better and it brings more color into our atmosphere.”
To the City of Phoenix, graffiti is costly, destructive and a “sign of urban decay,” according to the Neighborhood Services Department’s Graffiti Busters Program.
The program was created in 1990 to support a zero-tolerance approach to graffiti in Phoenix neighborhoods.
Phoenix spends more than $6 million annually on cleaning up the city’s illegal graffiti, according to its website.
“It’s a way to express yourself,” said journalism major Abel Muñiz, who started doing graffiti when he was 15 years old.
Muñiz’s graffiti artwork was inspired by Marc Ecko, who founded Ecko Unltd. and created the Zoo York brand after his graphic design artwork became popular.
Muñiz began drawing his graffiti artwork on paper before practicing with spray paint on abandoned railroad cars in Yuma, where he grew up, he said.
Muñiz stopped doing illegal graffiti once he became a legal adult, not wanting to get into trouble while attending college and fearing the consequences if he were caught by police.
Juveniles convicted of graffiti vandalism in Arizona must pay a fine ranging from $300 to $1,000. Their drivers’ licenses are also revoked. Adults convicted of graffiti vandalism must serve a minimum of 48 hours in jail, complete 80 hours of community service and pay a $500 fine.
Muñiz said graffiti art should be taught in school art classes, where it can be shared as a positive form of art that shouldn’t be painted on city property.
Reach the reporter at meghann.mckendry@asu.edu
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